Park · Manicaland, Zimbabwe
Nyanga National Park
Zimbabwe's high country park: 47,000 hectares of downland, Mount Nyangani, five dams with trout, bilharzia-free rivers and old stone forts.
Short answer
At Nyanga National Park, international visitors pay from US$5 (about €4.50 or £3.50) per adult per day, depending on which section you visit. The rates apply from 25 January 2026 to 31 December 2026.
- Daily fee, international adult
- US$5 €4from, by section
- Malaria
- UK travel health advice puts Zimbabwe's high malaria risk below 1,200 m from November to June, with low risk there from July to October and very low risk in Harare and Bulawayo.
- Places to stay
- 5
- Park fee nearby: Mtarazi Falls National Park
- US$5 €4about 19 km away
Nyanga 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.
| Pay point | International visitors | SADC nationals | Zimbabwean residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservation fee, day visitor | US$12 €11child US$6 | US$10child US$5 | US$5child US$2.5 |
| Conservation fee, staying in the park | US$5 €4child US$2.5 | US$4child US$2 | US$2child US$1 |
- You pay at the main ZimParks gate near Rhodes Camp, and that fee covers the Nyangani climb and Nyangombe Falls. The Mtarazi Falls gate at the south end charges its own fee on top, and World's View above Troutbeck belongs to the National Trust of Zimbabwe, which takes its own small fee at its gate.
- Two rates apply. Day visitors pay the higher one. Anyone sleeping inside the park in a ZimParks lodge, chalet or campsite pays the lower accommodated rate for every day of the stay. Staying at a lodge outside the boundary counts as a day visit each time you drive in.
- Vehicle entry fee per day, on top of the per person fee. Nyanga is in the dearer vehicle table: a Zimbabwe-registered car, bakkie or 4x4 is US$5 as a day visitor and US$2 a day when staying in the park; foreign-registered US$10 and US$3. Trailers and caravans cost the same again; minibuses up to 25 seats US$15/US$5 local and US$30/US$10 foreign.
- ZimParks' own booking site gives children aged 6 to 12 half the adult conservation fee, which is the child figure shown. The tariff sheet itself has no child line. A Mana Pools booking agent's sheet has under 6s going free; I have not seen ZimParks say so in writing.
- The local rate is for Zimbabweans. The SADC rate is for passport holders from the other Southern African Development Community countries, South Africa included. Everyone else pays the international rate.
- ZimParks lodges in Nyanga, per unit per night, local then international. Rhodes Camp: two-bedroom lodge US$130/US$150, one-bedroom lodges 1A and 1B US$100/US$130, other one-bedroom US$70/US$90, executive lodges 3 and 7 US$155/US$170. Udu Camp: two-bedroom four beds US$95/US$110, two-bedroom six beds US$110/US$125. Mare Camp: renovated two-bedroom (Lakeview, Tiger, Rainbow, Riverview) US$130/US$150, unrenovated two-bedroom US$95/US$115, renovated one-bedroom (Brook and Brown) US$90/US$120. Camping or caravan at Mare is US$10 local and US$15 international per person per night. On public holidays the booking site caps you at two units in Nyanga.
- Everything ZimParks charges is priced in US dollars and the 2026 sheet says all charges include VAT; the booking site adds that rates include the tourism levy too. Online you pay by Visa, Mastercard or EcoCash. At the gate ZimParks takes US dollar cash or ZiG, and the tariff lets local clients pay in local currency at the prevailing rate. Foreign currency payments stay valid in Zimbabwe until 31 December 2030 under SI 218 of 2023, so visitors can ignore the ZiG.
- At Nyanga the 2026 rises fall on the SADC and international columns. Zimbabwe's standard VAT rate went from 15% to 15.5% on 1 January 2026 and tourism services lost their zero rating, and the press reports ZimParks putting the increase down to VAT now applying to park entry.
- The 2026 tariff carries no start or end date. The press reported it in force with immediate effect on 25 January 2026 and the PDF is dated 29 January 2026. I show it as valid to 31 December 2026 and will re-check when a 2027 sheet appears. Nyanga's conservation fees last changed in 2023 and 2026; the July 2025 sheet kept the 2023 figures.
- 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
- ZimParks' Parks Rates page still links only the 2023 sheet. The 2026 PDF is in the same media folder (uploaded February 2026) and is what independent park guides and the trade press quote; it is the sheet in force.
