Zambia holds the northern half of Victoria Falls and the valley where the walking safari was invented, and it has never been the loud neighbour on either count. It is a big, thinly populated country where the trip is built around water and season rather than around cities.
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City guide
19,610,769
People
752,612 km²
Area
Region
Best months
May–Oct
Ideal length
10–14 days
Budget / day
$80–450
Language
English, with Bemba, Nyanja, Tonga, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale and Kaonde official regionally
Getting around
Domestic flights between Lusaka, Livingstone and Mfuwe, coaches on the tarred trunk roads, 4x4 or a camp transfer for the parks
When to visit Zambia
A dry half the safari calendar is built on, and a wet half that closes the camps and fills the Falls.
Best: May, June, September and October, when the roads work and the animals come to the water Peak: July and August, cool, dry and booked far ahead Good: April and November, the shoulders, with the Falls high in April and the bats and wildebeest in November Quietest: December to March, the rains, when most bush camps close and the valleys turn to mud
Quick answer · the Falls or the Luangwa
Most Zambian trips are two halves and a flight between them. The south is the arrival: Livingstone sits a few kilometres from Mosi-oa-Tunya, and the Zambian bank is the wet, close, standing-on-the-edge view, with the gorge below it for rafting and, when the water drops, the swim at Devil’s Pool on the lip. The Luangwa Valley, reached through Mfuwe, is the reason people come back: small camps, high leopard density and the walking safari the country invented. The Lower Zambezi, downstream of Lusaka, is the canoe and tiger-fish alternative and pairs well with either. Lusaka is the hub rather than the destination. Kafue, Liuwa and Barotseland in the west, and the lakes and swamps of the far north, are the harder second trip. A first visit usually gives the Falls two or three nights and the Luangwa four or five, and flies rather than drives between them.
Between October and December, up to ten million straw-coloured fruit bats gather in Kasanka National Park and roost in about two hectares of mushitu swamp forest. By sheer number of animals it is the largest mammal migration on earth, larger than the Serengeti wildebeest, and it happens in one of the smallest national parks in Zambia in the middle of the rainy season, which is why almost nobody sees it.
Stereotypes, sorted out
What the safari brochures flatten, what the country is actually like, and how to behave once you land.
"Victoria Falls belongs to Zimbabwe."
The realityThe border runs down the gorge and Zambia holds the eastern half, including the lip the water goes over at Devil’s Pool and the Knife-Edge Bridge that walks you into the spray. The wide postcard panorama is the Zimbabwean side. The close, soaking, standing-above-the-drop version is the Zambian one, and anyone with a morning to spare does both.
"A safari means sitting in a vehicle."
The realityIn the Luangwa it usually does not. Norman Carr began taking people through the valley on foot in the 1950s, and the walking safari is still the Zambian house style, led by a guide and an armed scout. It changes the pace and it changes what you notice, which is mostly the small things a vehicle drives past.
"Zambia is a cheaper version of Kenya or Tanzania."
The realityIt is emptier, not cheaper. There is very little road network inside the parks and the camps are small on purpose, so you rarely share a sighting. The cost of that is transport: getting between the Falls, the Luangwa and the Zambezi generally means a light aircraft, and the camps that make the country worth the trip are not budget lodging.
"Any time of year is fine."
The realityThe season decides the trip. The rains from November to April close most bush camps outright and turn the valley soils to glue, while the dry months from May to October are when the roads work and the animals come to the rivers. The rains do one thing better: the Falls run highest around March to May, when the spray hides the view you came to photograph.
A curtain of water inside a cloud of spray, shot from the Zimbabwean bank and captioned as Zambia.A leopard flat along a branch above the Luangwa in the last twenty minutes of light.Someone sitting in Devil’s Pool with their arms out at the very lip of the Falls.An open-pit copper mine from the air, orange and terraced like a stadium.A canoe on the Lower Zambezi with elephants crossing behind it.The Litunga’s barge with the black-and-white elephant on the roof, poled across the Kuomboka floods.
How to behave
Greetings come before business. A handshake and a good morning, or mulibwanji in Lusaka, precedes the question, and going straight to the request reads as rude rather than efficient.
The left hand supports the right when giving or receiving something, and a two-handed grip or a slight bow is normal with anyone older than you.
Zambians tend to describe their own country as the calm one in the region, and the tone matches. Raised voices and public arguments land badly and rarely get you anywhere.
Ask before photographing people, and do not photograph bridges, airports, military sites or government buildings at all.
Nshima is eaten with the right hand from a shared bowl, and washing hands at the table before and after the meal is part of the meal rather than a courtesy.
Same-sex activity is criminalised under the Penal Code, and public affection between same-sex couples carries real risk. That is the law as it stands rather than a view of it, and foreign ministries advise LGBT travellers to plan around it.
Famous Zambian faces
A president who handed over power, a squad lost in one night, an Olympic record nobody had set before, and a schoolteacher who aimed for the Moon. Pick a field.
Kenneth Kaunda
Zambia’s first president, who led Northern Rhodesia to independence in October 1964 and governed until multiparty elections removed him in 1991. He accepted the result and handed over, which in the region at that time was the remarkable part.
