The Victoria Falls Hotel

The Victoria Falls Hotel stands inside Victoria Falls National Park, ten minutes on foot from the falls themselves. You can hear the Zambezi from the verandas. Built in 1904 to house workers on the Cape-to-Cairo railway, the Edwardian building has lily ponds, arched loggias, and broad terraces that look across the gorges toward the Victoria Falls Bridge — the steel arch connecting Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The hotel holds one hundred and forty-nine rooms and suites across several wings. The forty-four rooms of the stand-alone Stables Signature Wing have a private lounge, a dedicated check-in area, their own courtyard, and direct access to the front lawns. Premium Rooms and suites in the main building look out over the gardens or down into the Batoka Gorge. The Presidential Suite — three bedrooms, panelled walls — is also called the Livingstone Suite.

There are five places to eat and drink. The Livingstone Room seats one hundred guests for Edwardian-style formal dinners. Stanley's Terrace faces the Victoria Falls Bridge directly and is the place for afternoon tea and cocktails — adventurers have been meeting there for over a century. Jungle Junction handles breakfast and dinner buffets under a thatched roof. Stanley's Bar holds thirty guests. The pool area seats seventy, with a la carte lunch served in gazebos beside the water.

A gallery on the ground floor shows original works by Larry Norton, a Zimbabwean wildlife artist who has exhibited in London and New York. Hwange National Park is one hundred and eighty kilometres away on a tar road.