- The 2026 sheet prices by station, not by a published category of park. The only category label in it is 'Category IV parks' on the cheaper vehicle table, which does not include Nyanga; Nyanga is named in the dearer vehicle table.
- Bulawayo24 wrote that the 2026 schedule replaces the 2025 fees. ZimParks' revised July 2025 tariff gives Nyanga the same conservation fees as the 2023 sheet (US$5/US$2 local, US$8/US$3 SADC, US$10/US$4 international), and a Mana Pools agent's January 2025 summary also matches the 2023 sheet, so the 2023 Nyanga rates ran to the end of 2025.
- ZimParks' own Nyanga web page still shows US$10 international, US$8 regional and US$5 local for the conservation fee and the same three figures for vehicles. The page is years old; the 2026 PDF supersedes it and I use the PDF.
- A backpacking guide updated 15 October 2026 gives 'US$10 to US$15 per person per day' in its costs section and about US$10 in its FAQ. The 2026 sheet gives US$12 for an international day visitor, which sits inside the first range.
- That the Mtarazi gate charges separately comes from one hiking guide (Storm) and is backed by the Zimbabwe Field Guide's note that an entrance fee is charged at Mtarazi which includes Pungwe Falls. Neither gives an amount.
- ZimParks 2026 tariff: accommodation, conservation, venue and vehicle entry fees (PDF dated 29 January 2026, published on zimparks.org.zw in February 2026) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- ZimParks Parks Rates page (still links the 2023 sheet, the 2026 PDF sits in the same media folder) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- ZimParks 2023 rates (the Nyanga figures the July 2025 sheet kept until the 2026 tariff) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- ZimParks de-gazetted tariff 2025, revised July 2025 (PDF dated 14 July 2025) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- ZimParks online booking FAQs (child discount, payment, VAT and levy) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Mana Pools Tourism Services summary of ZimParks fees, 18 January 2025 (child ages, 2025 rates) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Bulawayo24 News, 25 January 2026 (2026 schedule in force with immediate effect, report sourced from NewZimbabwe) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Tourism Update, 12 February 2026 (ZimParks increases fees) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- ATTA, 13 February 2026 (ZimParks lifts entry fees as VAT takes effect) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- The Herald, 11 January 2026 (VAT to 15.5% and tourism services lose zero rating from 1 January 2026) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Tourism Update, 6 January 2026 (Zimbabwe VAT change) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- CITE, 27 October 2023 (SI 218 of 2023 keeps foreign currency payments valid to 31 December 2030) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- SafariFind, Zimbabwe park fees 2026 (last checked July 2026; vehicle fees only) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- ZimParks, Nyanga National Park page (entry fees tab, outdated figures) · official · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Storm, Nyanga mountains day hikes guide (where fees are paid) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Zimbabwe Field Guide, Mutarazi Falls National Park · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
- Take Your Backpack, Nyanga National Park guide (costs as of 15 October 2026) · one source · checked 18 Oct 2026
Nyanga National Park covers 47,000 hectares at the northern end of the Eastern Highlands, most of it rolling downland between 1,800 m and 2,593 m. It is one of Zimbabwe’s oldest parks and began as a bequest from Cecil Rhodes, whose homestead is now a hotel and museum. People come for Mount Nyangani, trout in cold dams, rivers with no bilharzia and the stone forts the Ziwa people built on these hills centuries ago.
Getting there
From Harare take the A3 and turn left at Rusape, 168 km out, onto the A14 through Juliasdale. Nyanga village is at 259 km, and the parks office turn is on the right just before it. From Mutare take the A15; the village is roughly 105 km away. Shared taxis reach Nyanga town, but the park is vehicle entry only. The Scenic Road towards Pungwe Drift wants a 4x4 after rain. Expect roadblocks, fill up whenever you can and do not drive rural roads after dark.
When to go
May to August is walking season: days of about 15 to 22 °C, frosty nights and Nyangani’s weather at its most predictable. From September to early November smoke from veld fires hazes the hills. The rains run mid-November to March. Migrant birds are around from November to April, and the Pungwe falls flow strongest from January to April. Trout season is November to the end of May.
