Zambezi Grande
Glossy five-star lodge · Chiawa GMA, near the Royal aerodrome · Family owned
A drawing, because nobody has sent us a photograph of Zambezi Grande yet. Send five and this page changes the same week.
High-end
Outside the gate
Owner/family-run
Considerably glossier than the classic tented camps, with a design language closer to a resort than a bush camp. It sits in the game management area near the airstrip, so access is easy and no park fee applies unless you cross into the park.
Why you'd pick it
- The most polished five-star finish in the game management area
- A private game experience on its own riverfront
- Strong published birding content, which is unusual and useful
What's here
Arranged from the lodge:
- Fishing
Read from Zambezi Grande'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
From about $800 pppn. Rooms around $800 to $950 and suites around $1,100 to $1,390. The source does not state which year these rates are for, so treat them as indicative.
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.