Kanyemba Lodge
Stone-and-thatch chalets · Chiawa GMA, upstream near the Kafue confluence · The Garbaccio family
A drawing, because nobody has sent us a photograph of Kanyemba Lodge yet. Send five and this page changes the same week.
Mid-range
Outside the gate
Owner/family-run
Run by an Italian family and unlike anything else on this river: the food is the talking point, and the drive from Lusaka is short enough to make a two-night stay viable. A sensible first or last stop on a Zambian road trip.
Why you'd pick it
- Italian home cooking and a wood-fired pizza oven
- About two and a half hours from Lusaka, the easiest road access in the valley
- Stone-and-thatch rooms rather than canvas
What's here
- Swimming pool
- Restaurant
- Bar
Arranged from the lodge:
- Game drives
- Boat trips
- Guided walks
Read from Kanyemba Lodge's own website in July 2026. Anything not listed we could not confirm, which is not the same as it being absent.
What the park charges on top
The rate above buys you a bed. Lower Zambezi National Park charges its own entry fee for every day you are inside. Here is what that adds up to.
- Park entry$25 if you are with a licensed operator instead of self-driving.
- $30per person, per day
- VehicleUnder 3 tonnes, foreign registered.
- $15per vehicle, per day
Three nights means three days inside, so two adults sharing one vehicle pay $225 in park fees before anyone pays for a bed.
Camps inside the park bundle a bed-night levy and community fee on top, which together run $85 to $120 per person per night. That is the number that lands on your invoice, not the gate fee.
The full fee schedule for Lower Zambezi National ParkRates
About $220 to $300 pppn full board. That range dates from 2022 and we could not verify a current figure. Confirm with the lodge.
What the rate covers is not confirmed. We do not know yet whether meals, drinks and activities are included, so read this as the bed only.
Every figure on this page is in US dollars.
Indicative 2026 rates from operators' own rate cards, gathered July 2026. Always confirm with the lodge. Two things shift the real comparison here. First, camps inside the park add $85 to $120 per person per night in bundled park and conservation fees, and most quote that separately. Second, camps in the Chiawa game management area carry no national park entry fee at all unless you cross into the park, which is why a GMA bed can work out far cheaper than the headline rate suggests.