Lower Zambezi National Park
Expert Reviews (11)
Zambia Parks
Sue is an award-winning writer who specializes in African travel and conservation. She writes for national newspapers, magazines, Rough Guides and Lonely Planet.
A river runs through it…
As its name suggests, this park is dominated by the mighty Zambezi which marks its southern border, cutting a swathe through vast floodplains. It attracts a mass of wildlife, particularly huge herds of elephants easily seen on the riverbanks, along with fabulous birdlife. The Zambezi escarpment forms the northern border, making for dramatic landscapes. Aside from rhino, all of the Big Five are here and as well as the usual game drives, you can do walking safaris and night drives, go canoeing or take a boat on the river, personally my favourite way to explore this park. We had an unforgettable sunset cruise from Anabezi Lodge, watching elephants, hippos and waterbucks as the sun set, then, when we turned the boat around, saw a brilliant, bright red full moon that guided us home – a truly magical experience. Many of the lodges support an excellent local NGO, Conservation Lower Zambezi, which works with local communities to help protect the park and its wildlife.
Christopher is a British travel writer and has contributed to various Fodor's guidebooks and a range of travel magazines.
1 person found this review helpful.
On the banks of the mighty Zambezi
Of all the parks I’ve experienced in Zambia, Lower Zambezi remains the prettiest for me, with an amazingly diverse array of ecosystems and vegetation. The great, meandering body of the Zambezi flanks the park on one side and a high escarpment presides over the river basin on the other. Both these features make great backdrops for viewing the park’s wildlife.
Taking a guided canoeing trip down the Zambezi is an absolute highlight, though not for the faint-hearted. This may well be as up close and personal as you’ll ever get to hippos, crocodiles and elephants, all of which are found in staggering numbers in this park.
Lower Zambezi is also a good place for guided bush walks. The last time I did this activity here, a lone and rather hungry-looking lioness stared down our small group for what felt like an eternity before eventually moving on. It was undoubtedly one the most exhilarating moments I’d ever experienced in the bush. Although I’ve found these kinds of big game encounters to be very rare on bush walks, this activity remains a particularly intimate way to appreciate the natural beauty of Lower Zambezi.
The park’s handful of tranquil, secluded and consistently eco-conscious luxury lodges and camps are all situated on the banks of the river. Service is ubiquitously top-notch and elephants and hippos are regular visitors.
If coming by car, as is often the case in Zambia, Lower Zambezi is not the most accessible of parks. But for me, that’s another part of the appeal.
Nana is a travel writer and author of multiple guidebooks, including the Lonely Planet guides to Africa, Zambia & Malawi and South Africa.
Wildlife watching from the water
Lower Zambezi was once sadly neglected but has enjoyed a resurrection in recent years and now has solid numbers of elephants, hippos and buffaloes, as well as a healthy big cat population, with lions and hyenas commonly seen. Also on the agenda for most visitors are impala, kudu, zebra and wildebeest.
The best way to see wildlife here is by gliding along the Zambezi by boat or canoe. The river is packed with crocodiles and hippos, and skirts alongside a beautiful flood plain, sprinkled with acacias and framed by thick woodland.
For me, the best part of visiting Lower Zambezi was a water-based safari. I watched buffalo and waterbuck feeding in the marshy grasses along the shoreline, heard pods of hippo grunting just beneath the surface, and saw a group of elephants swim leisurely across the river.
Mike is an award-winning wildlife writer, former editor of Travel Zambia magazine and author of the Bradt Guide to Southern African Wildlife.
Easy Zambezi
This park sits directly opposite Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools, and offers a mirror image of that park – with very similar wildlife and terrain, but with the escarpment looming much closer. Indeed during the dry season, with the river at its lowest, I have often seen wildlife crossing between the two parks. The last two decades have seen game numbers returning to impressive levels after a bad history of poaching. All lodges are sited on the riverbank – with a good number outside the park and a few, more exclusive establishments inside. The latter tend to offer better wildlife, although game is everywhere. Activities centre around the Zambezi, with boat cruises, fishing and canoeing; I have found myself negotiating a narrow channel by canoe with elephants crossing in front, hippos to the left and a five-metre crocodile cruising past on the right. But the game drives away from the river are equally rewarding – and the guided walks are on par with those in South Luangwa. As at Mana Pools, you will find game wandering through camp and large elephant bulls a constant presence at many lodges. Species you will not see include cheetah, rhino and giraffe, but predators are abundant and I have always been lucky with both lion and leopard. Birders can expect the usual riches associated with the Zambezi.
Brian is an award winning travel writer, author of safari books and regular contributor to magazines such as BBC Wildlife and Travel Africa.
