33 places to stay
Every lodge, camp and campsite in and around the park, from simple campsites to exclusive-use camps on the game circuits. Independently listed.
Six tents on the Makalolo private concession, the smaller and more classic sister camp to Linkwasha. The log-pile hide here has produced more published Hwange elephant photographs than anywhere else, sitting at eye level on the waterhole in front of camp. Rates are fully inclusive, from $774 per person a night, and unusually cover your park fees as well.
From $774 pppn
Nine tents on the same Linkwasha concession as Wilderness's flagship camp, and the value way into it: the same traversing rights, the same guides and the same game as Linkwasha for around half the high-season rate. There is no private hide here, but the pumped pan in front of camp does the work on its own. Self-drivers heading deeper into the concession leave their vehicle here under Wilderness's shelter.
From $586 pppn
A thatch-and-canvas camp on a private concession in the Sinamatella sector, three hours from Main Camp. It was founded by the guide Dave Carson and bought outright by Wild Expeditions in 2023, who run it the same way: every guest gets a fully qualified walking guide rather than an apprentice, so you walk or sit in the log-pile hide whenever the moment is right, not when a guide becomes free. It overlooks two natural waterholes rather than pumped ones. No credit card facility, and signal is limited.
Dates and availability on Booking.com ↗
From $550 pppn
Seven stone and thatch chalets in the far north-west of Hwange, on an 80,000-hectare concession between Robins and Sinamatella, about a kilometre from the Bumbusi ruins and their rock engravings. Five chalets have twin beds and two have queen beds with bathtubs. Getting there takes a while: about four hours by road from Victoria Falls International, or a short flight to Robins and a two-hour game drive in. Run by Hideaways Africa, who also run Nantwich Lodge.
From $463 pppn
A chalet-and-campsite camp in Hwange's far north-west, two hours from Victoria Falls, no longer run by ZimParks despite what many guides still say. Under private management it has become the best-value serviced option in the park, with the biggest buffalo herds and the most consistent lion sightings. The campsite is genuinely good, with power at most pitches, though the black-cotton roads turn difficult from late November.
From $40 camping
Ten tents on a private in-park concession in Hwange's southern half, an hour from Main Camp, closed to every operator but Machaba Safaris. Verney's Pan sits directly in front of camp and works all day, visible from every tent deck, and the concession allows night drives with no other vehicles around. Rates are fully inclusive with airstrip transfers; a conservation levy applies on top.
From $718 pppn
An eco-luxury tented camp above permanent springs in Hwange's remote north-west, between Sinamatella and Robins, in a corner of the park that sees very few visitors. Walking safaris are the camp's strength, with game drawn daily to water that never dries up. One correction worth knowing: there are no night drives here, because the camp sits on park land rather than a private concession.
From $604 pppn
A ten-tent camp on a private concession on Hwange's eastern boundary, just over an hour's drive from Main Camp. Founded in 1992 and still run by the same family, it revolves around one feature: a tunnel from the deck to an underground photographic hide at water level, open unaccompanied at any hour. Rates are fully inclusive with up to four activities a day, and nothing else in Hwange matches that hide.
From $445 pppn
Nine canvas-and-thatch chalets on stilts on an old riverbed in the Sikumi Forest concession near Dete. The property is run by a Zimbabwean family whose trust funds clinics and schools in Dete, and elephants have a habit of emptying the swimming pool. Being on a private concession allows night drives, which the park itself does not.
From $650 pppn
Eleven thatched rondavels on seven private kilometres of the Dete Vlei, rebuilt and reopened in late 2022 under the new name Sable Valley; ignore older listings that still call it Sable Sands. The underground hide is the best-equipped in the area, with wifi, charging points, a fireplace and a mini bar, so you can sit there all afternoon. Sable antelope on the vlei gave the lodge its name.
From $550 pppn
Nine air-conditioned tented suites on the Linkwasha concession at the edge of the Ngamo Plains, closed to ordinary park visitors. It is the most polished camp in Hwange: a sunken hide fitted out for photographers, a star bed under the Ngamo sky, and night drives and walking as concession privileges. Priced accordingly, from $803 per person a night, 2026 rates.
From $803 pppn
Seven luxury tented suites on a private concession along the Kennedy Vlei line, founded by the Zimbabwean guide Beks Ndlovu. The plunge pool on the main deck is the camp's signature: elephants drink from it at arm's length while you sit beside them. It holds Zimbabwe's first Gold Green Tourism certification, and a conservation and community levy applies on top of the room rate.
