Author Topic: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip  (Read 4170 times)

Offline Elelem

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Day 1.
-Flew from joburg to Livingstone, Zambia Tuesday at 11:00am
-Got the Kaza Visa for $50 when we arrived at Livingstone. It enabled us zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana
-we found a taxi driver Steve (+260975378280) who agreed to take the five of us from airport to hotel to falls to hotel for $400 kwacha = $40.00
-we dropped our stuff at Gloria's bed and breakfast. We found for $108 for three nights on booking.com- payment is cash only.
Steve took us to Victoria Falls. Ask the locals whether to go to Zambian side or Zimbabwe side based on where the mist is.
Zimbabwe side is $30 for the falls park, Zambian side is $20.
You want the mist to blown away from the side you go to ideally. You'll get soaked from the mist- rent or buy ponchos and wear appropriate footwear.
Spent a few hours there and made sure to be at border crossing at 5:45pm as it officially closes at 6pm. We didn't get through until 6:30pm, they were understaffed... Gotta be pushy to get through quickly.
Steve took us back to hotel, then we walked 15 min to Shoprite in town and it was already dark when we walked back.

Day 2. Got picked up at 6:50 am by driver of pre-arranged private tour of Chobe National Park Safari by Big Sam Hubber http://www.bigsamhubber.co.bw which we got for $145 each.
This driver took us to border of Botswana, arranged our Visa, took us to Chobe River to a boat, we crossed the river and met our guide 'Obi' of Sam's who took us to an open top 4x4. Our amazing guide Obi drove us to the Sam's office where we paid. Contact them few days before to say you don't need lunch, maybe it can get the price down even more. Depending on the weather or conditions, they either do 3hr river tour first or 3hr game drive (land tour) first. We did river first- started slow and we got excited when we saw an eagle, an elephant and impalas on the river bank.... But pretty quickly we saw tons of hippos, water buffalo, alagators, elephants in the water.
After 2hrs on the river, we saw as many animals as anyone would see in 3hrs, so Obi took as back to the office to embark on a four hr land game drive.
We got into the vehicle and started the tour. Also slow in the beginning, but quickly we saw countless impalas, kudu, elephants, giraffe, and even got to see ten lions and cubs which is definitely not a guarantee on a one day tour. About 2.5 hrs in we stopped for bathroom break and the tour for the next hour was back in the direction of the office.
We were at office for three minutes before heading back to the river, Obi drove us across in boat, and our the driver from morning took us back to Gloria's.

Day 3. We arranged with Steve before hand that he'll do the reverse route as first day-
So woke up, packed, and were met by Steve at Gloria's at 6:45. We packed all our belongings into Steve's vehicle and drove to the Zambian side of Victoria falls. We paid the $20 for park, trecked down to the Boiling Pot for beautiful view and pics, trecked back up, quickly hiked to knifes edge bridge for views of the falls, and headed to the victoria falls bridge to register for bungee jumping at the bungee office at the foot of the bridge. You could tell border that you are just bungeeing and they'll take your passport and give you a slip to exchange for your passport when you come down. (That early in the morning, there were people that went in and out without stopping to get passport stamped.)
We were in a rush to make our 1pm flight back to Johannesburg so we made sure to be at the office by 8:40 so that we can be first on line. They let us register at about 8:50am, we paid the$160 each, and at 9:10 told us we can head to the middle of the bridge to bungee. We jumped at about 9:35- had a friend video it. The next jumper goes before you are back on the top of the bridge, so plan ahead to have someone else video.
The bungee company itself gets great footage and pics (especially if you take their GoPro), but I didn't want to spend another $60 for their footage.
We hurried back to border and Steve picked us up to take us directly to airport. We had plenty of time in the priority lounge before the flight.

*Others on this forum did the same safari tour as we did for much cheaper...
** T-Mobile has crazy charges in Zimbabwe
« Last Edit: July 14, 2018, 02:13:46 PM by Elelem »

Offline SuperFlyer

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2018, 02:16:39 PM »
Very nice report!

Some charges seem way too expensive, no? I've never been there, but...

Offline sam28

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2018, 03:27:03 PM »
Nice TR any pictures ?

Online mgarfin

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2018, 10:48:50 PM »
Wow
Are you from SA or was it part of a trip?

Offline Yehuda57

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2018, 11:11:22 PM »
Wow
Are you from SA or was it part of a trip?

Willing to bet not a South African if s/he saw alligators in Zimbabwe :-)

Offline ludmila

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #5 on: July 16, 2018, 09:11:28 PM »
Would you please post pictures if you have any? Thank you.
I was the Best,still the Best, and will always be the Best.
Pele Good,Maradona Better, George Best.

Offline marduk

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2018, 11:00:17 PM »
Sounds a fun trip. Doesn't seem an expensive trip since you are in a group.

Offline jfkeze

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2018, 06:29:24 AM »
I did a similar trip two years ago... you could get really close to the animals... spent two nights at the http://www.vicfallsrestcamp.com/ a simple Rest Camp but really close to the falls...









Here is a trip report on my time in http://www.premiumcabindeals.com/2018/07/victoria-falls-with-south-african.html

Offline luv2trvlwithfam

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2018, 05:30:52 AM »
thanks for the report... looks and souds great!
this is totally on  my places to visit...
how did you manage and handle the food situation?
where else did you visit on this trip?


Offline Elelem

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #9 on: April 01, 2019, 12:18:03 AM »
Willing to bet not a South African if s/he saw alligators in Zimbabwe :-)
Haha you are right

Offline Yehuda57

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #10 on: April 02, 2019, 07:56:40 PM »
Haha you are right
I should set a reminder to respond casually in 9 months

Offline Elelem

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #11 on: April 03, 2019, 12:49:58 AM »
I should set a reminder to respond casually in 9 months
Was busy wrangling an alligator

Offline marduk

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Re: Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Victoria falls chobe - three day trip
« Reply #12 on: April 14, 2019, 09:09:39 AM »
Nice TR and really looks like an awesome trip. Bet there are lots to discover on these places.