What to do
Nyangani, at 2,592 m the country’s highest point, is the main draw. The Tourist Path leaves a car park off Circular Drive, 14.7 km from Rhodes Nyanga Hotel, and climbs about 4.5 km to the beacon. Guides say never start after midday, because the mountain can go from sun to thick fog within hours and several hikers have died or vanished after losing the path. Far and Wide and ZimParks both supply guides.
Rainbow trout are the common fish in the dams and streams. Brown and brook trout are only in Gulliver and Purdon, which need their own licence, and Udu has bream. Boats are for hire at Rhodes, Mare and Udu. The natural pool on the Nyangombe and the weir below Udu Dam make good cold swims.
Nyangwe Fort near Mare Dam is the best kept of the ruins, and Chawomera Fort sits above the Nyangombe River. Pungwe View looks into the gorge where the Pungwe drops 240 m, and Mutarazi Falls is at the southern end. Game is a side show, kudu, reedbuck, waterbuck and klipspringer, mainly in the north and centre. Nyanga is better known for its blue duiker and samango monkeys.
Good to know
The park sits well above 1,200 m, the line below which the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority rates malaria risk high from November to June. Bring US dollar cash: Nyanga town’s one ATM does not always work, and power cuts are frequent. ZimParks runs self-catering camps at Rhodes, Mare and Udu. The Mtarazi gate and World’s View charge their own fees on top of the park’s. More in our self-drive guide.
History and culture
Most visitors see Nyanga as trout dams, pine forest and the climb up Mount Nyangani. The land has a longer and harder story. Farmers built stone forts and pit homesteads across these hills between 1500 and 1700, Cecil Rhodes started buying up the plateau in 1896 while the Shona rising was still being fought and left it in trust to the people of Rhodesia, and the people moved off it went on resisting. In 1975 a chief from the Gairezi side walked Robert Mugabe out through these mountains to the war in Mozambique.
- 1500 to 1700
The Nyanga Uplands people built small stone forts, terraced the slopes and dug many hundreds of stone-lined pits, each reached by a roofed tunnel, which they used to pen livestock at night. Settlers later called them slave pits; nobody has ever produced evidence for that, and the name used now is simply pit structures. source
- 1896
Rhodes first came up in 1896. He wrote to his agent McDonald that Inyanga was much finer than described and told him to buy up to 400 km² for sheep and apples. The Sakarombe chieftaincy living on the land was pushed out and took refuge in the dry Ruwangwe area. source
- 1896 to 1902
He made the visit fresh from his talks with the Ndebele leaders in the Matopos, while the Mashona rising (the First Chimurenga, the war against British South Africa Company rule) was still being fought. By the end he held a dozen farms here, 38,743 ha bought for £15,263, from Withington at £250 to Fotheringhame's Fruitfield homestead, which is thought to have become his house. He came back in 1897 and fell ill there, and made his last visit in July and August 1900. When he died on 26 March 1902 his will left the Inyanga estate in trust, to be farmed for the instruction of the people of Rhodesia. source
- 1905 to 1918
Under the trustees the estate sent apples and peaches to Mutare (Umtali) and Harare (Salisbury), and in 1905 the manager was expecting the first wool on the London market. Trout were already being kept. In 1918 the running of the estate passed to the Department of Agriculture. source
- 1926
The estate became Rhodes Inyanga National Park, one of the first national parks declared in the country. source
- 1933 to 1938
Farming stopped in 1933 and the estate was turned into a holiday resort with rest camps and roads; Rhodes's old homestead was built into what is now the Rhodes Nyanga Hotel. In 1938 another 550 acres around the Pungwe Falls were bought, because the gorge lay just outside the original estate. source
- 1967 to 1975
Chief Rekayi Tangwena (a chief here is a hereditary traditional leader recognised by the state) refused to let the Rhodesian government move his people off Gaeresi Ranch in Nyanga under the Land Apportionment Act. He first made the papers in 1967, before the Nyanga periodical court, and he never gave in. On 4 April 1975 he took Robert Mugabe and Edgar Tekere across the mountains into Mozambique to lead the liberation war. source
- Late 1990s to 2014
Buying most of the Inyanga Block and Kwaraguza farms nearly doubled the park in the late 1990s. Nyazengu, an enclave run as a private nature reserve until 2000, was formally incorporated in 2014. source
- Language and chiefs
