Gonarezhou or Matusadona?
The two parks side by side on what you will see, what you can do, what it costs, how you get there and the health picture, with the facts behind every rating.
Our verdict
Gonarezhou is a big self-drive park in the south-east; Matusadona is a lakeshore park on Kariba where the boat does as much work as the vehicle. Pick Gonarezhou to drive yourself through a large, empty park: about an hour from Chiredzi, entry at $15 a day in a park camp, elephant guaranteed and wild camping at mostly unfenced sites. Walking runs through registered operators, and the park closes from 10 January to 1 March. Pick Matusadona if water is the attraction: boat cruises into the Sanyati Gorge, hippo guaranteed on the shoreline, guided walks with a park official and the multi-day Matusadona Trails. Entry is a flat $30 with no staying-inside discount, the quickest way in is a speedboat from Kariba of about an hour, and the road from Harare takes about 9 to 10 hours. Our guides publish no route between the two parks.
Best for big game GonarezhouBest for birding GonarezhouBest for walking MatusadonaBest for on the water MatusadonaBest for self-drive GonarezhouBest for low budget GonarezhouBest for families MatusadonaBest for wilderness Gonarezhou
Tap a row label to see the reasoning behind a rating.
| Compare | Gonarezhou5,053 km² | MatusadonaAbout 1,400 km² |
|---|---|---|
| 3Sep to Nov | 3June to October, on the lakeshore | |
3Sep to NovElephants: ±11,000; Elephant density: 2.18 / km² (2022); Wild dog: Documented stronghold | 3June to October, on the lakeshoreElephant: About 480 (2022 count); Hippo on the shoreline: Over 2,100 (2021 survey); Wild dog: 20 reintroduced, Feb 2026 | |
| Elephant | Guaranteed | Likely |
| Lion | Fair chance | Fair chance |
| Leopard | Fair chance | Rare |
| Buffalo | Likely | Likely |
| Wild dog | Rare | Rare |
| Cheetah | Rare | Absent |
| Hippo | Likely | Guaranteed |
| Giraffe | Not published | Not published |
3best400 speciesAbout 400 bird species listed on the wildlife page. | 2350 speciesAbout 350 bird species listed on the wildlife page. | |
| 5Self-drive | 5Water | |
2Guided walking runs only through registered third-party operators, with ages, rules and rates unpublished; the one short option is a 3 km trail to Chivilila Falls from Chilo Gorge on the boundary. | 4bestGuided walks of two to three hours with park guides at about $40, and the Matusadona Trails, multi-day escarpment backpacking at $275 a day; walking only with a designated official and no under-12s on the Trails. | |
1Night-driving policy is not published and the guide says to assume the conservative answer; the camp curfew keeps you in camp from 18:00 or 18:30. | 2bestThe park runs no night drives; only Bumi Hills offers them, on its own concession outside the boundary. | |
2Catch-and-release tigerfishing on the Runde for overnight visitors with a permit is the only water activity; no operator could be confirmed for canoeing. | 5bestMorning and evening cruises from Tashinga and every lodge, the Sanyati Gorge by boat, houseboats along the shore and tigerfishing under a five-fish limit; canoeing is not offered. | |
5bestThe Trust calls self-drive the park's primary offering: wild campsites, river drives on the Runde and Mwenezi, and Chipinda Pools gate 55 km and 1 to 1.5 h from Chiredzi, with a true 4x4 needed for most of the park. | 2Self-drive is allowed from sunrise to sunset, but getting a vehicle in means the private McMaster ferry, 3 to 3.5 h plus about 2 h of bush road, or 9 to 10 h from Harare with a 4x4 recommended. | |
| $50cheapest bed | $30cheapest bed | |
$25 / $15bestInternational adult per day, the lower figure if you sleep inside the park ({'name': 'Official ZimParks Gonarezhou tariff 2026 and the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust rate card', 'url': 'https://www.zimparks.org.zw/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Gonarezhou-Fees.pdf'}, 2026-07-27). | $30International adult per day ({'name': 'ZimParks De-Gazetted Tariff 2026 (Matusadona conservation row p.12, vehicles p.23)', 'url': 'https://www.zimparks.org.zw/media/2026/02/De-Gazetted-Tariff-2026.pdf'}, 2026-09-24). | |
$50Lowest listed rate per person per night across 14 places; 8 are budget tier. | $30bestLowest listed rate per person per night across 38 places; 22 are budget tier. | |