From $630 pppn
Six simpler Meru tents on the same private concession as its sister camp, Somalisa Camp, with identical traversing rights and the same elephant pool for around a third less. It is the sharpest booking in this part of the park if you care more about what you see than what you sleep in. The lighter footprint means fewer frills, not fewer game drives.
From $490 pppn
Nine suites on a 43,500-acre private concession in northern Hwange, fifteen kilometres from Sinamatella, built around ancient seeps where elephants have dug for water for generations. Hundreds gather here in the dry season. The lodge is owned by Imvelo, a Zimbabwean company that maintains roughly a fifth of the waterholes keeping this park alive, so a stay here funds that work directly.
From $495 pppn
Eight forest villas on community land in the Tsholotsho district, on Hwange's south-eastern edge. The camp was built by the community under Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE programme, so the village shares directly in what guests pay. The hide is buried under a 200-year-old tree and disguised as a termite mound, putting you at elephant eye level. Villas have fireplaces and soaking tubs; reach camp by air to Bomani or by Imvelo's own Elephant Express railcar.
From $500 pppn
Eleven units in the Ngamo Forest on Hwange's south-eastern edge, the most accessible of Imvelo's three camps and the clearest example of its model. A private gate leads into the park fifteen minutes from camp, the sunken hide sits at eye level with drinking elephants, and community and school visits are built into the rate rather than sold as an extra. You can even arrive by Imvelo's own railcar from Dete.
From $445 pppn
Five tents in remote Kalahari sand country in Hwange's south-west, the cheapest of Imvelo's camps. The land went unused for nearly twenty years before the camp opened, and it is the only place in Hwange where you explore by mountain bike, on tracks the elephants themselves have compacted through the sand. Expect bucket showers, cooking over flames, no electricity, no wifi and no signal; a minimum two-night stay applies.
From $355 pppn
Six Meru tents at Dolilo Pan in Hwange's remote north-west near Robins, a genuine seasonal bush camp dismantled every November and rebuilt each April. Walking with a full professional guide is the point of the place, in a sector with high lion density and almost no other vehicles. There is no wifi, no pool and only wood-fired cooking; it is owned by Dave Carson, who founded Camp Hwange and sold it in 2023.
From $566 pppn
Chalets, bungalows and camping on a private teak-forest estate on Hwange's boundary, run by a Zimbabwean owner who founded the local tourism association. An active elephant waterhole sits below both the restaurant and the splash pool, camping costs ten dollars a night, and no 4x4 is needed to reach it. It is the best-value real bed in the Hwange area.
Dates and availability on Booking.com ↗
From $10 camping
Raised treehouse chalets on a private fenced conservancy in Sikumi Forest, fifteen minutes from the Main Camp gate. It is the most practical family base in Hwange: the floodlit waterhole out front draws the Presidential Elephant herd, there is a ground-level hide with waiter service, and children from age two are welcome inside the fence. You can drive here yourself on tar from Victoria Falls in about two and a half hours.
From $494 pppn
Nine suites on a bluff above a permanent dam in the Robins sector, rebuilt from a derelict ZimParks outpost with reclaimed materials and reopened in 2019. The dam holds water year-round in a park with no rivers, so game, hippo and crocodile are visible from the infinity pool most of the year, and the operator reports regular, individually known lion prides. We asked Hideaways Africa for a source behind the claim that Robins holds Hwange's highest lion density; they could not provide one, so we no longer repeat it.
Dates and availability on Booking.com ↗
From $463 pppn
A 99-room safari hotel on the boundary, twelve kilometres from the Main Camp gate beside the airport. It was fully refurbished in 2024 for its fiftieth year, and the floodlit waterhole out front has its own long-running webcam. It works well if you have no car of your own, since it serves as the transfer hub for several other lodges. Room-only rates booked through third-party sites run far lower than the lodge's own full-board price, around $128 per person.
Dates and availability on Booking.com ↗
From $318 pppn full board
Four family suites on the same Kennedy Vlei concession as Somalisa Camp. It was repositioned as the family option when its sister camp went adults-only, and reports that it closed or merged are wrong. Two interconnecting suites, cots and a children's programme with junior guide certificates make it Hwange's clearest family pick among the top-end camps. About 80 per cent of its water is recycled.
