Park · Midlands, Zimbabwe
Antelope Park
A private game farm about 15 km outside Gweru, just off the Harare to Bulawayo road, with lodges, camping, horse safaris, white rhino and the lions of the ALERT breeding programme.
Short answer
At Antelope Park, everyone pays US$5 (about €4.50 or £3.50) per adult per visit. The rates apply from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026.
- Entry fee, every adult
- US$5 €4
- Malaria
- The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority puts the Midlands, with Harare, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South, in the low to no risk band, and the park itself calls Gweru a malaria-free area.
- Park fee nearby: Sebakwe Dam Recreational Park
- US$5 €4about 78 km away
- Where
- Midlands, Zimbabwe19.50°S 29.71°E
Antelope Park fees 2026
Checked Antelope Park, Gweru tariffValid 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026, per person per visit, in US dollars.
| Who | Adult |
|---|---|
| All visitors | US$5 €4 |
- The US$5 entrance fee is only charged when you have not booked accommodation or a meal. Stay the night or pre-book a meal at the restaurant and there is nothing to pay at the gate.
- Activities are priced per person in US dollars for 2026: game drive US$40, rhino encounter US$50, hyena and lion combo tour US$45, lion feed (usually Saturdays and Sundays) US$40, lion enclosure tour US$35, elephant walk or elephant interaction US$35, horse safari US$35 (9.30am and 3.30pm), bush walk or bird viewing walk US$25, hyena encounter US$20, snake induction US$10, pony ride US$10 (up to 10 years old, with a parent or guardian). Two special activities need a minimum number of guests and advance booking: carriage ride US$30 and lion day encounter US$90.
- Children under 12 pay half price on activities and under 3s go free, except where the rate card says otherwise. The rate card does not say whether the same halves apply to the US$5 entrance fee, so I have shown an adult figure only.
- Activities are booked and paid for at reception, and you keep the voucher. All prices on the rate card are in US dollars.
- Camping is US$10 per person a night (adults and children, all seasons) and is the cheapest way to be on the property. Rooms for 2026 run from US$25 single in a standard room or Ntaba cottage from January to March to US$270 a night for a family lodge for up to four from August to December. Low season is January to March and June to July, high season April to May and August to December, and public holidays and long weekends count as high season. The 2027 accommodation rates are already published: the low-season rate matches the 2026 June to July rate and the high-season rate matches the 2026 August to December rate.
- The rate card is headed Activity Rates 2026 with no end date, so I show it as valid to 31 December 2026 and will re-check when the 2027 activity rates appear.
- Fees are set by Antelope Park, Gweru. Official tariff · Seen a new rate? Tell us
€1 = US$1.12 · £1 = US$1.34 (ECB rate, 3 Nov 2026). Converted amounts are approximate; you pay in US dollars.
How we got these figures
- The figure comes from the operator's rates page and its downloadable rate card PDF (Antelope-Park-Rates-2026-2027.pdf, uploaded September 2026). They are the same publisher, so I count them as one source.
- Antelope Park, Rates (accommodation 2026 and 2027, activity rates 2026) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Antelope Park rate card 2026 to 2027 (PDF, three pages) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
Antelope Park is a private game farm on the edge of Gweru, in the Midlands, just off the Harare to Bulawayo road. The Conolly family bought it in 1987 and grew it into a lodge, campsite and activity centre best known, for better and for worse, as the birthplace of the ALERT lion breeding programme. Overlanders know it as the usual overnight stop on the way to Mana Pools. Treat it as a comfortable break with animals, not a safari.
Getting there
From Harare take the A5 through Chegutu, Kadoma and Kwekwe, 275 km to Gweru, carry on over the flyover on the Bulawayo road and watch for the signs on the right; the gate is about 15 km from the city centre. From Bulawayo, 164 km away, the turn-off is on the left just before Gweru. The last stretch is good gravel. Coaches stop in Gweru and reception can arrange a pick-up. Expect roadblocks and toll gates on the A5 (see the self-drive guide).
When to go
Gweru sits at 1,424 m, so winter nights bite: July mornings average 4.5 C and the park tells you to pack gloves between May and August. October is the hottest month, afternoons averaging 28.3 C, and the heaviest rain falls from December to February. NaTHNaC puts the high-risk malaria zone below 1,200 m from November to June, and Gweru is well above that.
