Hwange National Park

Would've given Hwange 5 stars, however we did not see any elephants which was highly disappointing since the park is known for the highest elephant population in Africa. What we did see was lovely, but the park is very wooded (not a lot of open space to see animals), so we had many kms of drive where we saw nothing but trees/bushes.

Still a great experience and worth a visist!

Great Park with huge elephant population

One of the biggest in Africa, good bush experience.

Plenty of elephants, buffaloes, antelopes. Water pumps were working thanks to private initiative!

Lots of elephants!

the area around Hwange is beautiful

I truly enjoyed the park in Hwange, and it was very apparent why it is such a desired safari destination. I saw a lot of wildlife, which was not only varied, but seemed thriving. It is an interesting mix of flora and fauna, and I hope to be able to return soon.

Almost perfect but....

I saw a decent number of animals, however I was informed that I had not chosen the best time to visit the park (in june). At that time trophy hunters were operating in private concessions close to the national park. Apparently that made some animals more elusive and thus harder to spot from the safari roads inside the national parks. I was assured that this was only a temporary issue and that animals would come out into the open more when the hunting season ended.
I was also informed that i visited the park during a dry spell, so some animals had migrated into Botswana. But that they would return with the rains. I saw plenty of evidence of lions in the park but they stayed out of sight. No sign of any leopards. But did see cheetahs which was nice. There were plenty of birds, elephants, antelope, hippos, crocodiles and even a honey badger. We stayed at a campsite inside the park which was one of the best i have ever camped at anywhere in Africa. The camp faced a watering hole, where we enjoyed the sunset and watched various animals enjoy a drink and bath. Then at night we had clear starry skies, the sound of night insects and various animals, including hyenas, to enjoy as we ate dinner.
Overall i can say from experience, having visited all the top wildlife parks across southern and east africa, that Hwange can be among the best of them when the conditions are right.

Hwange is a vast area and requires patience and travel over great distances to see the wildlife. There is no fencing so the animals wonder over large areas.
We prefer to get away from volumes of commercial tourism so Hwange is the ideal place for us. We love it and will return as often as we can.

Hwange provided wide open spaces with no other people in sight and only animals as far as we could see.

The accommodations, service and food at Davidson's Camp were superlative. It was more like staying in a fine hotel than in a camp. I have never been so comfortable while being so close to nature. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and accommodating. When we asked to spend a little longer time at certain places, rather than constantly moving, it was not a problem. The enthusiasm of the staff seemed to reflect a genuine appreciation of the wildlife around them and their dedication to preserving it. At the end of the rainy season the grass was tall and it may have made it a bit more difficult to spot some of the animals, but everything was green and lush providing a beautiful background for what we saw. We saw plenty. We kept returning to one watering hole for sundowners that was surrounded by open savannah with grazing animals all around us as far as we could see. The elephants parading by us in large groups never got boring.

Most of the game was at the watring holes.

We did not see as much game driving around as we saw in other parks. possibly because Zimbabwe allows hunting. However, at the watering holes there was a large concentration of animals and birds. There were some rock outcroppings that added variety to the scenery, which for the most part was dry and flat. The accommodations were especially nice at Kashawe Camp, probably the best out of the four camps we visited. The food was very good, and we had nice sunny weather with cool nights. Our guides were excellent, very friendly and very knowledgeable. The people at the camp and the guides certainly make a visit to this camp a valuable experience..