3 people found this review helpful.
On safari in elephant valley
The mile-wide Zambezi, southern Africa’s mightiest river, is the dominant feature of this spectacular park, which you can explore by canoe, on foot or on conventional 4WD game drives. The riverbanks with their ebony groves and majestic old winterthorns create a natural canopy for top-notch camps such as Chiawa and Old Mondoro, its more rustic offshoot. Fish eagles provide a constant soundtrack and there are elephants all over the place. I found the big bulls to be invariably good-natured – just as well because at Old Mondoro they wandered into camp every day of my stay. Even so, they must be treated with respect; and the same goes for any hippos encountered on a canoe safari. As for walking, the lofty aisles of winterthorns with their dappled shade and minimum ground cover are ideal; but to see the park’s top predators – lion, leopard and wild dog – you’ll do better on a conventional 4WD game drive.
Alan is a travel writer and author of over 20 Lonely Planet guidebooks, including the guides to Southern Africa and Zambia & Malawi.
3 people found this review helpful.
Meanderings in Lower Zambezi
Protecting woodland along the Zambezi riverbank in the south of Zambia, this beautiful park is prolific in wildlife. You're best off flying into one of the camps inside, otherwise it’s a long drive in through a Game Management Area (GMA). The track through the GMA is narrow and the elephants grow on trees, at least that’s how it feels. We were stopped dead in our tracks when we spotted a herd of elephants near Chongwe Gate, the main entry point. A juvenile male came over to our 4WD, lifted a leg up and swayed around and, with its trunk, casually sniffed our windscreen and windows. My foot hovered close to the accelerator...inside the park we saw antelope such as puku and bushbuck, buffalo, zebra, plenty more elephants and lions. Boat rides down the river are a great way to spot wildlife- especially birds - with kingfishers being a real highlight. The tracks are pretty tough going though and the rainy season really messes them up - let a camp of your choosing do the heavy lifting.
Stephen is a travel writer and avid conservationist whose work appears in prestigious magazines such as Africa Geographic and Travel Africa.
4 people found this review helpful.
Zambezi Magic
Sandwiched between the Zambezi River and the Great East Road, this incredible park boasts over 100km of river frontage, the imposing Zambezi escarpment, top-class wildlife-viewing and scenic beauty in abundance. With the exception of rhino, cheetah and giraffe, Lower Zambezi is home to high concentrations of all the other charismatic mega-fauna.
But, over-and-above the attraction of the beguiling Zambezi strewn with hippos, crocs and frolicking elephants, it’s the wide range of safari activities on offer that really make Lower Zambezi such a unique safari destination. Adventurous safari goers can choose between game drives, night drives, walking safaris, canoe safaris, boat cruises and tiger fishing safaris. To the best of my knowledge there is no other park in Africa that offers the same diversity of safari experiences at a single location.
My best Zambian safari memories involve paddling a canoe silently down the braided Zambezi in the company of large breeding herds of elephant swimming trunk-to-tail across the mile-wide river. Unforgettable experiences.
Philip is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many guidebooks, including the Bradt guides to Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.
3 people found this review helpful.
Canoeing the mighty Zambezi
Zambia is known for its adventurous approach to safaris, and no reserve epitomises this so clearly as Lower Zambezi, which is best explored by canoe, following the wide main river or one of the narrower and more dangerous channels that flank it. Most of the time, canoeing in Lower Zambezi is serenity personified, as the current guides you safely through the tropical riverine scenery. But a few scarier moments will forever remain etched in my memory: floating within 10m of a lion pride whose guileless yellow eyes followed our passage across the knee-deep water; watching an elephant herd swim 50m downriver as we clung onto a partially submerged log midstream; and shakily steering my canoe along a narrow course of shallow water flanked by two submerged hippos.
Lower Zambezi offers excellent terrestrial game viewing. I’ve done several night drives here, and have had fantastic leopard sightings on most occasions. On my most recent visit, I also had daily sightings of a pack of African wild dogs comprising 34 individuals, the largest group I’ve seen in a lifetime of African travel. Another feature of the park are the stately elephants that haunt the photogenic winter-thorn forests. Add to that the mesmerising presence of southern Africa’s greatest river, and the wonderful birdlife associated with the flanking riparian woodland, and I’d comfortably place Lower Zambezi among my 10 favourite reserves anywhere in Africa.
Kim is a travel writer who authored and updated over 15 guidebooks, including Lonely Planet's South Africa and Bradt's Tanzania guides.
2 people found this review helpful.
