This page will be con­tin­u­ally updated to archive a list of the lux­ury accom­mo­da­tions on the Zam­bia side of Vic­to­ria Falls. If you know of an option that’s not listed, please let us know!

Islands of Siank­aba
Post­net 621, Pri­vate Bag E891, Lusaka
Tel: 260 211 260 279

The Royal Liv­ing­stone
Mosi-oa-Tunya Road, Liv­ing­stone
Tel: 260 213 321 122

Tongabezi Lodge & Sind­abezi Island
Pri­vate Bag 31, Liv­ing­stone
Tel: 260 213 327 450
Rates: from $450 per per­son per night

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo of Sind­abezi cour­tesy of Tongabezi Lodge

This page will be con­tin­u­ally updated to archive a list of the game lodges in Zambia’s Lower Zam­bezi National Park. If you know of a lux­ury lodge that’s not listed, please let us know!

Ana Tree Lodge
P.O. Box 32661, Lusaka
Tel: 260 211 250 730
Rates: $575 per per­son per night (doesn’t include the bar)

Chi­awa Camp
P.O. Box 30972, Lusaka
Tel: 260 211 261 588

Chongwe River Camp
P.O. Box CA 102, Lusaka
Tel: 260 211 278 248

Kasaka River Lodge
Tel: 260 211 256 201
Rates: from $395 per per­son per night

Royal Zam­bezi Lodge
P/Bag CH42, Lusaka
Tel: 260 211 840 682
Rates: from $380 per per­son per night

Sanc­tu­ary Zam­bezi Kulefu Camp
Rates: from $400 per per­son per night

Sausage Tree Camp
P.O. Box 35139, Lusaka 10101
Tel: 260 211 845 204

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of Sausage Tree Camp

Project in Zam­bia with Plan Australia

Do you remem­ber the 1999 movie Office Space with Jen­nifer Anis­ton and Ron Liv­ingston? It’s a favorite of mine and if you haven’t seen it, I’ll need to explain one of the plot lines in order to set up this blog post.

Do you remem­ber the 1999 movie Office Space with Jen­nifer Anis­ton and Ron Liv­ingston? It’s a favorite of mine and if you haven’t seen it, I’ll need to explain one of the plot lines in order to set up this blog post.

Liv­ingston plays Peter Gib­bons, who works in an admin­is­tra­tive role at a com­puter com­pany called Initech. When his friends are laid off, they con­spire to devise a way to skim frac­tions of pen­nies off all finan­cial trans­ac­tions being han­dled by Initech. Con­sider it micro-embezzling.

Think about it… frac­tions of a dol­lar seem like chump change on its own, but com­bine all those frac­tions together and we’re talk­ing big money.

That’s sort of the con­cept that The Foot­prints Net­work, based in Aus­tralia, has embraced to fight poverty across the globe. They believe that micro donations—between $1 and $5—made by con­sumers dur­ing online trans­ac­tions can help fund com­mu­nity devel­op­ment projects.

The net­work funds pro­grams that upgrade farm­ing, edu­ca­tion, access to clean water, and sight restoration—all in an effort to elim­i­nate poverty. One of the cur­rent projects on the docket focuses on improv­ing farm­ing in Zam­bia. This will, in turn, increase access to food for the poor­est fam­i­lies in the region. Plan Aus­tralia is over­see­ing the train­ing program.

Founded in 2004 by WorldNomads.com after the Asian tsunami, 302,278 indi­vid­u­als have raised more than $785,383 for 53 projects around the world.

“Alle­vi­at­ing the extreme cycle of poverty and the ills that accom­pany it is everyone’s moral respon­si­bil­ity,” said Chris Novel, gen­eral man­ager of WorldNomads.com. “Yet the extent of world poverty can seem so over­whelm­ing that many of us are left feel­ing help­less and that the prob­lems are just too big for any one per­son to make a difference.”

In just five years, WorldNomads.com has devel­oped an inde­pen­dent net­work of e-commerce busi­nesses that share the same ethics and val­ues and, through tech­nol­ogy, seek to change the world by ask­ing cus­tomers spend­ing money online to make a small dona­tion to char­ity at the same time.

WorldNomads.com sup­ports all admin­is­tra­tive costs of the pro­gram so 100 per­cent of dona­tions go directly to the projects.

While the net­work is small, it is grow­ing. “We’re look­ing for more online e-commerce busi­ness part­ners to inte­grate the Foot­prints mech­a­nism into their shop­ping carts and, trans­ac­tion by trans­ac­tion, help make a dif­fer­ence,” said Noble.

This is def­i­nitely a pro­gram worth watch­ing. For more infor­ma­tion, visit The Foot­prints Network.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Sanc­tu­ary Lodges & Camps—founded by Aber­crom­bie & Kent as envi­ron­men­tally sus­tain­able lodgings—has expanded into Zam­bia with five new properties:

Sussi & Chuma is built among huge ebony trees, just upstream from Vic­to­ria Falls in the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park. The 10 lux­ury tree houses have pri­vate views of the Zam­bezi River. Chuma House is an exclu­sive two-bedroom villa located near the lodge.

