Zimbabwe Travel Guide ยท BootsnAll Travel Network

Bring cash.
Small notes.

Most pages about Zimbabwe are selling a lodge, a safari or a sunset cruise above the Falls. This one links to the authorities that run the parks and set the rules, the government advice that tells you to carry US dollars, and the economists explaining why.

Zimbabwe launched a new currency, the ZiG, in April 2024, and the US dollar is still legal tender and still what most suppliers want, in cash. Physical dollars are short, so a foreign card will not always get you any from an ATM, change is rarely available, and torn notes get refused. Some businesses, including some medical providers, will not take cards at all. Sort out the money before you sort out the itinerary, because in Zimbabwe the money decides how the itinerary goes.

The reading list

Link-out only. No operators, no affiliate links, no booking widgets.

The money problem, and why it exists

Read these first. Zimbabwe has had several currencies in a generation, and the latest one has not displaced the dollar.

  1. Safety and security: Money

    UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office · Advisory

    The most practical paragraph anyone has written about Zimbabwean money. Multi-currency system, ZiG since April 2024, a shortage of physical dollars, change rarely available, damaged notes refused, and exchange legal only at licensed dealers. The same page covers the photography and camouflage laws.

  2. Zimbabwe's ZiG: devaluations won't fix a currency that's in trouble

    The Conversation · Research journalism

    An economist on the 43% devaluation of September 2024 and why it happened. Explains that the ZiG sits inside a multi-currency system and is the sixth attempt at a stable national currency in 15 years, and why widespread voluntary use of it never materialised.

  3. Zimbabwe's gold-backed currency loses half its value

    Al Jazeera · Explainer

    The 2024 explainer, with the history from the 2008 hyperinflation and the 100 trillion dollar note onwards. Useful for the gap between the official and street rates, which is the thing a visitor actually runs into.

  4. Meet ZiG, Zimbabwe's latest baffling currency

    NPR · Journalism

    Three minutes from Mbare market in Harare a few weeks after launch, where vendors were still selling in US dollars because nobody had the new notes. Dated May 2024, and a good picture of how the ZiG landed on the ground.

  5. Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG)

    Wikipedia · Reference

    The running record since 2024. After losing half its value in the first six months, the rate has held at roughly 25 to 27 ZiG to the dollar since November 2024. Check it before you go, because that is exactly the kind of figure that moves.

Getting in, and the KAZA UNIVISA

Most visitors need a visa and can get it on arrival. Whether the joint Zambia and Zimbabwe visa is worth it depends on your passport.

  1. Entry requirements

    UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office · Advisory

    Visa on arrival, usually for 30 days, and you should bring US dollars in small notes to pay for it. The KAZA UNIVISA costs 50 US dollars, lasts 30 days and covers Zimbabwe, Zambia and day trips into Botswana. Also states that leaving with more than 2,000 US dollars in cash is illegal.

  2. Zambia entry requirements

    UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office · Advisory

    The other half of the UNIVISA question. British passport holders do not need a visa for Zambia, so for them the UNIVISA is a Zimbabwe visa with a Botswana day trip attached. Check your own nationality before paying for both countries.

  3. Department of Immigration

    Government of Zimbabwe · Primary

    The body that administers the Immigration Act. Its visa regime sorts nationalities into three categories: no visa needed, visa on arrival, and visa that must be obtained online before you travel. Find out which one you are in.

  4. Zimbabwe eVisa platform

    Department of Immigration, Zimbabwe · Primary

    The official online application. Compulsory before travel for nationalities in the visa regime's third category, and an option for everyone else, with single and double entry visas at different prices.

Victoria Falls, and the river behind it

One waterfall, two countries, and a flow that changes enormously through the year. When you go matters more than which side you stand on.

  1. Victoria Falls National Park

    Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority · Primary

    The park authority's page for the Zimbabwean side. A small park of about 23 square kilometres around 1,708 metres of falls, with rainforest kept alive by the spray. Its two cautions are the cliff edge and slippery rocks.