What to do
Book and pay at reception. The horse safari (9.30am and 3.30pm) is the one I would pick: zebra, wildebeest and giraffe roam the farm. The rhino encounter visits three white rhino moved from Mazowe in 2023; a calf was born in 2025. The farm is about 1,200 ha with over 20 mammal species and more than 190 birds.
ALERT started here in 2005, breeding lions for a staged return to the wild. Two prides went into semi-wild sites in Zimbabwe and Zambia in 2010, and the final step into Chizarira never happened: the park says Chizarira was not ready and Covid took the funding. In 2013 Dereck Joubert called lion walking fundamentally flawed. Lion walks are no longer listed; what remains is a lion feed, usually at weekends, an enclosure tour and a day encounter. Three of the four elephants orphaned in the 1992 drought still live here and go on guided walks, and some campers have objected to how they are kept (one 2012 account describes them chained).
Good to know
A day-visitor entrance fee applies only if you have not booked a room, a campsite or a meal. Cards are accepted, but carry small US dollar notes; change is scarce. Power cuts are frequent, so pack a torch. The shaded campsite suits overland trucks; campers mention a slow donkey boiler for hot water. Bilharzia lives in the fresh water, so think twice about the lake. Forum regulars find it pricey for a single night; Sebakwe and Ngezi recreational parks are the ZimParks alternatives.
Wildlife you might see
15- very likelyPlains zebraThe open grassland across the reserve, seen from the game-drive vehicle and from horseback. All yearsource
- very likelyGiraffeThe plains, seen on game drives and from horseback. The stables page has them leaning in to hear your curious accents. All yearsource
- very likelyWildebeestOpen grassland, often mixed in with the zebra, on game drives and horse safaris. All yearsource
- very likelyImpalaAcross the reserve on game drives. All yearsource
- very likelyLionIn enclosures, not loose on the reserve. The park is the home of ALERT (African Lion and Environmental Research Trust) and its staged release programme. The lion activities are the enclosure tour, the feed and the day encounter. All yearsource
- very likelyElephantThree hand-raised elephants, Amai, Ntombi and Chibi, orphaned in the 1992 drought and kept as ambassador animals because they cannot go back to the wild. Seen on the elephant interaction and elephant walk, not roaming free. All yearsource
- likelyKudu and waterbuckKudu in the shade of the mopane trees. The horse rides pass what the stables call a secret waterbuck hideout. All yearsource
- likelyWhite rhinoA family group (Jane, Chichi and Choto) moved here from Mazowe in August 2023 to get away from poachers, and Jane's calf was born in March 2025. They roam free on the reserve under round-the-clock ranger guard. All yearsource
- likelySaddle-billed stork and tawny eagleLook for them on the guided bird viewing walk. More than 190 bird species are on the park list, and a checklist is handed out at receptionsource
- likelyAfrican fish eagleHeard calling overhead by the pool and along the riversource
- likelyVulturesA supplementary feeding site on the property, the vulture restaurant, draws four vulture species, studied with NUST and VULPRO. All yearsource
- possibleHartebeestNamed among the more than 20 mammal species on the propertysource
- possibleHyenaOnly on the booked hyena encounter or the hyena and lion combo tour. The operator's pages list the activities but do not say which species or how many animalssource
- possibleBush babyHeard calling at night around the accommodation. After darksource
- rareWater monitor and pythonOne of the guides tells of two big male water monitors fighting, which he called very unusual, and of a python swallowing an impala whole. Do not count on eithersource
Likelihood is for a normal visit of two or three days, from the sources linked. Nothing is guaranteed in the wild.