Lechwe Plains Tented Camp in the Lochin­var National Park, north of Lusaka, is a photographer’s par­adise. Located on the Chunga Lagoon, this World Her­itage Wet­land offers incred­i­ble birdlife and tens of thou­sands of Kafue Lechwe (ante­lope), an aquatic ante­lope of excep­tional grace.

Kulefu Tented Camp in the Lower Zam­bezi National Park is on the wildest stretch of the Zam­bezi. Eight spa­cious tents are set on plat­forms at the river’s edge.

Puku Ridge Tented Camp in the South Luangwa National Park is a real wilder­ness expe­ri­ence under can­vas with excit­ing wildlife oppor­tu­ni­ties. This superb prop­erty is located on a ridge over­look­ing game rich floodplains.

Chichele Pres­i­den­tial Lodge was orig­i­nally built by Pres­i­dent Kaunda and refur­bished as an early colo­nial “Gentleman’s Lodge”. The hill­top set­ting in South Luangwa National Park over­looks plains teem­ing with wildlife.

“Though rel­a­tively unknown out­side Africa, Zam­bia offers a diverse range of envi­ron­ments with pro­lific wildlife,” said Aber­crom­bie & Kent Group Chair­man and CEO Geof­frey Kent. “Walk­ing safaris were pio­neered in Zambia’s Luangwa Val­ley; if you have only seen ani­mals from inside a vehi­cle, you will find walk­ing with big game a thrilling expe­ri­ence. Night dri­ves are also a spe­cialty and the best means of see­ing some of the more elu­sive noc­tur­nal species, includ­ing leopard.”

The com­pany also oper­ates Olo­nana in Kenya’s Masai Mara; Swala in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park and Kusini in the Serengeti; Gorilla For­est Camp in Uganda’s Bwindi Impen­e­tra­ble For­est; and four prop­er­ties in Botswana (Sanc­tu­ary Chief’s Camp, Sanc­tu­ary Chobe Chilwero, Sanc­tu­ary Stanley’s Camp, and Sanc­tu­ary Baines’ Camp).

For more infor­ma­tion, visit Aber­crom­bie & Kent or call 1-(800) 554‑7094.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo of Zam­bezi Kulefu Camp by Yolandi Scanes, cour­tesy of Aber­crom­bie & Kent

South­ern Africa is one of my favorite regions on Earth. The topog­ra­phy is diverse, ani­mal viewing—including the “Big Five” of African ele­phant, rhino, lion, leop­ard, and Cape Buffalo—is almost too easy, and the peo­ple are incred­i­bly engag­ing. That’s why I was very intrigued to learn about the new Zam­bezi Queen riverboat—built in 2009—that is now offer­ing safaris on the Chobe River in north­east Botswana.

The Zam­bezi Queen

If you’re addicted to HBO’s series No. 1 Ladies’ Detec­tive Agency that’s set in Botswana, you know the country’s south­ern bor­der is buf­feted by South Africa, to the west and north is Namibia, to the east is Zim­babwe. (A very small por­tion of the north­ern bor­der is also shared by Zambia.)

Vis­i­tors from all around the world are drawn to sev­eral regions of Botswana: the Kala­hari Desert at the cen­ter of the coun­try, the lush Oka­vango Delta in the cen­tral north, and Chobe National Park to the north­east. It’s at Chobe National Park that you’ll see the largest pop­u­la­tion of African ele­phants (num­ber­ing close to 120,000).

The steel hulled Zam­bezi Queen river­boat explores the Chobe between Namibia’s Caprivi Strip and Chobe National Park and ties up just miles from where four countries—Botswana, Namibia, Zam­bia, and Zimbabwe—meet. (It’s an easy trip to the dra­matic Vic­to­ria Falls from here.)

This brand new river­boat houses 14 cab­ins, all with pri­vate bal­conies. Four are mas­ter suites with air con­di­tion­ing while the remain­ing 10 state­rooms are cooled via ceil­ing fans.

You’ll enjoy the pool on the top deck (for­ward) as well as the din­ing room and lounge with floor-to-ceiling win­dows that are per­fect for spy­ing game all day long.

Onboard guides will take you on safaris via ten­ders (three alu­minum high-speed boats) that allow for super up-close view­ing of ani­mals. Land-based game view­ing from 4x4 vehi­cles is also an option in Botswana’s Chobe National Park. If you’d like to see what local vil­lage life is like, the Zam­bezi Queen can arrange for a tour. And, there are two fiber­glass boats for those who wish to hook some tiger fish and bream.

Two– and three-night safaris are avail­able and are priced in South African rand. Pair your voy­age aboard the Zam­bezi Queen with one or two game lodge stays in Botswana; the Royal Liv­ing­stone in Zam­bia for Vic­to­ria Falls; or lodges in South Africa’s Tim­ba­vati or Sabi Sands Pri­vate Game Reserves.

For more infor­ma­tion, talk with your travel agent or con­tact Zam­bezi Queen at +27 (0) 21 438 0032.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of Zam­bezi Queen