Park · Mashonaland West, Zimbabwe
Matusadona National Park
The national park on the southern shore of Lake Kariba, reached by boat, light aircraft or a long 4x4 drive, with elephant and hippo on the shoreline and black rhino reintroduced in 2026.
Short answer
At Matusadona National Park, international visitors pay US$24 (about €21 or £18) per adult and US$12 per child per day. The rates apply from 25 January 2026 to 31 December 2026.
- Daily fee, international adult
- US$24 €21
- Malaria
- Matusadona lies on the floor of the Zambezi valley, and the UK's travel health service puts the valley in its all-year malaria band, not the November to June band that covers the rest of the country below 1,200 m.
- Places to stay
- 7
- Park fee nearby: Chizarira National Park
- US$5 €4about 122 km away
Matusadona National Park fees 2026
Checked Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority tariffValid 25 January 2026 to 31 December 2026, per person per day, in US dollars.
| Who | Adult | Child |
|---|---|---|
| International visitorsUS, Europe and everyone else | US$24 €21 | US$12 €11 |
| SADC nationals | US$18 | US$9 |
| Zimbabwean residents | US$10 | US$5 |
- Matusadona has been run by African Parks with ZimParks since November 2019 (ZimParks calls it the first park in Zimbabwe to fall under the African Parks mandate), but the conservation fee is still ZimParks' and still in the ZimParks tariff. It is the same whether you are on a day trip or sleeping in the park.
- If you are on the Ume or Sanyati river arms of Lake Kariba to fish, a higher daily rate applies that includes the fishing: US$30 international, US$24 SADC and US$15 local, per person.
- The fee is charged per person per day in the park, so a stay of three nights is four days' fees.
- Children aged 6 to 12 get 50% off the conservation fee, which is the child figure shown; that comes from ZimParks' booking FAQs. Neither the FAQs nor the 2026 tariff say what under 6s pay.
- Vehicle fee per day, and Matusadona has its own cheaper table (shared with Chivero North Bank): a car, pickup or 4x4 is US$5 foreign-registered and US$2 Zimbabwe-registered, the same whether you stay or not. A minibus of up to 25 seats is US$10 foreign and US$5 local. Most visitors arrive by boat from Kariba or fly in to the Tashinga airstrip, which needs permission to land from Tashinga first.
- The 2026 tariff lists no ZimParks lodges or campsites at Matusadona. The camps are booked through African Parks or the private lodges along the shore, and their rates are theirs to set.
- The local rate is for Zimbabwean citizens and residents, the SADC rate for nationals of the other Southern African Development Community countries, and everyone else pays the international rate.
- Everything is priced in US dollars. ZimParks says its prices are pegged in US dollars and that local clients may pay in local currency at the prevailing rate, and its booking FAQs say cash, ZiG and US dollars are taken on site. All charges include VAT. The press tied the 2026 rise to VAT on tourism services: from 1 January 2026 tourism activities and transfers moved from zero-rated to standard-rated VAT at 15.5%. The international and SADC rates both went up 20%, more than the VAT alone, while the local rate stayed put.
- The 2026 tariff gives no start or end date. NewZimbabwe reported it on 25 January 2026 as applying with immediate effect (Bulawayo24 carried the report), the PDF was created on 29 January and the copy on zimparks.org.zw was last modified on 2 February, so I count it from 25 January. ZimParks issues its tariff by calendar year and reissued it mid-year in July 2025, so I show it as valid to 31 December 2026 and will re-check then. The 2026 tariff was still the one on zimparks.org.zw when I checked on 18 October 2026.
- Fees are set by Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. 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
- Only ZimParks' own 2026 tariff gives the Matusadona figures; the press reports I opened (NewZimbabwe via Bulawayo24, Tourism Update, ATTA) name Mana Pools, Sapi and Chewore but not Matusadona, so each row is confirmed by one source, the official one.
- SafariFind prints the US$5 foreign vehicle fee for Matusadona from the same tariff, which agrees with the PDF. It gives no conservation fee for the park and tells readers to confirm it with ZimParks.
- The 2026 conservation table lists every station by name rather than by category. The vehicle tables do the grouping: Mana Pools, Hwange, Chizarira, Zambezi, Matobo, Kariba, Marongora, Rifa, Nyanga and Chewore share one table; Kyle, Sebakwe, Osborne, Chivero, Darwendale, Chimanimani "and all other Category IV parks" share another; Matusadona with Chivero North Bank, Gonarezhou and Umfurudzi each have their own.