Staying safe in Antelope Park
- Malaria at Antelope Park
- The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority puts the Midlands, with Harare, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South, in the low to no risk band, and the park itself calls Gweru a malaria-free area. Gweru sits at about 1,420 m, above the 1,200 m line below which the authority rates the risk high from November to June. Still cover up after sunset and use repellent, which the authority asks for everywhere. source
- Malaria on the road beyond Gweru
- Most people stop here on the way to somewhere lower. UK travel health advice rates everything below 1,200 m as high risk from November to June, with atovaquone-proguanil, doxycycline or mefloquine recommended, and the Zambezi valley as a risk all year. If the Zambezi valley or Victoria Falls is next on your route, sort out tablets before you get there, as they start before you arrive. The US CDC takes a blunter line and recommends tablets for the whole country. source
- Close encounters
- Antelope Park's activities put you close to lions, elephants, rhino and hyena, which is the point of the place and also the risk. The UK FCDO says animal attacks have injured and killed visitors in Zimbabwe, tells you to keep a safe distance and to check an operator is licensed with the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe, and reminds you that walking safaris must be covered by your travel insurance. Do exactly what the handler says and keep children at your side. source
- The river and the lake
- There is a river on the property, and on a hot day it looks inviting. Stay out. The US CDC lists schistosomiasis (bilharzia) for Zimbabwe and says to stay out of fresh, unchlorinated lakes, ponds and rivers. Use the pool. The CDC also says rabid dogs are common across the country, so keep away from stray dogs and wild animals. source
- The Harare to Bulawayo road
- The park is off the A5, the 439 km Harare to Bulawayo road through Chegutu, Kadoma and Kwekwe. It has five toll plazas, two of them either side of Gweru (Gweru North, and Treetops to the south). Two things to watch: illegal gold panners have dug as close as a metre to the shoulders on some stretches and left pits open, and vendors and taxi touts swarm any car that stops at the usual halts. Pull off only at proper stops. Our Zimbabwe travel essentials guide covers tolls and roadblocks in full. source
- Night driving and roadblocks
- The FCDO says driving standards are very poor, lists deep potholes, broken traffic lights and stray livestock, and says not to drive outside main towns at night. Stop at roadblocks and toll gates when signalled, and get a receipt for any fine. Fuel can be scarce, so fill up in Gweru rather than counting on the next town. The FCDO names smash-and-grab hotspots in Harare and on the Masvingo to Beitbridge road, but nothing around Gweru. source
Tips from travellers
- Use it as an overnight stop. On a South African 4x4 forum, a member planning a route north suggests driving through to Gweru and sleeping at Antelope Park, and warns that Gweru to Mana Pools is then a full day of driving in daylight, so leave at first light. one source
- Finding it: the park says it is 15 km from the Gweru centre. Drive out on the Bulawayo road, over the flyover, and the signboard is on the main road; turn right and follow the signs to the main gate. Without a car, City Link and Extra City coaches run to Gweru and reception will arrange a pick-up from the bus stop. one source
- Bring US dollar cash for everything, including activities, which are booked and paid at reception against a voucher. The park's own pages do not agree on cards: the general FAQ says international cards are taken and EFT works for deposits, while the volunteer FAQ says bank cards will not work for payments or at ATMs. Plan on notes and treat a card as a bonus. Plugs are the UK three-pin type G. one source
- Gweru is highveld and the winter mornings bite. The July average minimum is about 4.5°C, while January afternoons run to around 26°C, and the rain falls from November to February with about a dozen wet days a month at the peak. Neutral colours, a hat and sunblock by day, a proper jacket for the dawn game drive or horse ride from May to August, and a raincoat from December to April. one source
- Know what the lion activities are before you book around them. The 2026 activity list has lion feeds (usually Saturdays and Sundays), a tour of the lion enclosures, a hyena and lion combo and a lion day encounter that needs a minimum group booked in advance. Walking with lion cubs is not on that list. Restaurant meals must be pre-booked at reception. one source
- Pack a head torch and a power bank. Canada's travel advice says power outages are common in Zimbabwe, often with no warning. The same advice says wildlife viewing is riskiest on foot or at close range, which is worth keeping in mind on the bush walk. official
Checked 19 October 2026. Conditions change, so confirm with the park or venue before you go.
Antelope Park and the lions that were meant to go wild
In June 2013 the Spectator columnist Matthew Parris walked out of a riverside camp outside Gweru at dawn behind a guide called Edward and two adolescent lions, a brother and sister. Somewhere on the walk the cubs spotted impala. The female slipped round one side, her brother the other, and Parris caught himself planning the stalk with them. The impala bolted. Edward’s verdict was that the cubs already had the idea. That small scene is the whole pitch of Antelope Park in one morning, and also the whole argument about it.
A cub in a storm and a room full of skulls
The Conollys did not arrive to find a lodge. The family’s own account says the farm came in 1987 with plains game, a few lions in enclosures and a tea room for day trippers, and that they set up home in an old museum room once they had cleared out the skulls. The story they tell about where it all turned is Wendy Conolly hearing a rejected cub crying on a stormy night and nursing it through. Andrew Conolly’s worry that future generations might never see lions in the wild, and his idea of breeding new prides to put back into wild places, did the rest. Tented youth camps on the river grew into a campsite that soon filled with overlanders, and the activities paid for the animals.