$130bestMedian of 13 priced places; top end $600. | $630Median of 6 priced places; top end $999. | |
4bestCheapest listed bed $50, 8 of 14 places in the budget tier, park fee $15 a day. | 3Cheapest listed bed $30, 22 of 38 places in the budget tier, park fee $30 a day. | |
| $2,170mid-range | ||
$875Budget one: self-drive camping, the trip most people take | Not published | |
$2,170Budget two: a mid-range lodge stay at Bosman's | Not published | |
$3,630Budget three: fly-in and top-end | Not published | |
| Buffalo Range (BFO)nearest airport | Kariba townnearest airport | |
Buffalo Range (BFO), about 1 h to Chipinda PoolsFrom the getting-there and flights pages. | Kariba town, about 1 h by speedboat to TashingaFrom the getting-there and flights pages. | |
Required for most of the parkFrom the getting-there page. | RecommendedFrom the getting-there page. | |
| Sep to Novpeak game viewing | June to October, on the lakeshorepeak game viewing | |
Sep to NovFrom the best-time page. | June to October, on the lakeshoreFrom the best-time page. | |
Closed 10 Jan to 1 Mar; remote camps late Nov to Mar or AprFrom the best-time page. | No closure published; interior roads may close in the rains (unconfirmed)From the best-time page. | |
| High Nov to Jun, lower Jul to Octmalaria | Prophylaxis recommended by the pa…malaria | |
High Nov to Jun, lower Jul to OctFrom the health page. | Prophylaxis recommended by the parkFrom the health page. | |
Not publishedBiting flies are common and overlander guides give tsetse advice, but the guide could not verify an official confirmation of tsetse in the park. | Not publishedThe guide found no Matusadona-specific source; the management plan says tsetse were eradicated from the surrounding communal areas. | |
October, 32.5°C mean daily maxMean daily maximum of the hottest month, from the health page. | October, up to 40°C and moreMean daily maximum of the hottest month, from the health page. | |
Chiredzi, 1 to 1.5 h from the north gateAir evacuation: Chipinda Pools, Mabalauta, Mahenye. | Clinic at Tashinga headquarters; hospitals a boat ride or a long day's drive awayAir evacuation: Recommended by the park. | |
| 5Wilderness | 4Wilderness | |
2Malaria risk is high Nov to Jun, camps are mostly unfenced, the nearest hospitals are in Chiredzi 1 to 1.5 h from the gate and the park closes 10 Jan to 1 Mar; lion and leopard are only a chance and no camp publishes a minimum age. | 3bestThere is a clinic at Tashinga and Changa has family tents with adjoining children's tents, but every camp is unfenced, the park recommends malaria prophylaxis and Jenje and the Trails take no one under 12. | |
2Elephant is guaranteed but lion and leopard are a chance and wild dog takes luck, the game is thinly spread, and the camps assume your own 4x4, water, food and recovery gear. | 2Hippo, crocodile and impala are guaranteed and elephant likely, but lion is only a chance in what the guide calls a recovering park. | |
5bestHours without seeing another vehicle in the remote interior, 19 camping areas where solitude is the default, and no shop or fuel anywhere inside. | 4Across the lake from the nearest town, with a park fleet of two pontoon boats and four vehicles in 2023 and no more than three vehicles allowed at a sighting. |
Compare all of Zimbabwe's parks on the comparison page. Matusadona has its own guide at visitmatusadona.com.
How the ratings work
- Big game is calculated from each park's sightings table on its wildlife page: guaranteed counts 3, likely 2, a fair chance 1, rare 0.5 and absent 0, across elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, wild dog, cheetah, hippo and giraffe, scaled so that 16 points is 5 out of 5. We do not rate or locate rhino anywhere in this guide network.
- Birding follows the species count on the wildlife page. Low-budget safari follows the cheapest listed bed, the share of budget places and the daily park fee.
- Walking, night drives, water, self-drive, families, first safari and wilderness are our ratings, whole numbers from 1 to 5. Press "Why?" on any row to read the facts each one rests on, with the page they come from. Where a rule is not published we say so rather than guess.
- Prices are per person per night in US dollars as listed on the lodges pages, before park fees; the three-night totals come from each park's costs page and use the dated rates there. Fees are the international adult rate per day.