- People around Nyanga speak ChiManyika, the northern Manyika form of Shona (Shona being the main language of eastern and central Zimbabwe). The colonial government split the old Manyika kingdom between the Umtali and Inyanga districts and gave much of its land to white farmers. The Saunyama and Tangwena chieftaincies are both Nyanga names you will hear. source
- The mountain
- Locals treat Nyangani as sacred and guarded by ancestral spirits, and some local leaders link the mysteries up there to spirit mediums who are not happy. Acting Chief Saunyama told The Herald in 2014 that visitors should not wear red in the rainy season, should keep any intimacy off the mountain and should not remark on certain natural features, and he asked ZimParks to consult traditional leaders on the rules. source
- Trout
- Rainbow trout came to Nyanga in the 1940s from Canada, Australia and Scotland. The fish breed in winter, from mid June to the end of August, and the season used to open on the first day of October. ZimParks revived the opening as the Nyanga Trout Fishing Tournament in 2012, with anglers staying at the Rhodes, Mare and Udu camps. source
Main sights in Nyanga National Park
7- Rhodes Nyanga Historical Exhibition
In the double-storey stone stables a mason called R. Marks built for Rhodes's horses and mules in 1897. The National Trust of Zimbabwe has had the building since 1974 and a group of volunteers keeps it going. Better than the name suggests: Stone Age tools, photographs of the 15th to 17th century settlements, the treaty Colquhoun made with Chief Mutasa for the BSA Company, and a display on Chief Rekayi Tangwena's fight against eviction under Ian Smith.
Zimbabwe Field Guide, Rhodes Nyanga Historical Exhibition - Nyangwe Fort
Probably the best example of the upland forts, its car park about 7.5 km from Rhodes Nyanga Hotel towards Mare Dam: six stone enclosures with wide views to Nyangani, low lintelled doorways and loopholes (Hall's 1905 plan shows 58). It is badly overgrown, the road wants high clearance, and you should keep off the walls.
Zimbabwe Field Guide, Nyangwe Fort - Chawomera Fort
A single-enclosure fort with at least a dozen pit structures around it, enough for a headman and eight or ten families. Look for the grooves in the granite path from the car park, where people ground their grain.
Zimbabwe Field Guide, Chawomera Fort - Reconstructed pit structure
National Monument No. 10, 3.9 km by road from the Rhodes Nyanga Hotel. The rebuilt pit with its platform and curved tunnel is the easiest way to picture how the ruined ones worked.
Zimbabwe Field Guide, Pit structures - Rhodes Nyanga Hotel
Fotheringhame's farmhouse on Fruitfield, which Rhodes bought in 1896 as his retreat and which became a hotel in 1933. Some of the original furniture from where Rhodes slept is still in use.
Zimbabwe Field Guide, Rhodes Nyanga Hotel - Pungwe Falls and gorge
National Monument No. 12. The Pungwe starts as a small cold stream out of a swamp; then it drops 240 m into a forested gorge on its way to Gorongosa and Beira. The scenic road out is badly broken, so take a high-clearance car or better, and do not go down into the gorge without a tour operator or a local guide.
Zimbabwe Field Guide, Pungwe Falls - Nyangombe pool and falls
The natural pool 2.6 km from the hotel, with its sandy bank locals call Brighton Beach, is cold, fast and free of bilharzia. The falls are a separate stop, 6.6 km of gravel off the A14 and a 300 m walk. The rocks at both are slippery.
Zimbabwe Field Guide, Nyangombe natural swimming pool and falls
Did you know?
- Three rivers rise on Nyangani: the Nyamuziwa and the Gairezi, which end up in the Zambezi by way of the Mazowe, and the Pungwe. The last snow recorded on the summit fell in August 1935. source
- Mugabe told mourners at Mbuya Tangwena's burial in 2013 that he got away from the Rhodesian police in 1975 by climbing out of a window of a girls' dormitory at Nyafaru, leaving his tea and buns behind, and that after crossing rivers in the dark he put his shoes on the wrong feet. source
- Withington, one of the farms that make up the park, cost Rhodes £250 for 1,298 ha in April 1899. The deed was signed over to his trustees on 27 July 1906. source
- Blue duiker and samango monkeys are the park's signature animals, and in Zimbabwe neither lives outside the Eastern Highlands. Lion and buffalo still wander up now and then from the Mozambique lowlands. source
- The park is still losing ground at its edges. In 2023 ZimParks said about 800 families were building houses on land at the north-western edge that the Nyanga council had laid out for housing in 2011, a quarrel that goes back to a mapping error in the 1990s, and zebra and wildebeest that once grazed there have moved off. source
Checked 19 October 2026.
