Itineraries
Zambia Itineraries
Routes that work in one, two and three weeks — and the ones that look good on a map and do not work at all.
Photo: Mohammad, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Zambia itineraries go wrong most often because people treat the country as a circuit. The most common mistake in planning Zambia is treating it as a circuit. It is not one. The distances are large, the internal flight network is thin, and several of the best places are seasonal in ways that do not coincide. Good Zambian itineraries pick a season first and a shape second.
Zambia itineraries: three rules before you start
- Season decides the route, not the other way round. A November itinerary and a July itinerary should not contain the same places.
- Fly or drive, but rarely both at length. Mixing is possible — drive the south, fly to the Luangwa — but alternating repeatedly wastes days and money.
- Three nights is the minimum useful stay in a safari area. Two nights means one full day, and one full day in the Luangwa is not a safari.
One week: the classic first trip
Livingstone and South Luangwa. Three nights in Livingstone for the falls, the museum and the river; then fly via Lusaka to Mfuwe for three or four nights in the Luangwa. Best from about June to October, when the Luangwa is at its peak and the falls still have substance.
Ten days: falls, river and valley
Add the Lower Zambezi in the middle: three nights Livingstone, three nights Lower Zambezi for canoeing, four nights South Luangwa. This is the standard high-end Zambian itinerary and it is flown rather than driven. Season is again roughly June to October.
Two weeks self-driving the south
Lusaka – Lochinvar – Livingstone – Kazungula, then back via Siavonga, or onward into Botswana. All on tar with one or two gravel detours, campable throughout, and manageable in a two-wheel drive if you skip the park interiors. Add southern Kafue and Itezhi-Tezhi with a proper four-wheel drive. See self-drive Zambia for the vehicle question.
Two weeks in the north
The Great North Road to Kasama, Mbala and Mpulungu on Lake Tanganyika, taking in Kalambo Falls and the waterfall circuit, with Kasanka or Bangweulu on the way up or back. Long, tarred on the main artery, and entirely different from a safari holiday. Best from about March to June for the waterfalls, or May to July if Bangweulu is the target.
Special-interest Zambia itineraries
Some Zambia itineraries are built around a single event.
| If you want | Go | Roughly when |
|---|---|---|
| The Kasanka bat migration | Kasanka, flying in or driving the T2 | November into early December |
| Shoebill and black lechwe | Bangweulu Wetlands | May to July |
| The Busanga Plains | Northern Kafue, fly-in | Early July to early November |
| The Liuwa wildebeest | Liuwa Plain, fly-in or paired vehicles | Around November |
| Victoria Falls at full flow | Livingstone | March to May |
| Rafting and Devil’s Pool | Livingstone | August to December |
What not to attempt
Some Zambia itineraries look good on a map and do not work at all.
- Kasanka and Bangweulu in one visit. Their seasons are five months apart. One of them will be the wrong time of year.
- Victoria Falls at peak flow plus rafting. The river is normally closed around the flood peak. You cannot have both.
- Liuwa Plain by road in November unless you are properly equipped and travelling in two vehicles. The migration peak coincides with the onset of the rains.
- Driving Lusaka to Mpulungu in a day. It is two days, and attempting it means night driving.
- A single night anywhere with a fly-in transfer. The transfer schedule will consume most of both days.
Where to go next
Sources
Facts and figures on this page are drawn from the following. Where sources disagree we say so in the text.