- ZimParks reissued its tariff in July 2025. For this park it left the conservation fees exactly where the 2023 sheet had them (US$10 local, US$15 SADC, US$20 international, and US$15, US$20 and US$25 with fishing on the Ume and Sanyati), so the January 2026 tariff is the first rise here since 2023.
- ZimParks, De-Gazetted Tariff 2026 (the PDF was created on 29 January 2026 and the copy on zimparks.org.zw was last modified on 2 February 2026) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- ZimParks, Matusadona National Park page · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- ZimParks online booking FAQs (child discount, payment) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- SafariFind (22 July 2026, vehicle fee from the 2026 tariff) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Bulawayo24, carrying the NewZimbabwe report of 25 January 2026 (new ZimParks fees with immediate effect) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Tourism Update (12 February 2026), ZimParks raises fees after VAT on tourism services · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Tourism Update (6 January 2026), the VAT change behind the rise · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- ZimParks, De-gazetted Tariff July 2025 revised (the tariff this one replaced) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- ZimParks, 2023 ZimParks Rates (the tariff before that) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Wikipedia, Matusadona National Park (African Parks took over management in November 2019) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
Matusadona is the national park on the southern shore of Lake Kariba, between 1,400 and 1,470 km² depending on who you ask, between the Ume and Sanyati rivers, with the Matusadona hills behind it and the Zambezi escarpment rising some 700 m off the valley floor. It became a national park in 1975. Operation Noah rescued more than 6,000 animals as Kariba filled between 1958 and 1964, and most of them were released here. People come for elephant and hippo along the shore, lake fishing and boat trips into the inlets.
Getting there
The easy way in is a boat from Kariba, leaving from Lake Harvest or Chawara harbour. Rhino Safari Camp, where the Ume joins the lake, reckons just over an hour by speedboat. Light aircraft use the 800 m strip at Tashinga, the park headquarters, and you need Tashinga’s permission before you land.
By road you leave Karoi on the Binga road, enter at the Chifudze substation, the southern entrance, and then drive 68 km to Tashinga. Take a proper 4x4 with real clearance (a diff-lock helps). The same camp puts the trip from Harare at 12 to 14 hours, and park roads close in the rains. I would not try it outside the dry months.
When to go
The rains run roughly November to March, and that is when the birding peaks, December especially. May to October is dry, and August and September are the months Expert Africa rates highest. ZimParks says to pack cool clothes and sun protection from September to March and something warm for nights from April to August.
What to do
Camps run game drives, guided walks, and boat and canoe trips into the creeks and inlets. Fishermen go for tigerfish, bream, Cornish jack and vundu. Expert Africa’s travellers saw elephant and hippo every time and lion on 56% of trips.
Lions are scarcer than they were. More than 100 once lived in a 450 km² stretch of the shore, and a 2004 study counted 28 after the lake rose and buffalo grazing shrank. Black rhino had been gone for more than 30 years when a founding group from Imire, Matobo and one undisclosed site was airlifted in, as reported in June 2026. They were held in bomas before going into a 175 km² Intensive Protection Zone. African Bush Camps says you are unlikely to see them yet, so do not book for rhino.
Good to know
African Parks has run the park with ZimParks since November 2019 under a 20-year partnership, the first Zimbabwean park under that arrangement. Besides the private shore camps there are bush camps at Jenje and Kanjedza for up to 10 people each and exclusive campsites such as Ume and Maronga.
The CDC counts all of Zimbabwe as malaria country and recommends prescription tablets. The FCDO warns that evacuation is expensive, so carry insurance that covers it. ZimParks asks visitors to wear earthy colours rather than bright red, yellow or green, and flags elephants with calves and lions with cubs as the ones to be careful around.