Hakainde Hichilema
President since August 2021, elected at his sixth attempt after a business career and a spell in detention on a treason charge that was later dropped.
Levy Mwanawasa
President from 2002 until his death in office in 2008, remembered mainly for turning the state’s anti-corruption machinery on the circle around his own predecessor.
Kalusha Bwalya
The country’s greatest footballer: African Footballer of the Year in 1988, and captain of the side rebuilt after the 1993 air disaster off Gabon killed almost the entire national squad while he was travelling separately.
Godfrey Chitalu
Godfrey Chitalu
Striker of the 1970s and the scorer Zambia argues about with the record books. He was coaching the national team when the flight went down off Libreville in 1993.
Patson Daka
Striker, top scorer in the Austrian league with Red Bull Salzburg before moving to Leicester City, and the forward the current national side is built around.
Barbra Banda
Forward, and the first player of either sex to score hat-tricks in consecutive Olympic football matches, at Tokyo in 2020. She has carried that form into the professional game in the United States.
Samuel Matete
Samuel Matete
Born in Chingola on the Copperbelt, world champion over 400 metres hurdles in Tokyo in 1991 and the first African to win the event, then Olympic silver in Atlanta.
Namwali Serpell
Namwali Serpell
Novelist and critic, born in Lusaka. The Old Drift folds a century of Zambian history into one family saga, and she took the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2015. She teaches at Harvard.
Dambisa Moyo
Dambisa Moyo
Economist, born in Lusaka, known for Dead Aid and its argument against development aid as it was then structured. She sits in the House of Lords as Baroness Moyo.
Edward Makuka Nkoloso
Edward Makuka Nkoloso
Schoolteacher and independence campaigner who founded the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy in 1964 and trained a dozen teenage afronauts for the Moon. Read at the time as a stunt, it has since been reread as a serious argument about what a new country is allowed to want.
Sampa the Great
Rapper and singer, born Sampa Tembo in Zambia and raised in Botswana, who won three ARIA awards in Australia and then went home to record on Zambian ground.
Rozalla
Rozalla
Born in Ndola in 1964, and the voice on Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good), one of the defining dance records of the early 1990s.
Must-try Zambian food
A maize staple everything else is built around, greens in groundnut sauce, dried lake fish, and a loaf made from wild orchids. Pick a category.
Zambezi bream
Tilapia, grilled whole or fried, with nshima and a relish alongside. On the river at Livingstone or on Lake Kariba at Siavonga it is the obvious order.
Chikanda
Often called African polony: wild orchid tubers ground with groundnut and chilli and set into a firm loaf, then sliced cold. Entirely vegetarian, unlike anything else on the table, and harvesting pressure on the orchids is a live conservation problem.
Nshima
The stiff white maize porridge at the centre of nearly every Zambian meal, eaten by hand and rolled into a ball to scoop up the relish beside it. Asking a Zambian what they ate today generally means asking what was on the nshima.
Ifisashi
Greens cooked down in a groundnut sauce: pumpkin leaves, sweet potato leaves, blackjack or spinach, depending on the garden. The most common thing on a plate after the nshima itself.
Chibwabwa
Pumpkin leaves stripped of their fibre and cooked with tomato, onion and usually groundnut. Zambians rate it far higher than the way it gets described to visitors.
Delele
Okra cooked to the point of ropiness, sometimes helped along with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. The texture is the entire point and it divides the table.
Kapenta
Small freshwater sardines from Lake Kariba and Lake Tanganyika, salted, sun-dried on racks and then fried with tomato and onion. Cheap protein, and one of the most characteristic tastes in the country.
Village chicken
Free-range bird, simmered long rather than roasted, firmer and far more flavoured than the farmed alternative. Menus name it specifically because the difference is the whole point.
Vitumbuwa
Fried dough balls sold hot from roadside pans in the morning, somewhere between a doughnut and a fritter. The standard bus-station breakfast.
Samp and beans
Cracked maize simmered with beans until neither is separate any more. Slow food, and the other half of the maize story alongside nshima.
Ifinkubala
Mopane worms: the caterpillar of the emperor moth, dried and then fried with onion and tomato. Seasonal, regional across southern Africa, and higher in protein than the beef it gets compared to.
Munkoyo
A lightly fermented drink of maize meal and the roots of the munkoyo shrub, sweet, faintly sour and drunk cold. Non-alcoholic, and older than any brewery in the country.
Zambia travel FAQ
Should I see Victoria Falls from the Zambian side or the Zimbabwean side?+
They show you different things. Zimbabwe holds the long face-on view across the gorge and keeps water in front of it all year. Zambia holds the eastern half, which puts you on top of the drop: the Knife-Edge Bridge walks you into the spray, the Boiling Pot trail goes down into the gorge, and when the river is low the swim at Devil’s Pool sits on the lip itself. The two banks are joined by the bridge and the KAZA UniVisa covers both, so anyone with a spare morning does one side each day rather than choosing.
