Holidays in Zambia

You could argue that Zambia is Africa’s best-kept secret. Tucked away in the heart of central Africa, it harbours an untamed blend of wetlands, rugged hills and sprawling bush teeming with wildlife and a number of luxury lodges and camps put you in the heart of the action. It’s a safari-lover’s dream but only attracts a fraction of the visitors when you compare it to the crowds who make a beeline for the headlining circuits of Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

Those who ignore this quiet patch of Africa are missing a trick. The harsh thunder of the UNESCO-listed Victoria Falls, the planet’s largest by volume, is a phenomenon you simply have to experience in the flesh to truly understand nature’s raw power – a life-changing moment on any holiday.

Zambia isn’t just a single splash in the pan. Almost a third of it is protected by national parks and South Luangwa National Park can probably lay claim to being its best. The walking safari originated here and nothing can match the feeling of you on foot, treading nose-to-snout with impala-hunting leopards or wading hippos. The Lower Zambezi National Park is just as extraordinary, a riverine wilderness where buffalos, elephants, wild dogs and more roam the Zambezi floodplain. Best of all, it’ll likely be just you, the wildlife and the landscapes. Wonderful.

Zambia can lay claim to some of the most understated wildlife havens in Africa. It is where the walking safari originated after all! A number of luxury camps and lodges are pitched in the heart of these spectacular wildernesses and these places to stay in Zambia allow you to get under the skin of wild locations that most other safari goers don't even contemplate.

Unlike most of Africa, Zambia’s weather patterns during the year are clearly split in two, with a definite ‘dry season’ (May to October) and ‘wet season’ (November to April). Both have their advantages.

The dry season represents the best time for game viewing in Zambia’s national parks. The drier bushland makes walking safaris easier and animal sightings much likelier, with the thinning vegetation and wildlife congregating around watering holes. The beginning and middle of the dry season (late May to August) offers the best time to twin a safari holiday with a trip to the Victoria Falls, which is full with water but not obscured by heavy mist. Towards the end of the dry season, it starts to get hotter and the water on the Zambian side of the Falls often dries up. However, you can always hop over to the Zimbabwean side to observe the cascade or hop in Devil’s Pool, where you can peer over the waterfall’s edge.

The rainy season is now often billed as the ‘green season’, where vegetation bursts into life, like a lush emerald swathe carpeting the country. While many lodges and parks close (South Luangwa stays open) and wildlife is hard to spot among the dense undergrowth, it’s worth visiting for the eye-popping scenery alone. Canoe safaris are good during the wet season and while for the majority of this period the Victoria Falls is blanketed with thick spray, towards the end (around March), the Falls is arguably at its best – misty, roaring and beautiful.