Best Time to Visit Zimbabwe
Planning a trip to Zimbabwe? And wondering what time of the year is the best time to Zimbabwe? Zimbabwe is best during the dry season months from June to October, but can also be visited at other times of the year.
When to Go?
Best Time to Visit Zimbabwe
Generally, the best time to visit Zimbabwe is from June to November. However, depending on your individual safari desires, you may wish to go at another time. Our Zimbabwe experts will be happy to help you determine when is right for you. Enquire now!
Seasons of Zimbabwe
Broadly speaking, these are the seasons of Zimbabwe:
- Dry Season: April to October – Winter
- Wet Season: November to March – Summer
Where to Go in Zimbabwe – Month by Month
- January to March: Peak rains. These are the wettest months with lush, green vegetation. Birding is good in this season, however, wildlife viewing is difficult. Matsudona NP is recommended due to the fresh grass near Lake Kariba which attracts wildlife.
- April – May: The bridge months, when the bush begins to dry out but everything is still quite green and vibrant. Low season rates. Mana Pools opens up.
- June – August: Peak season during the cold winter months. Wildlife viewing becomes better as animals gather around watering holes. Camps are usually fully booked and peak season rates apply. Victoria Falls in full flow.
- September – October: The driest and best months for wildlife viewing in all national parks. By October temperatures can rise considerably.
- November – December: Temperatures get hotter and hotter before the rains come.
Climate of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has a tropical climate, with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (95°F) in the hottest parts of the Lowveld during the humid rainy season, but for much of the year the climate is actually fairly temperate.
Naturally, temperatures will always be cooler at the higher altitudes of the Highveld than in the Lowveld. Rainy season is during the summer months of November to March, while dry season is during the cool winter months of April to October.
Still deciding where to go?
Knowing when to travel is half the decision; the other half is where. Our guide to African safari destinations puts every country we work in side by side — what each is best for, the best months to visit, how long to allow and what a trip starts at — so you can see how Zimbabwe compares before you commit.
Best time to visit Zimbabwe: common questions
When is the best time to visit Zimbabwe?
August to October, peaking in October. Hwange sits on deep Kalahari sand with almost no natural permanent surface water, so dry-season game viewing depends on a network of pumped boreholes maintained by the parks authority and conservation trusts. By September and October every large mammal in the park is orbiting a known set of pans — Nyamandhlovu, Ngweshla, Kennedy, Somalisa — and elephant queue in the hundreds to drink. Mana Pools is excellent from June to October, with July to September the high season.
When should I visit Victoria Falls?
It depends entirely on what you want, and peak flow and best view are opposite things. April to June is maximum power, but the spray is so heavy that it obscures the falls from ground viewpoints — you get soaked and photograph almost nothing, and gorge rafting is closed or restricted. July to September is the sweet spot: enough water for a full curtain, enough visibility to photograph it. September to December is low water, which gives you the full rock face, the best rafting and Devil’s Pool, but much of the Eastern Cataract on the Zambian side may run dry.
Should I stay on the Zimbabwean or Zambian side of the falls?
Which side matters more than which month, and it is month-dependent. Zimbabwe holds the great majority of the falls’ face and flows year-round, so from September to November book Zimbabwe. From April to June the Zambian Knife-Edge Bridge gets you closer to the spray if that is what you are after. Devil’s Pool, on the Zambian side, typically opens around August and closes in January as the water rises.
Which months should I avoid in Zimbabwe?
November to March. In Mana Pools the roads become difficult or impassable, many camps close, and parts of the park may close to vehicles entirely. Hwange’s game disperses within days of the first real rain — it is the sharpest on-off switch of any seasonal event in the region, and one storm in early November scatters a park’s worth of game. Hwange stays open and green-season birding is excellent, but the elephant spectacle is gone.
When is Zimbabwe best value?
May and June: the bush has dried and thinned, nights are cold but crisp, waterhole concentration is already building, and rates sit below the July to September peak. Late October and early November give you the year’s most extreme game concentration against pre-rain low-season pricing, at the cost of 40°C heat and the risk that the rains break early. April is worth considering as a Falls-and-Zambezi trip rather than a game trip — maximum drama at the falls with everything else priced low.