Wildlife you might see
13- very likelyElephantSeen on every Expert Africa trip here. All year, best in August and Septembersource
- very likelyHippoAll along the shoreline. A 2021 survey counted more than 2,100 on the park's shore, up from about 250 in the early 1980s. All yearsource
- very likelyCape buffaloBest in the dry season, August and September above allsource
- very likelyNile crocodileEvery stretch of shoreline. The lake has a very large crocodile population. All yearsource
- very likelyImpala, waterbuck, kudu and warthogAcross the park; buffalo, waterbuck, zebra and impala are the main grazers. All yearsource
- very likelyAfrican fish eagleAlong the lake shore. Expert Africa singles out the park's fish eagle population. All yearsource
- likelyPlains zebraAll yearsource
- likelyLionWhere the buffalo are. There are far fewer than there were: more than 100 once, about 28 by a 2004 estimate. Best in the dry season. Just over half of Expert Africa's travellers see themsource
- possibleLeopardThickest on the escarpment, at about 12 per 100 km² across the park. About one trip in five sees one. All yearsource
- possibleSpotted hyenaOne trip in four sees themsource
- rareAfrican wild dogTwo packs, 20 dogs in all, were brought in during February 2026 after decades with none, and held in pens inside the park before a soft release around Tashinga. Do not count on them yet. Being released from 2026source
- rareBlack rhinoInside a 175 km² Intensive Protection Zone. The founder group of 17 arrived in June 2026, decades after poaching wiped rhino out of the park in the 1980s and 1990s, and is being let out in phases. A visitor is very unlikely to see one yet. Another 20 are due in 2027source
- rarePel's fishing owl, Taita falcon and African pittaThe specials among about 400 recorded species. The island heronry, reached by boat, is the easier sightingsource
Likelihood is for a normal visit of two or three days, from the sources linked. Nothing is guaranteed in the wild.
Hikes and walks
1- Fothergill's plaque, Sanyati West escarpment
A steep scramble from the dirt track towards Sanyati West to the plaque for Rupert Fothergill, set below a rock face about three quarters of the way up the escarpment. The 4x4 crew who wrote it up called the descent hair raising, and they were up at five in the morning to do it.
Permit: Walking in the park is only allowed with a park official or guide, so ask at Tashinga before you go
4x4 Afrika, In search of adventure (January 2023: 32 km escarpment road from Kanjedza to Tashinga in over three hours with axe, saw and low range, 1.5 km one-hour scramble to Fothergill's plaque below a rock face three quarters up the escarpment, hair raising descent, up at 05:00); walking rule from African Parks, Matusadona tourism brochure (no walking without a designated official)
Staying safe in Matusadona National Park
- Malaria
- Matusadona lies on the floor of the Zambezi valley, and the UK's travel health service puts the valley in its all-year malaria band, not the November to June band that covers the rest of the country below 1,200 m. Take atovaquone with proguanil, doxycycline or mefloquine. The same service warns of bilharzia in Zimbabwe's fresh water, one more reason to stay out of the lake. source
- On foot and in the car
- African Parks runs Matusadona for ZimParks and its rules are strict. No walking anywhere without a park official, drive only between sunrise and sunset, keep to 40 km/h, stay on the roads, and leave the drone at home. If you break down or get stuck, stay with the car and phone the park's emergency line or wait; never walk off to look for help or a signal. Elephants wander through Tashinga campsite, so at night drive to the ablutions rather than walk. source
- Crocodiles and bilharzia
- Nobody swims in Lake Kariba. It holds a very large crocodile population, so stand well back when you fish or walk along the shore. source
- Boats and weather
- Kariba is open water and the weather on it changes. In August 2026 a ferry disaster on the lake killed 97 people, and at the October fishing tournament the Department of Inland Waters Control repeated the basics: a registered boat, a qualified skipper, a correct load, the safety gear on board and a life jacket on. source
- The road in
- The UK Foreign Office warns of deep potholes, unlit vehicles and stray livestock on Zimbabwe's roads and says not to drive outside the main towns after dark. Stop at every roadblock and toll gate and get a receipt for any fine. Fuel is sometimes unavailable, so fill up whenever you can and carry cash in case your card is not accepted. source
Tips from travellers
- Do not judge the escarpment road by its length. Two separate expeditions took more than three hours over the roughly 30 km down to Tashinga, with low range, an axe and a saw to clear the way, and trailers need care on the bad sections. Come in a 4x4. The road from Maronga out to Chifudze is in much better shape. several sources
- Self-drivers should bring everything they need. Tashinga headquarters can sell you fuel and has a small shop with basics, but that is the lot, and you carry your rubbish out. Fill water tanks at the Maronga causeway or from the Nyamuni River, which runs all year, and expect unreliable phone signal; the park reservations office works over WhatsApp. several sources
- Come between June and October, when the animals come down to the lake. August and September are the pick. Expert Africa rates December to March poorly, and one traveller writing in January 2024 found the game skittish and no cats about. several sources
- Give it time. The Tracks4Africa crew, who rate it one of the most scenic parks in Africa, say stay at least a week if you drive in. one source
- Pack a warm jumper even though this is the hot valley. From April to August the early mornings and nights are cold, and gloves are not overdoing it in May and June. Wear browns and greens; ZimParks asks visitors to avoid bright red, yellow and bright green. several sources
- If you are moving between Chizarira and Mana Pools, or heading for Tashinga and running out of daylight, the transit campsite at Chifudze, in a grove of mahogany trees, makes a good overnight stop. The Chifudzi gate shuts at 15:00, so reach it with time in hand. several sources
Checked 19 October 2026. Conditions change, so confirm with the park or venue before you go.
