All activities / Wildlife Safaris / Hwange National Park
Wildlife Safaris in Hwange National Park
Zimbabwe's largest national park, on the edge of the Kalahari in the country's north-west, famous for huge dry-season elephant herds gathering at pumped waterholes and for one of Africa's strongest populations of the endangered African painted dog.
Why here
Hwange is Zimbabwe's largest national park and one of Africa's great elephant strongholds, holding tens of thousands of elephants that gather at its pumped waterholes through the dry season. It is also the country's best place to find the African painted dog, the endangered wild dog that dens on the Kalahari sand, alongside lion prides, buffalo herds, sable and roan antelope and more than 400 bird species. The park runs on a network of waterholes that concentrate game from July onward, watched from open vehicles, on foot with a licensed guide, or from log-pile hides at the water's edge. Two hours south of Victoria Falls, Hwange pairs naturally with the Falls and with Botswana's Chobe just across the border.
Best months
The dry season from July to October is the headline, when receding bush and pumped waterholes pull elephant, buffalo and predators into the open, with September and October hottest and most concentrated. The green season from November brings newborn antelope, migrant birds and lush scenery but disperses game across the park. Mornings and late afternoons are the productive windows for drives and waterhole hides, and nights turn cold in June and July.
Getting there & around
Hwange has its own airstrips and is about two hours by road south of Victoria Falls, the usual gateway, with Bulawayo a similar distance to the south. Camps lie both inside the park and on private concessions along its boundaries and run their own drives, walks and hides. Book activities through your camp, and note that many visitors combine Hwange with Victoria Falls and a hop across to Chobe in Botswana.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
Imvelo Safari Lodges
OutfitterImvelo Safari Lodges is a Zimbabwean owner-run safari company operating five camps in and around Hwange National Park: Bomani, Camelthorn, Nehimba, Jozibanini and the elevated Tum Tum treehouse lodge. In 2022 it translocated the first white rhino back into the Hwange area in decades, more than 700 kilometres to its Ngamo Wildlife Sanctuary. Its conservation and community work includes the Cobras anti-poaching unit and a schools programme in the villages bordering the park.
The Hide Safari Camp
OutfitterThe Hide is a privately owned camp on its own concession on the eastern edge of Hwange National Park, built in 1992 and still run by the founding Preston family. Ten en-suite tents overlook a floodlit waterhole with a sunken log hide, and up to four activities run daily, from game drives and guided walks to night drives and birding. It is a founding member of the Conservation and Wildlife Fund and Friends of Hwange, and set up The Hide Community Trust in 2015.