Hwange or Gonarezhou?
The two parks side by side on what you will see, what you can do, what it costs, how you get there and the health picture, with the facts behind every rating.
Our verdict
Both are big Zimbabwean self-drive parks, but Hwange is the easy, year-round one and Gonarezhou the remote expedition in the far south-east. Pick Hwange if access and budget decide: tar from Victoria Falls, $12 a day when you sleep inside against $15 in a Gonarezhou park camp, a three-night camping budget of about $350 against $875, and better odds on lion, wild dog and giraffe. Pick Gonarezhou if you want emptiness and a proper 4x4 trip: a park built around self-drive and wild camping, mostly unfenced camps, and Buffalo Range airport about an hour from Chipinda Pools. It closes from 10 January to 1 March, while Hwange never closes. In both, walking goes through camps or registered operators, and Hwange keeps night drives to its private concessions. Our guides publish no route between the two, so plan them as separate trips from Victoria Falls and Chiredzi.
Best for big game HwangeBest for birding HwangeBest for walking HwangeBest for self-drive HwangeBest for low budget HwangeBest for families HwangeBest for a first safari HwangeBest for wilderness Gonarezhou
Tap a row label to see the reasoning behind a rating.
| Compare | Hwange14,650 km² | Gonarezhou5,053 km² |
|---|---|---|
| 4Aug to early Nov | 3Sep to Nov | |
4bestAug to early NovElephants: ±40,000 in dry season; Large carnivores: 8 species; Wild dog: Major stronghold | 3Sep to NovElephants: ±11,000; Elephant density: 2.18 / km² (2022); Wild dog: Documented stronghold | |
| Elephant | Guaranteed | Guaranteed |
| Lion | Likely | Fair chance |
| Leopard | Fair chance | Fair chance |
| Buffalo | Likely | Likely |
| Wild dog | Fair chance | Rare |
| Cheetah | Rare | Rare |
| Hippo | Rare | Likely |
| Giraffe | Likely | Not published |
3400 speciesAbout 400 bird species listed on the wildlife page. | 3400 speciesAbout 400 bird species listed on the wildlife page. | |
| 5Self-drive | 5Self-drive | |
3bestCamps with licensed guides run walks of about three hours from 07:00 for two to six people, minimum age twelve to sixteen, but they are arranged on the day and cannot always be guaranteed. | 2Guided walking runs only through registered third-party operators, with ages, rules and rates unpublished; the one short option is a 3 km trail to Chivilila Falls from Chilo Gorge on the boundary. | |
2bestDriving after dark is prohibited inside the park and everyone must be in camp by 18:00; advertised night drives run only on the private concessions and forestry land bordering it. | 1Night-driving policy is not published and the guide says to assume the conservative answer; the camp curfew keeps you in camp from 18:00 or 18:30. | |
1The park has no rivers: surface water comes from pumped pans, hippo occur only at the dams, and the activity list has no boat or canoe trips. | 2bestCatch-and-release tigerfishing on the Runde for overnight visitors with a permit is the only water activity; no operator could be confirmed for canoeing. | |
5Self-driving is normal and allowed: tar to Main Camp, 195 km and 3 to 4 h from Victoria Falls in 2026, ZimParks pitches at $23, and a high-clearance 4x4 for the internal roads. | 5The Trust calls self-drive the park's primary offering: wild campsites, river drives on the Runde and Mwenezi, and Chipinda Pools gate 55 km and 1 to 1.5 h from Chiredzi, with a true 4x4 needed for most of the park. | |
| $10cheapest bed | $50cheapest bed | |
$24 / $12bestInternational adult per day, the lower figure if you sleep inside the park ({'name': 'Official ZimParks tariff, published February 2026', 'url': 'https://www.zimparks.org.zw/media/2026/02/De-Gazetted-Tariff-2026.pdf'}, 2026-07-26). | $25 / $15International adult per day, the lower figure if you sleep inside the park ({'name': 'Official ZimParks Gonarezhou tariff 2026 and the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust rate card', 'url': 'https://www.zimparks.org.zw/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Gonarezhou-Fees.pdf'}, 2026-07-27). | |
$10bestLowest listed rate per person per night across 33 places; 7 are budget tier. | $50Lowest listed rate per person per night across 14 places; 8 are budget tier. | |
$490Median of 30 priced places; top end $803. | $130bestMedian of 13 priced places; top end $600. | |
