If you want a private place on the Zambezi without giving up the things a good lodge does, the Zambezi Dusk Villa is the room to ask for. It sits within a small, family-owned lodge on the Zambian bank upstream of Victoria Falls, so you have your own space, and also a kitchen, guides, a boat and a spa behind you.
Private, but not on your own
A private rental villa means doing your own shopping, finding your own guides and hoping the driver turns up. A hotel room means sharing a pool with a hundred other guests. The villa sits between the two.
Villa guests are on the same fully inclusive rate as everyone else:
- meals made with local ingredients;
- selected drinks;
- transfers to and from Livingstone airport;
- two guided boat safaris a day from the lodge;
- two daily activities from the lodge's guided experiences list;
- one spa treatment, in your suite or outdoors, on stays of two nights or more.
The lodge is small by design, with few suites in total. Even when you walk over to the pool or the deck, you are unlikely to find it busy.
Who takes the villa
- Couples who want to be left alone for most of the day. See honeymoon stays.
- Families who want to keep everyone under one roof. See family stays.
- Small groups of friends. See group stays.
- Travellers coming off a long safari who want a few days with no schedule before they fly home.
We don't publish the villa's size, room count or layout here; ask the lodge, which can tell you how it is currently set up and how many it suits.
The river on your doorstep
This stretch of the Zambezi, above the Falls, is wide and slow, broken up by islands and channels. It is a different river from the gorge below the Falls where the rafting happens. On the boat safaris you can expect hippos, crocodiles, plenty of birds and, especially in the dry months from about July to November, elephants crossing to and from the islands.
Two boat trips leave from the lodge each day, so you can spend a morning on the water and an afternoon by the pool without getting in a car.
Getting out when you want to
The villa is a base, not a retreat you can't leave. Victoria Falls is about 30 minutes by road, and the lodge arranges partner-run trips including:
- Victoria Falls visits;
- Devil's Pool, usually from about mid-August into December or January, depending on the river;
- tiger fishing;
- the bungee jump, rafting, walking with rhinos, local market visits and, on request, a Chobe day trip.
Not all of these are included, so ask which are covered for your stay.
A day at the villa
A typical day for villa guests looks something like this. An early boat safari while the river is still and the light is soft. Breakfast back at the lodge. A late morning by the pool, or one of the two daily activities from the lodge's guided experiences list. Lunch. An afternoon with a book, or the spa treatment that comes with stays of two nights or more. Then the evening boat at sunset, and dinner made with local ingredients.
You can do as much or as little of that as you like. The point of the villa is that the choice is yours.
Before you book
- The lodge is on Kazungula Road, outside Livingstone town. Evenings are at the lodge.
- Bookings are confirmed on full prepayment within three days of booking.
- Livingstone is in a malaria area. Rooms have nets and repellent; see a travel clinic about antimalarials.
- US dollars and kwacha are widely accepted. Cards can be limited outside town.
The villa page covers the lodge as a whole, and getting here explains the routes in from Livingstone, Victoria Falls and Kasane.