When is the best time to visit Victoria Falls?

Fun Fact: Victoria Falls doesn’t have copious amounts of water in it all year round. Did you know that? I certainly didn’t. In this post, I would like to share with you my experience at the falls and shed some light on when the best time to visit Victoria Falls actually is.

Viewing Victoria Falls

I’m sure you all know what Victoria Falls looks like. It’s a natural wonder of the world, after all.

However, for part of the year the river is lower and hardly any water comes over the falls, especially on the Zambia side (where I went). No doubt if you’re planning a trip to Victoria Falls, or even more generally to Zambia or Zimbabwe, it’s to see this wonder of the world. I was so excited and even came prepared for the spray with my raincoat tied around my waist! Unfortunately, I was disappointed. In November, it’ll look something like this:

Needless to say, November is NOT the best time to visit Victoria Falls if you want to see actual water.

The Zambia VS Zimbabwe sides

Since visiting, I have had someone say this to me at least 50 times: “but you went to the Zambia side. The Zimbabwe side has heaps more water in it so you should have gone there”. In actual fact, you can see 75% of the falls from the Zimbabwe side and only 25% from Zambia. But unfortunately I didn’t have the time to go over to Zimbabwe as well. Entrance to the Zambia side was included in my tour and after that disappointment, I didn’t really want to pay extra money to go see the other side which probably didn’t have much water either. It costs $30 USD for international visitors to enter the Zimbabwe side, which is $45 AUD. To be brutally honest, that’s WAY too expensive for a poor ex-uni student like myself. In addition, some of my tour mates did make the trip to the Zimbabwe side and while there was more water it still wasn’t what you’d expect going to Victoria Falls.

The way I see it, I have an excuse to go back some day to see it for real!

So when IS the best time to visit Victoria Falls?

Really, it all depends on the water levels. While these vary from year to year, they do follow a general trend, which you can see in the super helpful graph I found below!

June to August is the best time to visit Victoria Falls. The spray isn’t so insane that you can’t see anything from the viewpoints, but there IS a decent amount of water to look at. January and February also generally have good water levels for viewing, but it is the rainy season and you’ll likely have bad weather.

There are other things to do aside from seeing the falls!

November might not be the best time to visit Victoria Falls, but it wasn’t a complete disaster… Turns out November is a great time to go white water rafting! So on my full day in Zambia, I decided to book a full-day white water rafting tour with Safari Par Excellence.

The white water rafting was AMAZING but also mildly terrifying. If you’re going to white water raft anywhere in the world, do it here. I also went while I was in Canada and the biggest rapid there probably wouldn’t even have counted as a rapid on the Zambezi…

The worst rapid on the Zambezi River was so rough that we weren’t even allowed to raft through it! We all had to get out and walk around. Aside from that one, the worst rapid (ie the one we were most likely to flip over) was rapid number 18 and I outright refused to go through the middle where you flip. Sorry but I’m a total chicken. To be fair, I’d already been thrown out of the raft TWICE by some of the LOVELY people I was on the trip with… And also I fell out both times I got made to sit in the front. One time we all fell out even though it wasn’t even a rapid. Also, on one of the rapids we lost our guide and we had NO IDEA WHAT TO DO!! So overall it was wild.

Tips for white water rafting

If you’re planning on doing this trip, I’d actually kind of recommend wearing long pants and long sleeves even though it’d be kind of uncomfortable wet OR getting some industrial-strength sunscreen. I got INSANELY burnt despite re-applying sunscreen throughout the day and it was not a pleasant experience. I didn’t know about this stuff before I went but you should also bring some after-sun cream for if (when) you do get burnt.

I chose the full day rafting because it was only about $10 USD more expensive than the half day. So my friends and I figured why not go the whole day? And it was super awesome, don’t get me wrong. But if you’re short on time or don’t want to do a full day, the first half of the day was the most fun in my opinion.

Other things you can do in the Victoria Falls area

If white water rafting isn’t your thing and the falls aren’t flowing, don’t worry! There’s loads more things you can do in the Victoria Falls area. I’ll just touch on three here, because otherwise my post would go on forever! These three activities seemed to be the most popular amongst the Acacia Africa tour groups when I was there.

Devils Pool

One of the most popular activities is Devils Pool, where you can go swimming right on the edge of Victoria Falls. Pools such as this have formed due to thousands of years of erosion and natural rock lip prevents swimmers from being pushed over the edge of the falls by the force of the water. This experience is only available when the water level is low, so November is a good time for it! I didn’t have time to do this as well as the white water rafting, and I wouldn’t have been able to afford to do both activities anyway (Devil’s Pool costs over $100 USD). Reading about it, I also probably would have been way too chicken to actually go!

Zambezi River Cruise

You can also do a cruise on the Zambezi River above the falls. The cruises go at all different times of day but the most popular amongst our group was the sunset cruise. I could have done this one for fairly cheap with my white water rafting day pass, but I already had dinner planned for one evening and I didn’t think I’d feel like it after being repeatedly thrown in the river all day. All this makes me sound really lame… Anyway, apparently it’s really nice to watch the sunset from the river and you get free food and free alcohol. Because the cruise takes place above the falls, you should be able to do it at any time of year! When I go back to see the falls I might do this too.

The other reason I chose not to go was because I’d just been on a sunset cruise on the Chobe River! You can read all about it here and check out the picture below.

Bungee Jumping

Last but not least, bungee jumping. People say Victoria Falls is the best place in the world to bungee jump – probably because of the incredible view! You will jump off the Victoria Falls Bridge which connects Zambia and Zimbabwe and dive 111 m down towards the Zambezi River. Honestly, you couldn’t pay me to do this. But a few people in my tour did it and said it was incredible! Terrifying, but incredible.

In summary: the best time to visit Victoria Falls depends on what you want to do there! If you just want to admire the falls, visit in between June and August. If you love the idea of White Water Rafting or getting a different perspective on the falls from Devil’s Pool, November is the time for you. Regardless of when you visit, I’m sure you’ll have an amazing time!

Have you visited Victoria Falls? Let me know in the comments below – I’d love to hear about your experiences!

---

Did you know that you can subscribe to my blog newsletter? If you love travel and wildlife just like me, I recommend you sign up below! Each month, you’ll get a little update from me containing my latest blog posts, a wildlife fact feature and secret travel and blogging tips that I will share ONLY with my subscribers! Interested? Just enter your first name and email below! I’d absolutely love to have you.