Hwange National Park

Hwange National Park covers 14,651 square kilometres in northwestern Zimbabwe and is the largest national park in the country, a flat to gently undulating region of Kalahari sand soils, teak and mopane woodland, and seasonal pans that fill during the rainy season and draw wildlife in their thousands. The park holds Zimbabwe's largest concentration of African elephant, estimated at approximately 50,000 animals, and these herds move in large family groups between the permanent water sources of the park's sixty artificial boreholes — pump-driven wells maintained by the park authority to supplement natural water availability during the dry season from April to November when the surface water disappears entirely.

The park's wildlife includes the full complement of southern African large mammals: lion, spotted hyena, leopard, giraffe, plains zebra, blue wildebeest, Burchell's zebra, impala, kudu, and the rare African wild dog, whose pack numbers in Hwange represent one of the largest remaining populations of this endangered species in Africa. The park's northern section, around the Robins and Samara pools, is considered the most productive game-viewing area, accessible by four-wheel-drive on gravel roads that become impassable after heavy rain; the main season for game drives is the dry winter months from May to October when wildlife concentrates around the water points and the vegetation is low enough to allow clear sightings.

The park was originally the private hunting grounds of the Ndebele kings and was formally proclaimed a national park in 1929 after the British South Africa Company transferred the land to the colonial administration, making it the oldest national park in Zimbabwe. The border with Botswana's Bokspits area to the west and the proximity of Victoria Falls and the Zambezi River to the north make Hwange a key component of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, a 520,000-square-kilometre multinational protected zone covering five countries and representing one of the largest conservation landscapes in the world.

The park has no accommodation inside its borders for self-drive visitors, and the managed camps at Sinansinana and the main lodge at the park headquarters offer basic facilities, with higher-end safari lodges located on private concessions adjacent to the park boundary. The best game viewing is done with an experienced guide in an open four-wheel-drive vehicle, and several of the private lodges offer walking safaris that take visitors into areas inaccessible by vehicle where the presence of elephant and buffalo on foot creates an entirely different relationship with the landscape than a game drive can provide.

Hwange holds one of the largest elephant populations in Africa, with herds of 500 or more animals regularly seen at the artificial water points during the dry season.

As part of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, Hwange connects to a transnational wildlife corridor spanning five countries and protecting one of Africa's most significant remaining mammal populations.

The combination of private safari concessions, national park access, and walking safaris makes Hwange one of the few places in Zimbabwe where high-quality wildlife encounters are accessible across a range of budgets.