Victoria Falls Travel Forum

Are there flights from Johanesburg to Victoria Falls?

I have one full year to plan this trip, but it will be a short one.

I plan to fly to Johanesburg , visit some, and then fly to Victoria Falls and back to Joh. the next day.

I would appreciate any information and must sees in Joh and Cape Town, but I want to see Vic Falls.

Any info ion these subjects will be greatly appreciated.

Andrea

There are three flights a day: two in the morning and one in the late afternoon.

I just went to Vic Falls a few weeks ago, leaving Jo'burg on the earliest SAA flight on Saturday and returning on the latest flight on Sunday. In all, due to the flight times, we had just about 26 hours on the ground at Vic Falls. Not quite enough. I'd leave Friday afternoon and return Sunday, if I could.

While there, we did manage to pack in a fair amount of activities--on Saturday afternoon we walked to the Falls, walked over the bridge to Zambia for a short time, did the sunset "booze cruise," had drinks on the terrace of the Vic Falls Hotel, and ate dinner at Illala Lodge. On Sunday, we did a half-day of whitewater rafting (HIGHLY recommended!). It was all a bit of a rush, but we had fun.

Julie: Thanks a lot for the info. I am very impressed with all your travels. Have you seen www.travelerscenturyclub.org
I just read in the Houston Chronicle you just have to visit 100 countries and can belong to the club. Well, I am about 20 countries short for that, but I guess you've already made it.

I am very interested to visit South Africa and Zimbabwe. Could you tell me more about it? What's the name of the hotel you stayed in Vic Falls?, What should I read?
About South Africa, should I visit both: Cape Town and Johanesburg? What do I visit. What hotels?

I am from México, I will have to find out what visas are needed.

Thanks for everything you can tell me.

Andrea

Keith: Thank you for your help. You have a beautiful web site. I will have to read everything in order to make my plans. The only problem is I will have very little timefor such a big place.

I will contact you later.

Andrea

Thanks you for the info Cliff.

Regards,

Andrea

Hi Andrea,

South Africa is a beautiful place to visit and explore and it depends on the amount of time that you have or your interests what places you should visit and what things to do.

I was there in 1999 and my niece was in SA last August. They and we cruised the whole country by car and had a great time. One recommendation of mine they loved especially. It's a Zulu village where you lodge and where you can visit the village, get traditional dances and songs and a big braai. It's much much better then the Shaku Zulu place.

This will cost you 2 days, but it will be one of the best things you experienced. See for yourself, but in 4 years it didn't loose much of it's character and only a limited amount of people are allowed.

http://kwazulu.hotelguide.co.za/simunye-hotel.html

For Vic Falls if you want to raft and experience things, well two days is a minimum I guess, then you can do a sunset cruise, maybe see the traditional dancing in the village, do the Rafting, this is excellent. It's better to have 2.5 days, but this all depends on the amount of time you have.

For the flights check out the website of South African Airlines

http://www.flysaa.com/saa_home.jhtml

If you only do the J'burg Area, well visit then Pretoria, the voortrekkers monument and the city centre. Visit the Goldmine museum in J'burg (can't remember the name anymore) and book a guided tour towards the township of Soweto (this is a must do), don't go there on your own.

This will take you 3 to 4 days.

But SA is much more then J'burg and Pretoria. Cape Town is a nice place too, but the distances are big, don't expect to drive that distance in one day. But with one year of preparation you will find some nice and interesting things to do. You will find that there is more magic in SA then you think at first. Every region that you will visit has it's own qualities and ..... well you shall see for yourself when you are there.

You can always drop me an e-mail if you want more info.

Cheers

Alain

If you fly to Livingstone, (usually via Lusaka) and then cross the border into Zimbabwe be prepared for some hassle when you re-enter Zambia. Its ok just to walk over the bridge though.
Alan

Some good advise above. What I would add is that there is so much to see in South Africa and Zimbabwe that you might want to decide if hopping from Capetown to Jo'burg to Vic Falls is the best use of your time and money.

For me Vic Falls was not a real highlight (sure it is an impressive natural feature, but to me its not much more), whereas pony-trekking in Lesotho and canoeing on the Zambezi (a bit further downstream from Vic Falls by a place called Mana Pools) are the two things I will always remember about my trip in the area.

Flying will save you time, but by the time you get to airports, go through all the procedures, fly and get to your destination, you still use up a lot of time that you could be seeing something in a smaller area.

If you really want to see Vic Falls, then maybe spending most of your time in Zimb/Zamb border area would be best, there's lots of great stuff to see/do there.

-Mark

What type of activities? How about hotels and restaurants in Vic Falls, Johanesburg and Cape Town?

Andrea