Lower Zambezi National Park

The Lower Zambezi is Zambia's most exclusive safari experience — a narrow, 4,092-square-kilometre park wedged between the Zambezi escarpment and the great river itself. The park faces Zimbabwe's Mana Pools across the water, and the two reserves function as a single ecosystem where elephants swim between countries and lion roars echo across international borders.

Water is the defining element. Canoe safaris on the Zambezi bring you eye-level with hippos, crocodiles, and elephants that wade into the shallows to drink and bathe. Tiger fishing — for the Zambezi's legendary tigerfish — is world-class, combining the adrenaline of sport fishing with the beauty of the river environment. And the combination of river and land activities creates a safari rhythm unlike any other: a morning game drive through woodland where elephants browse and leopards hide, followed by an afternoon canoe glide past pods of hippos as the sun turns the river to liquid gold.

The Lower Zambezi's camps are among Zambia's finest — intimate properties of just 4–8 tents positioned directly on the riverbank, where the sound of hippos grunting and splashing is your nightly lullaby.