Afrinkong
Nature & LandscapesThe Zambezi Valley
Escarpment, floodplain and winterthorn forest, with the river braiding through the middle of all of it.
ZAMBIA · Tourism
The Smoke That Thunders
Victoria Falls from the side that gets wet, the walking safari where it was invented, the Lower Zambezi by canoe, and parks with almost no traffic in them.
Southern AfricaRegion
27Tourism experiences
The real wildernessKnown for
01
Featured destinations
Where the country actually takes you.
Nature & Landscapes
MountainsThe Nyika Plateau
Two thousand metres of rolling montane grassland on the Malawi border, with roan antelope and no heat.
Photo Lukas Faust / Pexels
Victoria and Kalambo
Victoria Falls needs no introduction; Kalambo, on the Tanzanian border, drops 235 metres in a single uninterrupted fall.
Photo zhou shen / Pexels
Zambezi, Kafue, Tanganyika
Three great river systems and the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake on earth.
Photo Hannah Barata / Pexels
Beaches & CoastLake Tanganyika Shore
Clear freshwater, sand and forested hills at Nsumbu, about as far from anywhere as Zambia gets.
Photo Vika Glitter / Pexels
Miombo and Winterthorn
Miombo woodland turning red at the start of the rains, and the winterthorn groves the elephants feed under.
02
Wildlife & safari
What lives here, and how you see it without disturbing it.
Wildlife
Leopard Country
The South Luangwa has one of the densest leopard populations in Africa, and the best chance of seeing one hunting.
Photo Ana Kenk / Pexels
SafariThe Walking Safari
Invented in the Luangwa in the 1950s: no vehicle, an armed scout, and everything at eye level.
Photo Diego F. Parra / Pexels
Eco TourismKafue and the Carnivores
Kafue is the size of Wales; the conservation programmes there fund anti-poaching across the whole Greater Kafue system.
03
Culture & heritage
The part of a country you cannot photograph from a vehicle.
Culture
Lozi, Bemba, Tonga
Seventy-three ethnic groups, seven official languages, and a royal barge ceremony older than the country.
Photo Audy of Course / Pexels
Traditional PeopleThe Barotse Floodplain
The Lozi live with the flood — moving cattle, homes and the king himself when the Zambezi rises.
Photo josh_ dago__ / Pexels
Nshima and Kapenta
Maize nshima with relish, dried kapenta from the lakes, and fresh bream out of the Zambezi.
Photo DΛVΞ GΛRCIΛ / Pexels
Kuomboka
When the floodplain fills, the Litunga is paddled to high ground on the Nalikwanda barge, drummed the whole way.
Photo Tom Fisk / Pexels
Basketry and Copper
Tight coiled baskets from the Western Province, and copper worked on the belt that built the economy.
Photo Yusuf Kayode / Pexels
Livingstone
The old colonial capital above the falls, its museum, and the tree where the man himself is said to have camped.
Photo Rahul Pandit / Pexels
HeritageMosi-oa-Tunya, UNESCO
World Heritage since 1989, shared with Zimbabwe, and named by the Kololo long before anyone renamed it.
Photo K / Pexels
04
Cities & everyday life
Where people actually live between the landmarks.
Lusaka
The centre of everything: Kabwata market, the Great East Road, and the flights that get you to the parks.
Photo Khaya Motsa / Pexels
ArchitectureLivingstone's Verandas
Corrugated iron and deep colonial verandas along Mosi-oa-Tunya Road, built for heat and never modernised.
Markets and the Great North Road
Roadside charcoal and tomatoes, long-haul trucks to the copperbelt, and a bus that leaves when it fills.
Photo Ana Kenk / Pexels
Family & CommunityVillage Around the Park
Community campsites and craft cooperatives on the Luangwa boundary, funded by the same beds that fill the lodges.
Photo Derek Keats / Pexels
05
Adventure & outdoors
For travellers who would rather walk it than watch it.
Adventure
Devil's Pool and the Gorge
Swim to the lip of Victoria Falls in low water, then raft the grade five rapids in the Batoka gorge below it.
Photo Kabwe Kabwe / Pexels
Canoeing the Lower Zambezi
Three days downstream past hippo pods and elephant crossings, camping on islands, no engine at any point.
Photo ROMAN ODINTSOV / Pexels
Luxury TravelBush Camps, Six Beds
Seasonal bush camps in the Luangwa that take six guests, close at the rains, and are walked between.
Photo Ana Kenk / Pexels
06
Travel inspiration
The frames people come home with.
Photography / Scenic ViewsLuangwa at Last Light
The river bends, the hippo surface and the dust goes gold about forty minutes before the drive has to end.
Photo Ana Kenk / Pexels
Liuwa Plain
The second largest wildebeest migration in Africa, on a plain almost nobody has heard of, reachable only in the dry.
Why Visit This Country
Wilderness, Still Unmanaged
Zambia kept the walking safari, the small camp and the empty park while its neighbours scaled up.
Wilderness, Still Unmanaged
Zambia kept the walking safari, the small camp and the empty park while its neighbours scaled up.
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