The falls first. Then the rest of Zimbabwe.
Which helicopter loop clears the whole curtain. When the rapids open and when the river shuts them. What a sundowner on the Zambezi actually costs. Every tour that leaves Victoria Falls, reviewed.
The days Victoria Falls is built around.
The rainforest path, the helicopter loop, the sundowner deck, the rapids below the bridge, the game drive at first light and the long run east to Chobe. Almost every trip here is some order of these six.
Victoria Falls: three ways to see it.
All 164 Victoria Falls tours →
On foot you get the noise, the spray and sixteen viewpoints along the rainforest path. From the air you get the shape of the thing, the full 1,708 metres of it and the zigzag gorges below. From the water you get the hour before dark. Most people who have the time do all three.
The rainforest path, viewpoint by viewpoint
A guide is the difference between a wet walk and understanding what you are looking at. Go early, before the tour buses and while the light still gets under the spray.
Twelve minutes over the whole curtain
The short flight circles the falls and the first gorges. The long one carries on over the national park, where the elephant herds read as grey dots on the river bend.
Upstream, where the river is still calm
A kilometre above the lip the Zambezi is wide, slow and full of hippo. The boats turn for home as the sun goes down behind the islands.
The most popular tours at Victoria Falls.
Every review →The bookings that fill up first here, and what makes each one worth its slot in a short stay.
1
Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 12-13 minutes Flight
See Victoria Falls, Batoka Gorge, Zambezi River, and wildlife from a bubble-window helicopter with hotel pickup and flexible cancellation.
From · $135
Read our review →
2
Dinner Cruise on the Zambezi River
from $110
3
Chobe National Park Day Trip with Lunch
from $170
4
Dinner Cruise on the Zambezi River
from $92
5
Boma Dinner and Drum Show
from $60
6
Helicopter Tour with Hotel Pickup
from $180
7
2-Hour Luxury Zambezi River Sunset Cruise
from $69
8
Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 25-27 Minutes Game
from $265
Three things you can only do at this gorge.
Game drives and river cruises happen across southern Africa. The flight over the curtain, the rapids in the gorge below it and the jump off the bridge belong to this one bend in the Zambezi.
The Flight of Angels
The falls are 1,708 metres wide and you cannot see that from the ground; the path only ever shows you a section at a time. The standard loop is twelve to thirteen minutes and crosses the full curtain, then follows the zigzag gorges downstream. The longer flight adds the national park upriver. Doors stay on, windows are big, and the machine banks both ways so nobody gets the wrong seat.
- 1Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 12-13 minutes Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,391 reviews
- 2Helicopter Tour with Hotel Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 371 reviews
- 3Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 25-27 Minutes Game★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 286 reviews
The Zambezi Rapids
The gorge below the falls holds one of the heaviest commercially run stretches of white water anywhere, and the river decides the season. From about August the water drops and the high-numbered rapids open; in flood the run is cut short or closed altogether. The walk out of the gorge at the end is steep and hot, and nobody warns you about it.
- 1Zambezi River Class IV-V White-Water Rafting from Victoria Falls★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 243 reviews
- 2Half Day Zambezi Whitewater Rafting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 149 reviews
- 3White Water Rafting in Zimbabwe★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 88 reviews
The Bridge Jump
The steel arch over the second gorge was finished in 1905 and now carries a bungee off the middle of the span, a gorge swing from the lip and a zip line across the ravine. The drop is 111 metres to the river. Watching from the walkway is free, and half the people who came to watch end up buying a ticket.
- 1Gorge Swing (Zimbabwe)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 38 reviews
- 2Zip Line from the Victoria Falls Bridge★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 33 reviews
- 3Victoria Falls Bridge Bungee Jump★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 18 reviews
What a day at the falls costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by price. The walk and the sundowner sit at one end, the helicopter and the private game vehicle at the other.
The falls walk, the shorter cruises, market and village visits, entry tickets. A full day here need not cost much.
Sunset cruises with dinner, half-day rafting, the Boma, group game drives and most of the day tours.
Helicopter loops, private guides, the long Chobe days and the multi-day safaris south to Hwange.
- 1Chobe National Park Day Trip with Lunchfrom $170
- 2Helicopter Tour with Hotel Pickupfrom $180
- 3Livingstone Island Tour & Devils Poolfrom $230
Chobe is in Botswana, and it is worth the early start.
The elephant density on the Chobe river front is the highest in Africa, and it sits about seventy kilometres from Victoria Falls. These are day trips that leave the falls before dawn, cross into Botswana for a river cruise and a game drive, and have you back for dinner. Take your passport; the return crossing is part of the day.
The Zambezi does its best work in the final hour.
See the evening list →
Victoria Falls Theatre Featuring Simunye: The Spirit of Africa
Read our review →The parks within a morning of the falls.
Zambezi National Park starts at the edge of town and runs upriver, so a game drive can be a two-hour errand before breakfast. Hwange is four hours south and holds one of the largest elephant populations on the continent. Neither needs a long safari itinerary to be worth doing.
All 23 national park tours →
Book these before you fly into Victoria Falls.
Most of what happens here can be arranged from your hotel the night before. These four cannot: they run on river levels, border posts, fixed seats and one dining room.
- 01Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 12-13 minutes FlightA handful of seats a flight, and the early slots with the good light go first in season.
- 02Zambezi River Class IV-V White-Water Rafting from Victoria FallsThe rapids follow the river: low water from around August opens the full run, and flood closes it.
- 03Chobe National Park Day Trip with LunchThe day crosses into Botswana and back, so your passport travels with you and your Zimbabwe entry has to allow the return.
- 04Boma Dinner and Drum ShowOne dining room, a fixed start each evening, and the tables go weeks ahead in high season.
- 05Victoria Falls Bridge Bungee JumpOne bridge, one operator and a weather window; the jump list closes early on busy days.
From February to May the falls hide behind their own spray.
At peak flood the Zambezi pushes so much water over the lip that the rainforest path becomes a rainstorm and the far viewpoints disappear into white noise. It is the most powerful the river gets and the worst time to photograph it from the ground. The answers are above it and upstream of it: the air, the calm water, and the game roads that do not care how wet the gorge is.
By place — the falls, and south from there
Victoria Falls164 tours
Hwange6 tours
Bulawayo & the Matobo Hills6 tours
Great Zimbabwe4 tours
Harare4 tours
Chobe, over in Botswana41 tours- Every review →
By experience — water, air, or game road
Ten days, falls to capital.
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