Plan your safari
Male lion with a golden mane in warm evening light

Mana Pools Safaris

Mana Pools: canoe the Zambezi through a UNESCO World Heritage wilderness.

Plan your safari Highlights

In short, Mana Pools is Africa at its most cinematic: a UNESCO-listed floodplain on the Lower Zambezi where ancient albida forests filter blue light onto elephant that rise on their hind legs to reach the seed pods, a behavior found almost nowhere else.

Above all, this is a park for doing, not just watching: guided walks among the herds and canoe stages drifting past hippo pods and drinking buffalo, with the Zambian escarpment glowing across the river. It is also remote, uncrowded and utterly wild.

Highlights of Mana Pools National Park

Canoe safaris

Silent stages down the Zambezi: elephant at the waterline, fish eagles overhead.

The standing elephants

In particular, Mana’s bulls famously rear upright to browse the albida canopy.

Walking in the open forest

Also, park rules allow walking, and with a pro guide the floodplain feels primeval.

Wild dog & lion

The floodplain supports strong predator populations, including habituated painted-dog packs.

Elephants feeding among winterthorn albida trees in the Mana Pools forest at golden hour, Zimbabwe

The albida forest at Mana Pools: the light this park is famous for

Best time to visit Mana Pools

May–Oct

Dry season: game concentrates on the river, so September and October are the high point.

Nov–Apr

The rains: most camps close, while the park rests.

Planning & cost

Safari cost

Priced to your budget, and built around your camps, the season and how you like to travel. There are no fixed packages.

How we travel

Of course, we design every journey privately, with private guides and vehicles arranged where specified, the finest lodges, and a specialist on call throughout. At fly-in camps, game drives may be shared unless a private vehicle is reserved.

Practical details,
in one place

Money, health, connectivity and packing work the same way on every safari we plan, so they live in one place rather than on every page.

Mana Pools National Park FAQs

In fact, you paddle with licensed professional river guides who read hippo and current all day, keeping sensible distances. As a result, it is a calm, controlled experience, and one of the best things you will ever do.

June to October, when the floodplain dries and wildlife lives on the river. However, most camps close in the rains from November to April.

In general, light aircraft link Mana with Victoria Falls and Hwange for a classic Zimbabwe circuit, or across the river to Zambia’s Lower Zambezi.

Getting to Zimbabwe: flights, visas and health

Correct when we wrote it. Before you travel, we check every requirement for your exact route and tell you what to apply for and when.

AirportsVictoria Falls (VFA) for the Falls, Hwange and Mana Pools; Harare (HRE) for connections. Both are reached via Johannesburg.
Getting thereConnect through Johannesburg; it is about 90 minutes on to Victoria Falls. Livingstone in Zambia sits twenty minutes away on the other bank if that routing suits better.
Visa: US citizensZimbabwe issues US citizens a visa online or on arrival (Zambia itself is currently visa-free for US passports). The KAZA UniVisa (about $50) covers eligible Zambia–Zimbabwe itineraries for travelers crossing between the two. Apply only at the official portal: evisa.gov.zw.
HealthYellow fever certificate required if arriving from a risk country. Hwange, Mana Pools and the Zambezi valley are malarial. Country guidance: CDC Travelers’ Health.
PassportSix months’ validity beyond your return date, with at least two blank pages. Travel insurance including medical evacuation is required on every journey we plan.
Full flight guidePlan your safari

Plan your Mana Pools safari.

In short, a Mana Pools safari is for travelers who want to walk, and who like their wilderness unpolished.

Tell us how you like to travel and start with a complimentary consultation.

Plan your safari

For official park rules, fees and opening hours, see Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.