Official DNPW rates
Lower Zambezi National Park entry fees
The gate fee is not the number that lands on your invoice. Camps inside the park bundle park entry with a conservation levy into a single per-person, per-night line, and that line runs from $85 to $120. If you stay in the Chiawa game management area instead and keep your activities there, you pay no national park entry fee at all.
Updated 2026-07-27
Park entry (per person, per day)
| International visitor, with a licensed operator | $25 | the standard rate when a camp drives or paddles you |
|---|---|---|
| International visitor, self-drive | $30 | a higher tier with a shorter permit window, see below |
| SADC national or Zambian resident | $20 | |
| Zambian citizen | K55.60 | |
| Child 5 to 13 | Half price | under 5 free; 14 and over pay the full adult rate |
A permit day runs 06:00 to 18:00 and is a calendar day, not a rolling 24 hours, so one night inside the park spans two permit days. Exit and re-entry within the window is fine.
Updated 2026-07-27
Vehicles, boats and aircraft (per unit, per day)
| Vehicle under 3 tonnes, foreign registered | $15 | Zambian registered: K34 |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle over 3 tonnes, foreign registered | $30 | Zambian registered: K56 |
| Vessel under 50 hp, foreign registered | $15 | Zambian registered: K34 |
| Vessel over 50 hp, foreign registered | $30 | Zambian registered: K56 |
| Aircraft | $50 | Zambian registered: K222.40 |
Boats are charged as a separate unit from your vehicle, which matters here more than in most parks: this is a river park and almost every camp runs a boat.
Updated 2026-07-27
Activity and camping fees charged by the park
| Boating, non-resident | $20 | per person per day, on top of park entry; citizens and residents K69.60 |
|---|---|---|
| Canoeing or rafting, non-resident | $20 | citizens and residents K56 |
| Angling, non-resident | $30 | citizens and residents K42 |
| Mooring | $30 | citizens and residents K56 |
| Camping, non-resident | $5 | the DNPW charge only; citizens and residents K42 |
| Walking safari | No separate park fee | covered by park entry; you pay your operator and the armed scout |
The $5 camping line is a DNPW park charge, not a campsite price, and it is charged on top of whatever the campsite operator bills. We could not verify any bookable DNPW or public campsite inside the park boundary, so in practice self-drivers camp in the game management area.
Updated 2026-07-27
What the levies actually add up to
| Chiawa Camp and Old Mondoro | $120 pp/night | park and conservation fees, quoted on top of the tent rate |
|---|---|---|
| Time + Tide Chongwe properties | $100 pp/night | quoted separately from the 2026 and 2027 rates |
| Amanzi | $100 pp/night | fees line on the exclusive-use rate card |
| Anabezi | $90 per bed night | added to all invoices for park fees and conservation levy |
| Lolebezi | $85 levy | African Bush Camps sells mostly as packages |
| Royal Zambezi | $85 pp/day | prepaid option covering the full park entry package paid on to DNPW |
These are the operators' own published figures. The bundle comprises park entry, the in-park bed-night levy, the conservation levy and tourism levy or VAT. The standalone Conservation Lower Zambezi levy per guest per night is not published anywhere we could find, so we do not quote one.