Old Mondoro
Rustic-luxury bush chalets · Downstream of Chiawa Camp, deeper inside the park · Chiawa Safaris
Top-end
Inside the park
Owner/family-run
Five open-fronted chalets under ana trees, smaller and rawer than its sister camp and preferred by many repeat visitors for exactly that reason. Leopard is what people come back talking about: across roughly thirty logged traveller reports at this camp and Chiawa, leopard success was recorded on every one, which is a small sample but a striking one.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Five open-fronted chalets under ana trees on the riverbank
- Leopard recorded on almost every logged traveller report here
- Run by the Cumings family, same team as Chiawa
- Walking safaris, game drives and fishing included
- Rawer, quieter sister camp preferred by many repeat visitors
Cons
- Minimum age of 12, with an adult required overnight for under-18s
- Park and conservation fees of $120 per person per night added
- Exact opening date not published; season runs roughly May to November
What's here
Arranged from the lodge:
- Game drives
- Guided walks
- Fishing
Read from Old Mondoro'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 at Old Mondoro
From $1,510 pppn. 2026: $1,510 low season, $1,995 high, plus $120 per person per night in park and conservation fees.
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.
Questions about Old Mondoro
Is Old Mondoro good for families?
Old Mondoro's own site sets a minimum age of 12, higher than sister camp Chiawa's age 8, and children 18 and younger must be accompanied overnight by an adult. The camp has five open-fronted chalets under ana trees, smaller and more exposed than Chiawa, so check which chalet suits your family before booking.
What does the rate at Old Mondoro include?
The 2026 rate runs from $1,510 a person a night in low season to $1,995 in high season, the same scale as sister camp Chiawa. Park and conservation fees of $120 per person per night are added on top of that rate. The camp's own site does not break the rate down further.
When is Old Mondoro open?
Old Mondoro runs roughly the same season as Chiawa Camp, from about 1 May to 15 November, though the exact opening date is not published. Confirm current dates before booking flights, since the rains can shift them from year to year at both camps.
How is Old Mondoro different from Chiawa Camp?
Old Mondoro is the smaller, rawer sister camp to Chiawa, with five open-fronted chalets under ana trees rather than the larger tented camp upstream. Both are run by the Cumings family, and across logged traveller reports at the two camps leopard sightings were recorded on almost every stay.