  2. National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe

    Government of Zimbabwe · Primary

    The heritage authority, and the place to see the country's World Heritage listings side by side: Victoria Falls/Mosi-oa-Tunya (1989), Great Zimbabwe and Khami (1986) and the Matobo Hills (2003). The Falls get the visitors. The other three are worth the detour.

  3. Zambezi river flows

    Zambezi River Authority · Data

    The joint Zambia and Zimbabwe body that measures the river publishes recent daily flows at Victoria Falls. The long-term mean is 1,100 cubic metres a second. On 28 September 2026 it was 364. Look before you choose your dates.

  4. Victoria Falls

    Wikipedia · Reference

    Good on the seasonal swing: the minimum flow, in November, is around a tenth of the April figure. Also on the shared border, why the Zambian park is called Mosi-oa-Tunya, and the history of which side visitors favoured and when.

Hwange, Mana Pools and the parks beyond

The national parks are run by ZimParks, a state authority. Start with its own pages and the conservation groups working inside the parks, not with lodge brochures.

  1. Hwange National Park

    Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority · Primary

    The largest park in the country at about 14,650 square kilometres, with Zimbabwe's biggest elephant population and nearly 400 bird species. Road directions to Main Camp and Robins Camp from Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, and a plain malaria warning.

  2. At least 100 elephants die in drought-stricken Zimbabwe park

    Associated Press, via NBC News · Journalism

    December 2023, and still the clearest account of how Hwange works. No major river runs through it, so its roughly 45,000 elephants depend on just over 100 solar-powered boreholes. Many of the waterholes are pumped.

  3. Painted Dog Conservation

    Painted Dog Conservation · Conservation

    Grew out of research in Hwange in the mid 1990s and now monitors packs there and in Mana Pools. Roughly 700 of the fewer than 7,000 painted dogs left in Africa live in Zimbabwe. It runs a visitors centre and an anti-poaching unit.

  4. Mana Pools National Park

    Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority · Primary

    About 2,196 square kilometres on the Zambezi, named for its four pools, and described by its own managers as remote. Lists the big four, painted dogs and about 380 bird species, and gives the park office's direct number.

  5. Mana Pools National Park

    Wikipedia · Reference

    Why the timing matters: the floodplain becomes lakes after the rains, and the animals concentrate as they dry. Also covers the 1984 World Heritage inscription with the Sapi and Chewore safari areas, and the dam schemes and oil and gas prospecting that have threatened it.

  6. Gonarezhou National Park

    Gonarezhou Conservation Trust · Primary

    The second-largest park, in the far south east on the Mozambique border, run as a partnership between ZimParks and the Frankfurt Zoological Society. Far from the Falls circuit, and a useful reminder that Zimbabwe is not only the north west.

Health and safety

Malaria along the Zambezi is a year-round matter. Healthcare outside the cities is thin, and it also wants paying in cash.

  1. Zimbabwe

    TravelHealthPro (NaTHNaC) · Primary

    The UK's national travel health service. Malaria risk is year-round in the Zambezi valley and high below 1,200 metres from November to June, with tablets recommended for both. Harare and Bulawayo are very low risk. Has the seasonal maps and current outbreak notices.

  2. Health information for travelers to Zimbabwe

    US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · Primary

    The US view, which is blunter: it lists malaria transmission areas as all of the country and recommends prescription prevention for travellers to Zimbabwe. Also lists the provinces with active cholera transmission. Read it alongside the UK page and ask a clinic about your actual route.

  3. Health

    UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office · Advisory

    The money problem again, in its most serious form. Private clinics will not treat patients until they pay, often want large amounts of cash before admitting emergency cases even with insurance, and some medical providers accept only US dollar cash.

  4. Travel advice and advisories: Zimbabwe

    Government of Canada · Advisory

    A high degree of caution, because of crime. Good on the power and water cuts and the ID rules. On cash it says you may leave with up to 10,000 US dollars, where the UK says 2,000. When two governments disagree like that, carry the lower figure.