From $630 pppn
Elevated tents, treehouses and rondavels in the Dete Annex, on the tar road about twenty kilometres from the gate. The camp is Zimbabwean-owned and unfenced, with two waterholes and a resident lion pride in front of it. Half-board rates from $100 make it one of the few places to stay somewhere genuinely good without paying inclusive-lodge prices. The trade-off is that you still have to drive yourself into the park for game drives.
From $100 half board
Four exclusive-use tents opened in 2025 on the same Sinamatella concession as Camp Hwange next door, three hours from Main Camp. It is built for privately guided groups who want to set their own schedule and mealtimes rather than share a dining table, and it shares the neighbouring camp's guiding culture, where every guest walks with a fully qualified guide. Wild Expeditions has not yet published a rate for it; ask them directly.
Rate not published
A self-catering tented camp and campsite at Impofu Siding in Dete, six kilometres from the Main Camp office and owner-run. Trains still pass the old railway line beside camp, elephants wander through, and the owners are hands-on; sable and painted dog have been recorded on site. Bring your own food or arrange a cook, since there is no restaurant.
Enquire
A campsite beside the old railway near the park entrance, the newest and cheapest option at the gate. Private sites come with their own en-suite ablution, which almost no campsite in the region offers, plus a braai, fire pit and water tap each; cheaper shared sites are also available. Bring your own tent, and book at least two nights.
Enquire
Self-catering lodges, cottages and chalets at the Main Camp gate near Dete, the cheapest base inside the park. Lodges have full kitchens, cottages share hotplates, and chalets cook on a braai with shared ablutions, so check which unit type you are booking before you arrive. About eight in ten Hwange visitors stay here. Bring your own cookware and towels.
From $23 per camping site
An open sleeping platform above a pumped waterhole in the Main Camp sector, from sixty dollars a person. No staff, no fence and no facilities beyond the platform itself, just you and elephants drinking below through the night. Maximum six people, and you bring everything, including drinking water. If you do one thing in Hwange you will still talk about in ten years, make it this.
$60 per person
Six exclusive-use campsites scattered through the park, from Masuma and Mandavu beside two of Hwange's best hides to the quieter Shumba, Deteema, Ngweshla and Kennedy 1. Book one and it is yours alone for the night, for up to six people at about $39 each. Masuma's hide over the dam is the standout. Bring everything, including water you trust.
$235 per site
A self-catering camp on a 55-metre outcrop above the Deka valley, in Hwange's northern sector. The clifftop view is unmatched, with elephants often visible on the riverbed below, but be realistic about the rest: recent visitors describe it as clean yet tired, and the restaurant, shop and fuel pump should be assumed closed. Only two of the lodge types are currently bookable; Mandavu and Masuma hides are within reach.
From $23 per camping site
A serviced self-catering tented camp beside Masuma Dam, twenty kilometres south of Sinamatella, with the dam's excellent hide next door. You cook, the camp looks after the rest, at a fraction of what any lodge inside the park charges. Road access only, so bring a capable high-clearance vehicle and all your own supplies; park fees are not included in the rate.
From about $73 pppn
Stone and thatch chalets in the Sikumi teak forest, four kilometres from the Main Camp gate, the closest lodge to it. The property is run by the state forestry commission's commercial arm, and the proceeds are mandated to fund forest conservation. Ganda Pan sits directly in front of the chalets. Expect basic state-run standards, and verify by phone since management may be changing.
From about $120 pppn
Nothing matches all of those at once. Take one filter off and try again.
Hwange has an unusually strong local story, and it is worth factoring into where you choose to stay. Imvelo Safari Lodges (Nehimba, Camelthorn, Bomani, Jozibanini) is Zimbabwean-owned, built on communal land through the CAMPFIRE programme, and pumps around a fifth of the waterholes that keep this park alive. Amalinda, The Hide and Camp Hwange are long-established Zimbabwean family businesses. Look for Locally owned or Owner-run in the line under each name if you want your money to stay in the country, or use the Who owns it filter.
Every price on this page is in US dollars.
Indicative 2026 rates from operators' own rate cards, gathered July 2026. Always confirm with the lodge. One thing to watch when comparing: some camps include ZimParks fees in their rate and some do not, which shifts the real gap by $12 to $36 per person per night.
Facilities and activities come from each property's own website, read in July 2026. We only record what that property's own page states. A blank means we could not check it, not that it is missing. Filtering on a facility shows only what we confirmed, and tells you how many places we could not check.