Towing a waterbuck by the horns: Matusadona and its rising lake
In June 2018 a male waterbuck on an island off Matusadona decided he was not getting in the boat. The lake had come up fast after a heavy rainy season in the Zambezi catchment, the grass on the islands off the park was going under, and a flotilla of nine boats had gone out to move the hungry animals across to the mainland. The impala were herded onto a small detached bit of island, caught, blindfolded and tied gently at the legs, then ferried over. The waterbuck swam for it instead. He was too heavy to lift aboard, so the rescuers held him by the horns and steered him to the shore, where he ran off the moment he found his feet. The tally was 41 impala, one waterbuck and one scrub hare. Further west, opposite Bumi Hills, the Bumi Hills Anti-Poaching Unit took hay bales and game cubes out to a place known as Starvation Island instead, the same way a similar crisis had been headed off in 2010.
The rescuers’ own write-up called it a modern-day Operation Noah, and they meant it literally.
Nylon stockings on the Zambezi
The land that became the park was declared a non-hunting area on 7 November 1958, before the lake had filled. Rupert Fothergill and a team of about 60 wardens and rangers spent the next years pulling animals off shrinking islands as the new lake swallowed the valley. Some were darted. Many were simply caught, trussed and put in a boat, and the team found that women’s nylon stockings were kinder to a struggling animal’s hide than rope. Not all of them made it, and the people who tell the story do not pretend otherwise. The bigger animals and the strong swimmers made the southern shore under their own steam, and that shore became a game reserve in 1963.
Fothergill’s plaque, the one our hiking notes send you up the escarpment to find, was put there by John Stevens, a former parks warden and veteran professional guide. If you want the man himself rather than the legend, his biography by Keith Meadows came out of Thorntree Press in Bulawayo. It is not easy to find.
A grass that lives on the lake’s moods
What made Matusadona a big game park was an accident of engineering. As Kariba rises and falls, a creeping grass, Panicum repens, takes hold on the exposed shoreline, and it feeds buffalo, waterbuck, zebra and impala, which in turn feed everything with teeth. When the lake stays high the grazing shrinks. In 2013 repair work on the plunge pool below the dam wall delayed the opening of the floodgates, the water stayed up, and the shoreline grazing went with it. Buffalo and zebra numbers fall if that goes on for more than a year or two.
The same water left the scenery people remember. The trees that stood in the valley were drowned where they grew, and their bare trunks still stick out of the bays. Two unconnected writers picked the sunset over those dead trees as the picture of the place. After dark the view changes to the lights of kapenta boats working out on the lake, and at Kanjedza one 4x4 party had a very vocal leopard round their camp while they cooked supper.
The lake has buried older things too. In July 1969 B. A. Gibson of Kariba found a bone on an unnamed island charted only as 126/127, west of Bumi Hills. It belonged to an early Jurassic dinosaur, which Michael Raath named Vulcanodon karibaensis in 1972.
Shepherd, Madiba and the hunting boundary
Lions were the grass’s biggest beneficiaries. In the 1990s the lakeshore held the second highest density of lions in Africa, according to the researchers who later went looking for them, and Tracks4Africa goes further and says the highest. A count in 1998 found close to 90. By the middle of the next decade it was 28.
