“At the very soul of the African story, full of history and culture we loved Tongabezi Lodge and the falls themselves are just one of the continents “must sees”.”

Seeing Victoria Falls is near the top of the list for many visitors to Southern Africa and when we first arrived here it was one of the first trips we took. At the very soul of the African story, full of history and culture we loved it and the falls themselves are just one of the continents “must sees”.

Recently we went back for another long weekend, but this time we decided to explore a little further rather than stay in the more traditional and commercial hotels like The Livingstone on the Zambian side or the Victoria Falls Hotel on the Zimbabwean side.

Instead we chose Tongabezi Lodge in Zambia, just 20 minutes drive upriver from Livingstone airport; located right on the banks of the mighty Zambezi and within easy reach of the falls.

Very rustic and understated Tongabezi was as authentic as it gets with a real African feel. The lodge consisted of 11 individual guest cottages and houses right on the river, even a lounge and boat house that extend out into the river itself. Our spacious room was totally open on one side, overlooking the vast expanse of water, with a family of hippo’s wallowing noisily in front of us. At night we bathed in an outside bath tub and slept surrounded by a mosquito net; just how you have always dreamed of Africa. We even had our own private valet who was assigned to look after us for the two days.

We took sunset boat cruises, had a picnic lunch on our own private island and one evening had a candlelit dinner for two on a pontoon in the middle of the Zambezi, which with noisy hippos everywhere was a bit disconcerting initially, until we relaxed and went with the flow.

The land based game drives in the nearby reserve we think are fine for people seeing wildlife for the first time, with elephant, buffalo, giraffe and all species of antelope, but there are no cats in the reserve, which might be a disappointment for some. The truer safari experiences in our opinion are to be found on the Zimbabwean side of the river in the more open national park.

However we think Tongabezi is really all about the river experience and for this we highly recommend it for a couple of nights stay. What makes it so unique apart from the location is the staff who truly go out of their way to make you feel special. They create a natural and warm ambience about the place and the majority of the team is from the local village up the road. We had a magical two hour visit there to meet the locals and even had an interview with the head woman of the village.

At Tongabezi don’t expect the over the top décor and luxuries of more commercial lodges. It is stylish in its own way and the luxury here is about the intimate experience, the stunning scenery, a proper African welcome and being pampered by the nicest people you could expect to meet.