4Cheapest listed bed $10, 7 of 33 places in the budget tier, park fee $12 a day. | 4Cheapest listed bed $50, 8 of 14 places in the budget tier, park fee $15 a day. | |
| $2,420mid-range | $2,170mid-range | |
$350bestBudget one: self-drive camping at Main Camp | $875Budget one: self-drive camping, the trip most people take | |
$2,420Budget two: Robins Camp, the mid-range that includes your park fees | $2,170bestBudget two: a mid-range lodge stay at Bosman's | |
$10,602Budget three: fly-in to Wilderness Linkwasha | $3,630bestBudget three: fly-in and top-end | |
| Victoria Falls (VFA)nearest airport | Buffalo Range (BFO)nearest airport | |
Victoria Falls (VFA), 3 to 4 h by road in 2026From the getting-there and flights pages. | Buffalo Range (BFO), about 1 h to Chipinda PoolsFrom the getting-there and flights pages. | |
Needed inside the park; essential Dec to MarFrom the getting-there page. | Required for most of the parkFrom the getting-there page. | |
| Aug to early Novpeak game viewing | Sep to Novpeak game viewing | |
Aug to early NovFrom the best-time page. | Sep to NovFrom the best-time page. | |
Open all yearFrom the best-time page. | Closed 10 Jan to 1 Mar; remote camps late Nov to Mar or AprFrom the best-time page. | |
| High Nov to Jun, lower Jul to Octmalaria | High Nov to Jun, lower Jul to Octmalaria | |
High Nov to Jun, lower Jul to OctFrom the health page. | High Nov to Jun, lower Jul to OctFrom the health page. | |
Not publishedThe health and best-time pages do not mention tsetse; only the history page records the fly across much of the park in the 1920s. | Not publishedBiting flies are common and overlander guides give tsetse advice, but the guide could not verify an official confirmation of tsetse in the park. | |
October, 34.7°C mean daily maxMean daily maximum of the hottest month, from the health page. | October, 32.5°C mean daily maxMean daily maximum of the hottest month, from the health page. | |
Bulawayo, 4 h plus by roadAir evacuation: MARS and ACE, both based in Victoria Falls. | Chiredzi, 1 to 1.5 h from the north gateAir evacuation: Chipinda Pools, Mabalauta, Mahenye. | |
| 5First safari | 5Wilderness | |
4bestMalaria risk is lower in the Jul to Oct peak months, Ivory Lodge takes children from two inside a fence and Somalisa Acacia runs a children's club; the park's camps are unfenced and full hospital care means Bulawayo, 4 h plus. | 2Malaria risk is high Nov to Jun, camps are mostly unfenced, the nearest hospitals are in Chiredzi 1 to 1.5 h from the gate and the park closes 10 Jan to 1 Mar; lion and leopard are only a chance and no camp publishes a minimum age. | |
5bestElephant is guaranteed and lion likely, Victoria Falls airport has around eleven airlines, and beds run from $10 camping to concession camps on a tar approach. | 2Elephant is guaranteed but lion and leopard are a chance and wild dog takes luck, the game is thinly spread, and the camps assume your own 4x4, water, food and recovery gear. | |
3Main Camp and the southern pans take 80 per cent of visitors, while the private concessions and the south-west at Jozibanini see almost no vehicles in a 14,650 km² park. | 5bestHours without seeing another vehicle in the remote interior, 19 camping areas where solitude is the default, and no shop or fuel anywhere inside. |
Compare all of Zimbabwe's parks on the comparison page. Gonarezhou has its own guide at visitgonarezhou.com.
How the ratings work
- Big game is calculated from each park's sightings table on its wildlife page: guaranteed counts 3, likely 2, a fair chance 1, rare 0.5 and absent 0, across elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, wild dog, cheetah, hippo and giraffe, scaled so that 16 points is 5 out of 5.
- Birding follows the species count on the wildlife page. Low-budget safari follows the cheapest listed bed, the share of budget places and the daily park fee.
- Walking, night drives, water, self-drive, families, first safari and wilderness are our ratings, whole numbers from 1 to 5. Press "Why?" on any row to read the facts each one rests on, with the page they come from. Where a rule is not published we say so rather than guess.
- Prices are per person per night in US dollars as listed on the lodges pages, before park fees; the three-night totals come from each park's costs page and use the dated rates there. Fees are the international adult rate per day.