In 2015 Rae Kokeš of the African Lion and Environmental Research Trust, who had been living in the park for three years, set out to work out why with satellite collars. It was the first proper look at these lions in more than ten years. The first male collared, Shepherd, wore a VHF collar that could not be followed at a distance, and soon after it went on he was shot by trophy hunters in a concession next to the park. His son Madiba, about three and a half, was then being driven out of the pride by three new males, which is how young lions end up wandering into hunting blocks. The new collars could be read up to 16 times a day, and the point was simple: spot a lion crossing into a hunting block and warn the hunting operator off that animal. Several of the lions here are now known for hunting crocodiles.
The man who flew the last rhino out
People forget that Matusadona was a black rhino park. Organised poaching gangs worked the Zambezi valley through the 1980s and 1990s, and by 1997 there were thought to be about 30 left here. Rather than lose them, ZimParks moved what remained out of the Sebungwe to better-guarded ground under Operation Stronghold. Mike Pelham was one of the men who did the catching. He says the fear at the time was that the whole Zambezi Valley bloodline would be gone.
He is now the park manager, and the rhino that came back in 2026 by way of Imire, Matobo and one undisclosed site descend from that rescued stock, the same genetics in his words. Pelham calls the park synonymous with black rhino and says it had felt like a place missing its icon. The Nyaminyami villages along the boundary, he says, see them as their own rhino coming home. A few years before they arrived, one 4x4 crew who met the new team, mostly former ZimParks staff, had already called it a park reborn. Fothergill would probably have recognised the work.
In and around Matusadona National Park
7 places listedWhere to stay in Matusadona National Park 7
- 16.74°S 28.67°EResortChanga Lodge
- 16.83°S 28.43°EChaletUmbabala Bush Camp
- 16.83°S 28.43°EChaletUme Bush Camp
- 16.78°S 28.56°ECampsiteJenje bush camp
- 16.84°S 28.58°ECampsiteJenje Wilderness Campsite
- 16.95°S 28.45°ECampsiteMaronga Camp
- 16.89°S 28.52°ECampsiteShenga Camp
Quick answers
How much is the entry fee for Matusadona National Park?
International visitors pay US$24 (about €21 or £18) per adult and US$12 per child per day. These rates apply from 25 January 2026 to 31 December 2026 and are set by Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks).
Do Zimbabwens and SADC citizens pay less at Matusadona National Park?
Zimbabwean residents pay US$10 per adult and SADC nationals pay US$18 per adult per day. You need ID or a passport to get the lower rate.
When were these Matusadona National Park fees last checked?
We last checked them on 18 October 2026 against 10 published sources. We re-check every two weeks, but always confirm with Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) before you travel.
What animals can you see in Matusadona National Park?
Most visitors see elephant, hippo, cape buffalo, nile crocodile, impala, waterbuck, kudu and warthog. You have a good chance of seeing plains zebra and lion. African wild dog, black rhino, pel's fishing owl and taita falcon are there but rarely seen.
Matusadona and the parks nearest it
| Park | International adult | Distance | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matusadona National Park | US$24 €21 | · | Mashonaland West |
| Chizarira National Park | US$5 €4 | 122 km | Matabeleland North |
| Mana Pools National Park | US$24 €21 | 140 km | Mashonaland West |
| Chinhoyi Caves Recreational Park | US$5 €4 | 165 km | Mashonaland West |
Where the Matusadona fees come from
- ZimParks, De-Gazetted Tariff 2026 (the PDF was created on 29 January 2026 and the copy on zimparks.org.zw was last modified on 2 February 2026)
- ZimParks, Matusadona National Park page
- ZimParks online booking FAQs (child discount, payment)
- SafariFind (22 July 2026, vehicle fee from the 2026 tariff)
- Bulawayo24, carrying the NewZimbabwe report of 25 January 2026 (new ZimParks fees with immediate effect)
- Tourism Update (12 February 2026), ZimParks raises fees after VAT on tourism services
- Tourism Update (6 January 2026), the VAT change behind the rise
- ZimParks, De-gazetted Tariff July 2025 revised (the tariff this one replaced)
- ZimParks, 2023 ZimParks Rates (the tariff before that)
- Wikipedia, Matusadona National Park (African Parks took over management in November 2019)
Open data: all park fees (CSV) · JSON (CC BY 4.0)
Cite as: Travel Africa Guide, "Matusadona National Park fees 2026", checked 18 October 2026, https://travelafrica.guide/zimbabwe/matusadona-national-park/
Map of Matusadona National Park
See every place on this map as a list