In planning a trip to Zim this summer we are starting our holiday with a few days in Vic Falls. We are then to meet our outfitter in Harare. For those experienced Zim travellers, would you suggest renting a car and driving or flying? If flying which airline? If driving which car rental and how long of a drive is it? Thanks.

Bill

Fly, period.

Personally, I'd find a charter from Vic Falls to the hunting area or close to the hunting area.

By car, it is quite a long way (maybe 8 to ten hours?). Rest assured that there is no reliable airline service internally in Zimbabwe so you're limited to a air charter of P.O.V.

I have a friend that would drive you for his expenses and a few hundred bucks, but a charter is the way to go. Fast, you don't loose a day traveling and it's not nearly as expensive as some of the other African countries.

quote:

Originally posted by BillsBillsBills:
In planning a trip to Zim this summer we are starting our holiday with a few days in Vic Falls. We are then to meet our outfitter in Harare. For those experienced Zim travellers, would you suggest renting a car and driving or flying? If flying which airline? If driving which car rental and how long of a drive is it? Thanks.

Bill

To me driving is the only option. It is nice to see the land and the people, kids going to or from school, the railroads, etc., to get a feel of what Zim is that one can's see in the air.
Cal

quote:

ould drive you for his expenses and a few hundred bucks, but a charter is the way to go. Fast, you don't loose a day traveling and it's not nearly as expensive as

I made the drive to from Vic Falls to Harare once. It was nice. Long but nice.

Watch out for the wart hogs outside of Gweru around dusk. They can make a mess out of a quarter panel.

I and Bwanna drove from the Bubye to Vic Falls last Sept. The cost for the two of us was $1,000-one way. The guy's name was Frank and he lives in Bulawayo. It was about a 5-6 hour drive if I recall. Not sure about the drive from Harare to Vic Falls, or if they do that one. Speed traps all along the way and Frank's wife received one ticket-the cost was $5 I believe. We stopped in Hwange so they could arrange their overnight lodging on the drive back. We didn't really know of any other way to make the trip. We tried to see if there were other options or a if we could discount the price of the drive, but they were very firm in the cost.

Thanks all. I should have mentioned that there are 6 of us on this trip. We are touring Zim for 16 days then I'm hunting in the Save (hopefully) for 8 days. We will be seeing a lot of Zim roads during that time.
Air Zim has just started VF to Harare again, for how long is my concern.
The other option is a charter which is a little more that twice the cost. That may be worth it. We're still in the debate/ponder stage.

Bill

Here is how i got to Harare. Not a bad flight at all.

BBB,

Sounds like a nice trip. Can't you get the folks doing your tour to drop you in Harare? I work with Forever African Safaris for photo tours as well as hunting and they dropped my clients on the SAVE after touring Vic Falls, Hwange etc in the west of the country. They just rolled the drop off into the total tour price.

Mark

I have driven all over Zimbabwe, WITH my PH and crew.

They offered to Charter me from place to place, but I much prefered to drive, so as to really see the country.
I had a great time and I really like the country, all the people I have come in contact with were very nice.

Still, I would not recommend you do it on your own.

Thanks for your input/ideas. Mark, our outfitter did offer to start their portion of the tour in VF but advised us that it would be much cheaper for us to do the VF part by ourselves. They have an overnight house in Harare that they normally start from. We decided to do the 2 or 3 days there by ourselves and then proceed on to Harare. We still are debating if we should trust Zim Air or not. As of the other day our travel agent was still having trouble booking flights. I've been away for a week or so and will be looking into this further soon.

Bill

Driving has been covered to a point.

Road stops, where your questioned and vehicle is inspected.

You will see that many locals are just waved through these stops, where a foreigner will be stopped and given a fine for any reason and you will have to pay before proceeding.

Most of these check point stops have a set amount that they need to make daily. Read money generated.

I have read about individuals receiving fines for no radio license, license not current, too many passengers in a vehicle, you get the idea anything to make you pay a fine.

Now how many of these road stops will you have to go through driving, Last year we went through 6 in 120 miles or one about every 20 miles. It is suggested that you keep a small amount of money in the pocket that you pull your money from as large amounts of money will get you a bigger fine or more tickets.

So i would think twice before driving myself on any road in Zimbabwe. If you do drive make sure you lock the vehicle when you exit and keep the keys with your self and try to keep and eye on the vehicle when you stop for lunch so it will be there when you return.

Flying, check on an air charter to make the trip, if you have 3 persons it could be close to a wash cost wise.