VTT - Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Borrowed photo

I suppose one could say that Africa has embedded itself in my life. After spending more than 2 decades living here, I think I am more African than I'd like to admit. This was to be our last big family holiday before our big trek to Canada. And what better place than to be in one of the most beautiful places in Africa - Victoria Falls.

There are two things that come to mind when you mention "Victoria Falls". Victoria Falls can be meant to be the actual waterfalls. Or it could mean the town of the same name, where the waterfalls can be found. The waterfalls, which is the main attraction, is situated between the towns of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and Livingstone, Zambia.

As our budget was a bit limited and travelling with the whole family is never cheap, I had to plan the vacation quite carefully. I spent a few weeks trying to determine where to get airfares, accommodation, activities....basically, value for money. Everything was in US dollars so it turned out to be a pricey exercise.

Victoria Falls is a popular destination for South Africans as there are often discounts and specials. Our stay was determined by one such special. I actually found accommodation where we stayed for 4 nights but only paid for 3. The hotel was a little out of the main town. It takes less than 10 minutes to get there and the hotel does provide transport almost every hour after noon to and from town. It was still a toss-up between Victoria Falls and Livingstone at the time...until the special caught my eye. So it was Victoria Falls indeed.

One other thing that I didn't really particularly wanted to go through was take yellow fever inoculation. You see, it is required if you travel into Zambia to get this inoculation. But if you go into Zimbabwe, you only need malaria tablets. The inoculations are valid for 10 years though. I think we can put it down to my fear of needle that tipped the decision Zimbabwe way.

Victoria Falls is a quaint and quiet little town where everything is within 10-15 minutes away. The town is fuelled by tourism and so most of the people (if not all) are employed in this industry. Everywhere you needed to go, for any activities, there would be transfers provided. The town itself is quite safe. We walked around town some days and we did not feel any threat or danger.

We enjoyed our getaway to Victoria Falls a lot. In total, we stayed there for 5 days. Although at some point, we found that it was a bit on the expensive side because everything we paid for were in dollars. But as hubby pointed out, we actually should start learning to pay in dollars now as we would soon be doing that in Canada anyways.

For more about our trip to Victoria Falls, stay tuned.