The Victoria Falls Hotel

The room was shabby and dark with dirty threadbare carpet. The fridge was not cold and we struggled to fit the large bottle of water into it. After flushing the toilet it made terrible groaning sounds which we reported 3 times. We just agreed not to flush overnight. Every bottle of water and wine that we purchased was of unacceptable temperature and the ice is too thin and watery to be effective. Whilst the buffets were good, the set menu was very disappointing, overcooked, tough fillet steak, Read less

An advice: NEVER pay the balance of your accommodations at the check-in. Rather pay it in advance through the link provided by the hotel. If not you’ll go through the unacceptable experience we’ve been in. Indeed at the check-in we could not pay the balance by card after several attempts with multiple cards as the hotel system was simply NOT working. Instead of offering us to try the day after, we’ve been asked to seek for cash at the ATM. Which was not working neither. They finally provided us with their bank details for us to make an international transfer. Which we successfully did. During that painful experience the family of which our mother who is 86 had to stay at the reception for 2 hours! The story is not over… At the check-out 3 days later, the bill was adding up our 3-days expenses and … the balance! Despite the fact that we provided the proof of payment processing and acknowledged that the transfer could take more than 3 days. Again 1 hour of discussion and negotiation. To finally compromise by paying the expenses and giving a card details as warrant for the balance. Surrealistic! The hotel is exceptional , out of the reception, the staff is adorable and services of good quality. This was spoiled by this experience inacceptable for this class of hotel. Read less

Wow!! What a stunning and magical place My husband and I stayed 4 nights and wish it had been more We stayed in the old stables wing which oozes charm and character Just beautiful We had a stunning room overlooking the grounds and felt like royalty All the staff were friendly and looked after us incredibly well but Wisdom made our stay very special He went over and above to sort our accommodation after we had issues with our booking through an agent Thank you so much Wisdom You are wonderful The food was lovely Enjoyed the monkeys at breakfast! Naughty The warthogs were entertaining on the front lawn while sipping a cocktail on the terrace with lunch We loved our stay so much we are saving to go back in a few years AMAZING ❤️💕 Read less

This hotel is very good indeed. We stayed for three nights and then a single night at the end of our safari. There is so much to commend it. The reception staff are very nice, in particular Edith, and the reception staff answered a couple of emails I sent prior to our arrival in a timely manner. All the porters are great to chat to and very happy to assist in any way they can, especially Kingsley, Vusa and Samson. If you want to leave a bag with them while you visit other areas like we did, the porters have a secure luggage room to look after your bags prior to your return. We took advantage of this to minimise our bags while on safari. The grounds of the hotel are beautiful, you can see the spray from Victoria Falls from the bottom of the lawns near the flagpole, as well as the Victoria Falls bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia. There are animals that frequent the lawns like banded mongoose and warthogs. The hotel has three restaurants. There is the formal Livingstone Room, which has a dress code but has very good food in a set menu, where the only choice is the main course, but it’s very reasonably priced for fine dining and the room is a lovely heritage setting. Stephen and Sam looked after us well. Like the rest of the hotel the history of the place has been retained as much as possible and there are a lot of architectural and artistic period touches that we really liked. The Livingstone Room will not be for all, it is formal and traditional, but we thought it was a nice way to celebrate the last night of our holiday. Sadly, the restaurant was very quiet when we were there so there was a muted atmosphere, but it must be spectacular when it is full. There is also Jungle Junction where breakfast is served which has a cultural show, we didn’t eat there for dinner, and Stanley’s Terrace, which is very nice, overlooking the lawn and view, you hear the rumble of the falls and there is a wide range of dishes to suit all palates. It is informal dining, and they serve afternoon tea there too. Millicent and Chalton were very good at waiting on us, and we appreciate their service. Breakfast at the Jungle Junction is very good. There is a huge range of choice from cold cheese and meats, bread, pastries, waffles and pancakes made to order, eggs made to order by the wonderful Elizabeth, fish, hot dishes, fruit, juice and yoghurt. Fadzai served is very well and gave us continual coffee and tea made freshly. The hotel location is excellent, a five-minute walk to the main town, with its shops and restaurants, next door to the train station (No passenger services since 2019), and a 20 minute walk to the Victoria Falls Park entrance, the bridge and the café with a view over the bridge. We stayed in two separate room types for our two stays. The first was the classic room, which was very comfortable, felt contemporary, and was very comfortable but smaller and only had a shower than the Stables Wing room we were upgraded to on our second stay. We preferred the latter not due to its size but because it had a lot of charm and period pieces in the room such as the architecture. The only thing that I found a tiny bit irritating about our stay was this change of room type. We were on a tour but booked an extra night at The Victoria Falls Hotel as we had heard so many good things about it but were not upgraded. Our fellow tourers, who booked a night less, were upgraded for both parts of the stay, which somehow felt unfair. Of course, if they had a classic room the first time, or we hadn’t been upgraded it would not have mattered to us. Both rooms had the same amenities in terms of drinking water, tea/coffee facilities, fridge, hairdryer, mosquito net, safe, large wardrobe, lots of lights and international sockets and USB ports, tv with international channels, very good Wi-Fi, and sensationally comfortable beds. Housekeeping was superb, the place was spotless and the housekeepers are happy to work around you so they minimise disruption and don’t hassle you, unlike many other places I have stayed. That included daytime cleaning and the turndown service. I am very grateful for housekeeping statf finding a lost phone charging lead while I was away and returning it to me, and to Khanyisani at Reception for organising it’s safe keeping until I returned. It was greatly appreciated. The Stables Wing room had a bath and more drawers, the classic room didn’t. Apart from our churlishness over the room types, there was very little to fault The Victoria Falls Hotel for. The pool is currently being renovated and we were only warned about this a week before we departed. If you do want a dip, they are providing a shuttle service to another hotel about 10 minutes away by vehicle. The sink in the classic room was very small, and both rooms had very slippy bathroom floors and showers so I would recommend using the mats provided. In the Stables Wing stay the bath plug did not work and the double wall socket was coming loose, but the hotel has a good system where you can fill out a small form to report these things so they can be fixed. These will all small points that in no way affected the wonderful stay we had in Victoria Falls. I would return very happily. Read less