Vic Falls - Stone Town: Intrepid review 2.
*This review is my personal thoughts, feelings and recap. I booked 2 seperate trips throughout africa. Cape town to Vic Falls, and then Vic Falls to gorillas, however there are 4 smaller trips that make up these 2, and I have reviewed them separately as they were vastly different. :)
Tour Name: Vic Falls to Stone Town
Countries visited: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania.
Duration: 17 days
Cost: from $2665
Rating/5 : 2
Overall thoughts:
Although i’m still glad I did it, this is the portion of the trip I would not recommend. Whilst the highlights were memorable, the less-highlighted parts definitely outweighed them. I feel as though if I flew from Vic falls to Stone town and visited Malawi and Zambia seperately at a different time I would have had a better experience. You spend most of your trip in Zimbabwe, which unfortunately isn’t a country I wish to visit again. Through no fault of Intrepids, Zimbabwe is dirty and due to its political status amongst other things, it’s just unenjoyable. Zambia and Malawi are incredible countries however our fly in visits weren’t enough, i’d love to go back one day.
I’m not going to list these days separately, as the highlights were few and far between.
Safe travels and happy reading!
Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is unfortunately a country I didn’t enjoy and wouldn’t vist again. Other than the infamous vic falls, which I could die without seeing, Zimbabwe , or at least the parts we saw were dirty, busy and white-man celebratory.
We went rhino trekking in Bulawayo, and whilst he encounter was a once in a lifetime experience, the whole-day expedition was mostly spent at the grave of Cicil Robert Jones. I would have loved additional time with the rhinos, and less time celebrating a white man on top of a rock (although the sun set from here was insane).
Next was the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, again an interesting historical site but one that didn’t excite me or interest me really.
The accomodation throughout zimbabwe was abismal, particularly in comparison to the Cape town to vic falls trip. There were no pools (at least no pools that weren’t filthy green) and at times we stayed in what felt like someones abandonned backyard with no running water. Again, I don’t believe this is intrepids fault, I just don’t think Zimbabwe is built for tourists. I suspect any other tours would bypass zim and head straight into Zambia from vic falls. It felt as though we drove many long drive days just to reach a dirty campsite or overpopulated city like Harare, where we were then supposed to find ourselves lunch.
Mutirikwi lake was a highlight. If you’re in Zimbabwe, this is worth a visit and proper explore if given the chance.
Zambia
Zambia is extremely scenic and the people here are beautiful, a highlight of this route of course had to be the south luanguwa national park. We were extremely lucky with lions in this park, the mountainous views as a backdrop as the sun set over the plains whilst we sat in our safari trucks was stunning. I would have loved to have seen more of Zambia, as south Luangwa was about all we got. The accomodation improved here and there was even some pools available.
Malawi
Once again, I loved Malawi but we didn’t ge tot see enough of it. Lake Malawi is surreal (even though I got parasites- don’t recommend). The kids here were beautiful but be careful of the scams when intrepid take you on the village walk. The locals will pry money out of you to buy their board games and paintings, we definitely had a few unhappy customers on our trip this day.
Tanzania
Once again Tanzania is extremely beautiful, entering here was exhillerating,our few days here a good end to the trip with our safari through mikumi national park, although the accommodation here was dissapointing again.
Dar es salaam is a welcomed change from inland, and everyone by this point is eager for a relax on Zanzibar the following day, although. Be prepared for a rather hectic crossing across from the mainland into Zanzibar…it’s full on!
Zanzibar
In Zanzibar itself, you are. left to your own devices. Lauren and I decided not to stay the included night in stone town, as the town although cute, once you’ve walked around you really just want to get to the beach. You’ve got free days in Zanzibar to do as you wish, and this was definitely a highlight, however again, you could do it yourself and it is also included as part of the other trips as well.
Overall , I wouldn’t recommend this section, but I do recommend exploring other tour options in Malawi and Zambia, as these are stunning countries I’m only sorry I didn’t see more of. (and skip Zimbabwe!)