When should I go?+
For wildlife, the dry season from May to October, and the later the better: by September and October the bush has thinned and the animals are tied to whatever water is left, which is why those are the months the Luangwa camps sell first. July and August are the coolest and the most booked. For the Falls at full flow, come from March to May, and accept that the spray will hide much of the view. From November to April the rains close most bush camps, but that is also when Liuwa’s wildebeest gather and when Kasanka’s bats are in, so a green-season trip is a specific trip rather than a compromise.
Is a walking safari safe, and how fit do I need to be?+
It is the Zambian standard rather than an add-on, and it is run tightly: a licensed guide in front, an armed National Parks scout with them, small groups and a fixed set of rules about distance and single file. Zambian guiding exams are among the stricter ones in the region. Fitness matters less than people expect, since the pace is slow and the distances are modest, but it is flat walking in heat with an early start, and camps set a minimum age. Anyone who cannot walk a few kilometres on uneven ground should say so when booking rather than on the morning.
How do I get between Livingstone, Lusaka and South Luangwa?+
Fly. Proflight Zambia runs the domestic network out of Lusaka, and the Lusaka to Livingstone and Lusaka to Mfuwe legs are what almost every itinerary uses, often on the same day as an international arrival. Driving is possible on the tarred trunk roads and coaches run them, but the distances are long, the Mfuwe road deteriorates near the valley, and every operator in the country will tell you not to drive after dark. Inside the parks the camps handle transfers, and you would want a 4x4 if you were doing it yourself.
Do I need a visa, and is there one that covers Zimbabwe too?+
Many nationalities can get a visa on arrival or apply in advance through the Department of Immigration, and the rules differ enough by passport that it is worth checking yours directly. The one to know about is the KAZA UniVisa, which covers Zambia and Zimbabwe on a single document and includes a day pass into Botswana at Kazungula, which is exactly the shape of a Victoria Falls trip. It is issued only at Lusaka and Livingstone airports and at the Livingstone and Kazungula land borders, so arriving anywhere else means arriving without it.
Know before you go
The essentials for planning a Zambian trip: entry, money, the roads, the seasons and the parks.
Currency
Zambian kwacha (ZMW)
Cards work in Lusaka and Livingstone and much less reliably outside them. Carry cash for the road, the markets and the smaller lodges, and change money at a bank or a registered bureau rather than on the street.
Language
English, plus seven official regional languages
English is the language of government, business and schooling. Bemba, Nyanja, Tonga, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale and Kaonde are official alongside it and are what people actually speak: Nyanja in and around Lusaka, Bemba on the Copperbelt and in the north, Lozi in the west, Tonga in the south.
Power
230V, 50Hz, sockets type C, D and G
The British three-pin type G is what most hotels fit. Bush camps run on solar and generators with fixed charging hours, so a power bank earns its place in the bag.
Emergency
999 police, 991 ambulance, 993 fire
Coverage outside the main towns is thin, and safari camps run their own evacuation arrangements. Comprehensive travel insurance that explicitly includes medical evacuation is standard advice for the parks rather than an upsell.
The KAZA UniVisa covers both countries on one document, with a day pass into Botswana at Kazungula, and is issued at Lusaka and Livingstone airports and at the Livingstone and Kazungula land borders only. Check your own nationality against the Department of Immigration before you fly.
Getting around
Domestic flights, coaches on the trunk roads, transfers in the parks
Proflight Zambia flies the internal network from Lusaka, and Livingstone and Mfuwe are the two legs most trips use. Coaches cover the tarred routes. Off the tar you want a 4x4 and daylight.
Driving
Left-hand side; an International Driving Permit alongside your licence
Fuel stops are far apart, potholes and livestock are constant, and the black cotton soil in the valleys becomes impassable in the rains. Nobody drives at night here, and that advice is not decorative.
Tipping
Not compulsory, always welcome
Around ten percent in restaurants covers it. Safari camps publish their own guidance for guides and for the shared staff fund, and following what the camp suggests is easier than guessing.
Health
Malaria year-round; yellow fever certificate for some arrivals
Antimalarials are standard advice for the whole country and the valleys in particular. A yellow fever certificate is required on arrival from certain countries, so check the current rule for your route before departure.
Time zone
Central Africa Time, UTC+2
No daylight saving, all year, so the offset from home does not move mid-trip.
Safety
Ordinary urban caution; the roads and the wildlife are the real risks
Petty theft around bus stations and markets is the usual city concern, particularly after dark. On a Zambian itinerary the greater practical risks are road conditions and being on foot near large animals, both of which are managed rather than avoided.
LGBT travellers
Same-sex activity is criminalised
The Penal Code carries serious penalties, and public affection between same-sex couples is not safe. Foreign ministries advise discretion. This is the law as it stands rather than our view of it.
National day
Independence Day, 24 October
Zambia became independent from Britain on 24 October 1964. The date is a public holiday and the run-up fills the towns with events.
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Photo credits (9)
Kenneth Kaundaphoto by Unknown photographer, Public domain
Hakainde Hichilemaphoto by Cabinet Public Relations Office of the Cabinet Secretariat, CC BY 4.0
Levy Mwanawasaphoto by International Monetary Fund, Public domain