Hungry hippos
Elephants languidly criss-crossing the river, buffaloes feeding in the reeds, grunting hippos cooling off in the shallows, crocodiles basking idly in the sun - I never dreamed I would be able to get as close to Africa’s amazing wildlife as I did on a canoe trip through Lower Zambezi National Park. The game viewing here is simply spectacular. The park has strong populations of buffalo and elephants, often found grazing on the islands in the middle of the river, as well as large herds of impala, kudu, eland, zebra, wildebeest, waterbuck, bushbuck and the odd duiker with the greatest concentration of wildlife found on the flood plain or along the river itself. Lion, leopard and wild dogs can also be spied, though in my experience sightings are less common. The birdlife too is very rich with some 378 species recorded, including many species of eagle, heron, stork, kingfisher and bee-eater. A self-confessed non-birder, even I was dazzled by the colourful dance of a colony of Carmine Bee eaters as they fluttered around the riverbank. With 120km of river frontage and a vast floodplain of tributaries, islands and channels all back-dropped by an impressive heavily-wooded escarpment, it’s often hard to know which to admire – the scenery or the wildlife. But then again, that’s the park’s magic.
Emma is an award-winning travel writer for Rough Guides, National Geographic Traveller, Travel Africa magazine and The Independent.
2 people found this review helpful.
Alluring bush lodges, memorable birdwatching
The birdwatching was superb on my visit to the Lower Zambezi National Park. Kingfishers shone on nearby reeds as we meandered along freshwater channels by canoe, and nonchalant-looking saddle-billed storks picked their way through the shallows. Large animals seemed equally unruffled by our presence – we saw elephants, zebras and buffalo, all drawn by the water as the dry season reached its peak. Apparently, visitors sometimes see leopards on the banks, too, drinking their fill, but sadly our luck didn’t quite extend to that.
The environment and its wildlife are captivating, but what makes a visit to the Lower Zambezi extra special is its accommodation. Some of Zambia’s most alluring bush lodges are found here, imaginatively designed and staffed by true enthusiasts, including walking and canoeing safari guides who are experts in their field.
Ariadne is a renowned African wildlife photographer whose work is featured in many well-known guidebooks and magazines.
2 people found this review helpful.
Zambezi safaris
Lower Zambezi is my favorite Zambian park. The wildlife viewing is fantastic, and the dramatic setting makes any animal encounters even more special. The mighty Zambezi, one of Africa’s most impressive rivers, is the main feature of the park. Fringing this impressive waterway are groves of winterthorn, offering shade throughout the day while light filters through at interesting angles in the early morning and late afternoon. Elephants are everywhere and you’ll see big tuskers standing on their hind legs plucking tasty pods from the trees. Night drives tend to be productive; we picked up a leopard in the spotlight sitting on top of a termite mound. Most memorable for me is a pack of 34 wild dogs. They became the focus of our game drives throughout our stay. I loved keeping track of their daily adventures including an exciting pursuit when they were hunting buffalo.
No stay in Lower Zambezi is complete without a river trip. A sunset cruise is always a winner, but even more special (and more adventurous) is a canoe trip. Silently gliding on the Zambezi surrounded by birdsong, occasionally interrupted by the distinctive call of a fish eagle and the snorting of hippos, is just magical. Special encounters while paddling included several young lions on the shore, watching us with curious interest, and a herd of elephants crossing the river in front of us. I loved the sense of a journey created by canoeing from camp to camp over several days, but even a couple of hours on the river will be an unforgettable experience.
Safari Tours to Lower Zambezi NP
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![15-Day Best of Zambia - Safari & Waterfalls]()
15-Day Best of Zambia - Safari & Waterfalls
$12,060 to $13,845 pp (USD)
Zambia: Private tourLuxuryLodge & Tented Camp
You Visit: Lusaka (Start), South Luangwa NP, Lower Zambezi NP, Victoria Falls, Livingstone (End)
Wayfairer Travel
4.8/5 – 172 Reviews
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![9-Day Breathtaking Tour to Zambia]()
9-Day Breathtaking Tour to Zambia
$13,310 to $13,530 pp (USD)
Zambia: Private tourLuxuryLodge & Hotel
You Visit: Mfuwe (Start), South Luangwa NP, Lusaka Airport (Lusaka), Lower Zambezi NP, Livingstone (City), Mosi-oa-Tunya NP, Victoria Falls, Zambezi River, Livingstone Airport (End)
Kubwa Five Safaris
4.9/5 – 148 Reviews
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![3-Day Marula Safari - Lower Zambezi]()
3-Day Marula Safari - Lower Zambezi
$1,073 to $1,183 pp (USD)
Zambia: Private tour
Mid-range LodgeYou Visit: Lusaka (Start), Lower Zambezi NP, Lusaka (End)
Wilderness Horizon Safaris
4.9/5 – 26 Reviews