Ngamo, the pride next door
The release everyone talks about happened right next door. ALERT’s records put the Ngamo site at 403 acres beside the park, opened on 1 September 2010, with Antelope Park paying for the fence. Six lionesses went in first, all veterans of the programme, and within 24 hours they had pulled down a young zebra and a young wildebeest. A seven-year-old male, Milo, had spent months in the neighbouring enclosure, and about two weeks later he was let in.
What followed was messier than the brochures. ALERT’s own roster logs 18 cubs born at Ngamo in seven litters, and seven of the early ones killed or believed killed by members of the pride in 2011 and 2012. One lioness, Athena, was taken out on 28 October 2011 after she was seen stalking cubs like prey, and put back in an enclosure at Antelope Park. Cubs born inside the fence get no names at all, only codes: MiAt1 was the first cub of Milo and Athena. The head guide, Irikidzai Ndandazi, still tells of a night outing when young lions caught their first wildebeest on their own, a chase of about two minutes.
A second pride went into Dambwa Forest outside Livingstone in Zambia, six three-year-old females released on 26 August 2011 on ground that had been used for night lion encounters for some months after it was finished in July 2010. ALERT’s work was also the subject of Lion Country, which ran on ITV1 from 2010 to 2011 and followed David Youldon and his colleagues.
Walking with lions, and the argument it started
People who did the walks describe the same few things. A 2007 traveller walked with four 12-month-old lionesses carrying a stick to distract them, and after watching a feed was quietly relieved the lions were in captivity. In 2015 a couple walked at dawn with two 11-month-old cubs called Africa and Alika, and one of them shot between a man’s legs mid-stroke. Both loved it, and the 2015 pair still called the programme controversial in the same post.
The scientists were less torn. Luke Hunter, Paula White, Philipp Henschel and Laurence Frank published a paper in 2013 under the blunt title “Walking with lions”, arguing that captive-origin lions have no real role in restoring wild populations and that none of the projects promising releases had actually released any. Peter Borchert in Africa Geographic the same year pointed at ALERT’s own figures, a growing number of cubs, a high death rate in the middle stages and nothing yet at stage four, and asked for transparency from cradle to grave. My own reading is that the Ngamo pride did hunt and breed, so the early stages worked, but no pride ever reached the final stage, and the release into Chizarira never came.
The bad days made the news too. In August 2015, in the same weeks the world was shouting about Cecil, the park announced that a lioness called Thembile had been killed by lions she had shared an enclosure with for a long time. They blamed a dominance fight and called in ZimParks.
Elephants in the lake
The lions get the headlines, but plenty of visitors remember the elephants more. Four calves came in during the 1992 drought: Amai, Ntombi, Jecha and Chibi. Jecha is no longer on the park’s list. A 2011 visitor said the elephant swim is one for summer, because the elephants are not keen on it in the cold winter months, and a 2015 couple watched them splashing about in the lake in the middle of the property. The park calls Ntombi the boldest of them and that couple called her mischievous, so she seems to leave the same impression on everyone.
The roaring is the other thing people bring home. One 2011 visitor was woken early by roaring that sounded much closer than it had at Mana Pools or Matusadona, then was surprised how far they had to walk to reach the lion enclosures.
Quick answers
How much is the entry fee for Antelope Park?
Everyone pays US$5 per adult per visit, from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026.
When were these Antelope Park fees last checked?
We last checked them on 18 October 2026 against 2 published sources. We re-check every two weeks, but always confirm with Antelope Park, Gweru (private operator) before you travel.
What animals can you see in Antelope Park?
Most visitors see plains zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, impala, lion and elephant. You have a good chance of seeing kudu, waterbuck, white rhino, saddle-billed stork, tawny eagle and african fish eagle. Water monitor and python are there but rarely seen.
Antelope Park and the parks nearest it
| Park | International adult | Distance | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antelope Park | US$5 €4 | · | Midlands |
| Sebakwe Dam Recreational Park | US$5 €4 | 78 km | Midlands |
| Ngezi Recreational Park | US$5 €4 | 116 km | Mashonaland West |
| Great Zimbabwe | US$15 €13 | 154 km | Masvingo |
Where the Antelope Park fees come from
- Antelope Park, Rates (accommodation 2026 and 2027, activity rates 2026)
- Antelope Park rate card 2026 to 2027 (PDF, three pages)
Open data: all park fees (CSV) · JSON (CC BY 4.0)
Cite as: Travel Africa Guide, "Antelope Park fees 2026", checked 18 October 2026, https://travelafrica.guide/zimbabwe/antelope-park/