Zimbabwe

More attractive than most other Southern African capitals, Harare is a laid-back city where wide avenues are lined with dusty red earth, and indigenous plants and blooming jacarandas give it a lovely African summertime feel. While it’s tempting to rush off to your safari, it’s worth hanging around in Harare to sample its fine dining, museums, craft markets and varied bars.

Harare

A genuine bucket-list destination, Victoria Falls remains one of Africa's most famous tourist towns. Not only does it offer the best views of the iconic falls, but it also has a world-class adventure-tourism scene and wildlife safaris.

Though built specifically for tourism, it retains a relaxed local feel, and has neat, walkable streets (though not at dark, because of the wild animals) lined with hotels, bars and some of the best crafts you'll find anywhere in Southern Africa.

Victoria Falls (town)

Wide tree-lined avenues, parks and charming colonial architecture make Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, an attractive one. It has a lovely historic feel to it, and it's worth spending a night or two, especially given it's a gateway to Matobo National Park, and an ideal staging point for Hwange National Park and Vic Falls. The city dates back to pre-colonial days, when it was founded in the 1840s by the Ndebele king, Lobengula Khumalo. Nearly half a century later it was invaded by the British South Africa Company during the Matabele War, and colonised by Cecil Rhodes in 1894. The grand colonial architecture that stands today soon followed, and Bulawayo's claim to fame is that it had electric lighting (switched on in 1897) before London did! The population today remains majority Ndebele.

Bulawayo

Home to some of the most majestic granite scenery in the world, the Matobo National Park is one of the unsung highlights of Zimbabwe. This Unesco World Heritage Site is a stunning and otherworldly landscape of balancing rocks known as kopjes – giant boulders unfeasibly teetering on top of one another. When you see it, it's easy to understand why Matobo is considered the spiritual home of Zimbabwe. The national park is separated into two sections – the recreational park and the game park. The recreational area includes World’s View (a scenic viewpoint and burial site of Cecil Rhodes) and ancient San rock art caves. The widlife park may not have the most prolific animals in Zimbabwe – it's been hard hit by poaching – but it remains one of the best places to see both black and white rhinos (although the black rhinos are difficult to spot).