Boldly Zimbabwe

Ease into Zimbabwe with a cocktail on the deck of one of the newest cruise ships on The Zambezi River, featuring 100 percent solar-powered onboard facilities. Your sunset cruise down the river will introduce much of the wildlife you’ll meet over nine days, from antelope to zebra. After two days at Victoria Falls, transfer to Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe’s largest national park and haven for more than 100 different types of mammals (including some 20,000 elephants). In Matobo National Park, home to a UNESCO World Heritage site boasting thousands of cave paintings, discover the highest concentration of leopards and black eagles in the world, and look out for both black and white rhinos. Travel to a Matabele village and meet a traditional healer. Visit a local primary school to deliver school supplies and learn about local education.

“The Smoke that Thunders” is the name for Victoria Falls in more than one of the local languages, and with a spray rising to 1,300 feet and a cacophony that can be heard from a distance of 25 miles, it’s a name well earned. On a guided half-day exploration, discover the microclimates and rainforest ecosystems sustained by the spray from the falls, and see firsthand what the missionary David Livingstone meant when he wrote that “no one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England.”