The cheapest way in
Developed campsites: Chipinda Pools, Chinguli & Mabalauta
Three serviced campgrounds near the gates, with braai areas, ablution blocks and river frontage, are where most self-drivers base themselves for about $55 a night.
Zimbabwe · the place of elephants
Gonarezhou National Park Independent Guides & Information
Red sandstone cliffs above the Runde River, around eleven thousand elephants, and a camp network built for self-drivers rather than crowds. Gonarezhou is Zimbabwe's second largest park and its most rewarding true wilderness, run by a partnership between ZimParks and the Frankfurt Zoological Society.
Photo: Ralf Ellerich (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The official 2026 ZimParks fees plus the Trust's own camp rates
Every Trust camp, starbed and campsite, from $50 pitches up
Straight answers on 4x4, fuel, booking and the annual closure
No preferred camps, and nobody buys a better position
Where Gonarezhou National Park is, and which gate you want
Gonarezhou sits in Zimbabwe's remote far south-east, split between the Runde in the north around Chipinda Pools and the Mwenezi in the south around Mabalauta. Chiredzi is the last reliable fuel and supplies, about an hour from the main Chipinda Pools gate.
- 1 Chipinda Pools Main northern gate, Trust office, campsites and airstrip
- 2 Chilojo Cliffs The park's iconic sandstone cliffs above the Runde River
- 3 Mabalauta Southern office on the Mwenezi; Sango and Boli arrivals report here
- 4 Chiredzi Last reliable fuel, shops and mobile signal before the park
- 5 Buffalo Range Airport (BFO) Regional airport at Chiredzi, scheduled and charter flights
- 6 Save-Runde confluence Where the two rivers meet: the lowest point in Zimbabwe, ±162 m
- Pan with a hide or viewing platform
- Dam
- Gate or barrier on the map
- Tarred trunk road
Why this guide exists, and where the numbers come from
This guide is written by someone who overlanded much of Africa in his own Land Cruiser with a rooftop tent, and for whom the national parks were what stayed. The information about them online was usually missing, wrong or years old: fees from three tariff sheets ago, camps that had closed, roads described by people who had never driven them.
So this guide runs on the park authority's own tariff document rather than a copied operator page, on thirty-year climate normals rather than brochure weather, and on what the camps tell us directly. Every claim carries a date. Where the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust is silent, so are we, apart from saying that it is silent.
Nothing here is for sale. Listing a camp is free and no position on any page can be bought. Some outbound links earn us a small commission, and that changes neither the order of a list nor a single figure on these pages.
Found something out of date? Tell us and it changes the same week.
Where to stay in Gonarezhou National Park
Fourteen places to stay, from a $55 self-drive campground to the Trust's flagship bush camp on the Runde. These four are not the best four; they are the four that mark out the range.
The community stay
Bosman's Community Camp
Built with the Malipati Development Trust so neighbouring villages share directly in what visitors pay, on the Mwenezi River.
Mid-range, run by the Trust
Mananga Camps (Masasani & Mathuli)
A whole camp to yourself with a campfire and an attendant, sited near the northern gate or deep in the quieter Mwenezi south.
The top end
Chilojo Bush Camp
The Trust's flagship camp, on the Runde directly opposite the Chilojo Cliffs, catered with an attendant and chef.
Everything you need to plan a visit
Entry fees
The 2026 ZimParks conservation fees, the Trust's camping rate card, and the split that lowers your daily fee when you sleep inside the park.
See the fees →Lodges & camps
From $50 wilderness pitches and starbed platforms to the Trust's bush camps and the clifftop lodge on the park boundary.
Browse camps →Getting there
About an hour from Chiredzi to the Chipinda Pools gate, plus the southern routes, the Mozambique entry and where the last fuel is.
Plan the route →Wildlife
Around eleven thousand elephants, a genuine African wild dog stronghold, nyala in the riverine thickets and over 400 bird species.
What you'll see →Best time to visit
Why April to November is the window here, what changes as the dry season deepens, and the annual closure every January and February.
Pick your month →Things to do
Self-drive game viewing, the Chilojo Cliffs viewpoints, walking safaris, catch-and-release tigerfishing and Shangaan cultural visits.
See activities →Our own research
We priced every park in Africa
We collect the official tariff of every park we cover, convert it, and hold each one to the same standard day. Twenty-nine parks are in the index now, the famous ones included. These three pages come out of that table.
The most expensive safari parks in Africa
Ngorongoro charges $278 for a standard day and $148 of that is the descent into the crater. The ranking straight down, with the line item behind each number.
See the ranking →The most expensive parks for self-drivers
One person, one car, no one to split the vehicle fee or the campsite with. Uganda's foreign-vehicle tariff turns the order upside down.
See the self-drive ranking →Africa's most expensive published safari beds
The highest nightly rates any camp in our network puts in writing, and why the real top of the market names no price at all.
See the rates →Latest updates to this guide
Every change to this guide, dated.
- 2026-10-19 Campsite and Trust camp rates are now shown per site per night, the way the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust charges them, with the number of people each rate covers. The costs page is recalculated: three nights camping for two now comes to about $560. See the page
- 2026-09-12 This guide now has a face: who writes it, why, and the Land Cruiser it was researched from. On every page, and in full on the about page. See the page
- 2026-09-12 Twenty new pages in one day: what a trip actually costs, the park's documented history, health and malaria, every campsite named with rates, flying in, Chiredzi as the gateway town, the green season, a comparison with Mana Pools, and a page for every month of the year. See the page
- 2026-09-11 Repaired the outbound link to Singita Pamushana after their website moved the page. See the page
- 2026-09-08 Added hire-car and flight links to the getting-there page. They are marked as paid links, because they are. See the page