Ilala Lodge Hotel

Ilala Lodge Hotel stands on Mosi-Oa-Tunya Road in Victoria Falls town, on the Zimbabwean side of the Zambezi — eight minutes' walk, or nine hundred and thirty-six steps, from the main entrance to the Falls. On a still evening you can hear the rumble from the Cassia Restaurant terrace, where dinner is served al fresco under two large Cassia Fistula trees whose golden flower clusters shade the tables in season.

The hotel opened in 1991, built by the Brown family on the site of an earlier restaurant. The original roof was thatched by hand using gum poles and grass from the family farm. It now holds seventy-three rooms and suites across several categories: Classic Rooms with railway teak furnishings, Deluxe Doubles and Twins with private patios and walk-in showers, and the Strathearn Suite, which has a private balcony with a spa bath positioned to overlook the spray rising above the Falls. All rooms face toward the Falls and the adjacent national park.

The Cassia Restaurant serves à la carte breakfast, lunch, and dinner; the wine list draws from South African vineyards. Warthog and impala sometimes graze on the hotel lawns during meals. Two pools sit on the grounds, served by a poolside bar.

The activities desk arranges day trips to Hwange National Park, one hundred kilometres away, and to Chobe National Park in Botswana, eighty kilometres away, as well as game drives in the Zambezi National Park, helicopter flights over the Falls, white-water rafting, and sunset cruises on the Ra-Ikane river boats. Victoria Falls Airport is twenty-five kilometres from the hotel, roughly a twenty-five-minute transfer.