Wildlife you might see
12- likelyKuduMostly the north and centre of the park, where the 2015 game count found most of the animals. All yearsource
- likelyWildebeest and zebraThe north and centre of the park. Wildebeest were the most counted wild animal in 2015 (316), and 131 zebra turned up too. All yearsource
- likelyWaterbuck and reedbuckMostly the north and centre of the park. The 2015 count found 140 waterbuck and 56 reedbuck. All yearsource
- likelyBaboonAcross the park. Baboon were among the most counted animals in 2015. All yearsource
- likelyLivingstone's turacoAround Nyanga, where BirdLife Zimbabwe says it is often seen and heard. All yearsource
- possibleKlipspringerOnly a couple turned up in the 2015 count, so do not bank on one. All yearsource
- possibleSamango monkeyThe park is best known to conservationists for its samango monkeys, which are not found outside the Eastern Highlands. All yearsource
- possibleAfrican clawless otterCommon in the upper Kairezi River, in the north east of the park. All yearsource
- possibleBlue swallowThe montane grassland, where it comes to breed. Summersource
- rareBlue duikerOne of the two animals the park is best known for among conservationists, but the 2015 count found exactly one. All yearsource
- rareLeopardZimParks lists it as one of the main predators. Hyena are here too, and now and then a lion wanders up from the Mozambique lowlands. All yearsource
- rareWattled craneBreeds in the park and on farms next to it, but BirdLife counts only 4 to 6 breeding pairs. All yearsource
Likelihood is for a normal visit of two or three days, from the sources linked. Nothing is guaranteed in the wild.
Hikes and walks
2- Mount Nyangani, Tourist Route
About 4.5 km each way from the official car park off Circular Drive to the summit beacon at 2,592 m, the highest point in Zimbabwe. The path climbs gently onto the plateau and then heads south; the plateau falls away steeply on the east and west sides, and afternoon mist gets people lost.
Permit: No separate charge once the park entry fee is paid. Guides can be hired through ZimParks
Zimbabwe Field Guide, Mount Nyangani - Nyangombe Falls and natural pool
A 300 m walk from the car park to the falls, where the water cascades into a natural pool. The rocks are slippery and the water runs fast and cold.
Permit: Covered by the park entry fee
Zimbabwe Field Guide, Nyangombe natural swimming pool and falls
Staying safe in Nyanga National Park
- Mist on Nyangani
- The weather on Nyangani can switch from sunny skies to thick fog very quickly, and people have vanished up there, among them a tourist who carried on alone at the start of January 2014. A ZimParks official at Nyanga said then that climbing is not allowed after midday or in mist. Start early, stay together, and turn back when cloud starts building rather than pushing for the beacon. source
- Malaria
- UK travel health advice puts Zimbabwe's high malaria risk below 1,200 m from November to June, with low risk there from July to October and very low risk in Harare and Bulawayo. Nyanga National Park lies between about 1,800 and 2,593 m, well above that line, but the low country off the escarpment is not, so plan the whole route with your clinic. source
- Pungwe Gorge and the Scenic Road
- Do not go down to the Pungwe Falls or into the gorge on your own; the Zimbabwe Field Guide says to go with a tour operator or a local guide. The scenic road out there is in poor shape, with high clearance the minimum and 4x4 the sensible choice. source
- Roads
- Get back to camp before dark. UK travel advice is to avoid driving outside main towns at night because of deep potholes, vehicles without lights and stray livestock, and heavy rain can damage roads or make them impassable. source
Tips from travellers
- Do not come expecting a safari. Poaching has greatly reduced the antelope, and the 2015 count found most of what is left in the north and centre of the park, so a drive here is about the odd kudu or wildebeest herd on the grass. one source
- The fishing season runs from November to the end of May. The park entry fee includes a fishing licence for the open waters, but Lake Gulliver and Purdon Dam, the only waters with brown and brook trout, need their own licence. one source
- The park sign calls Nyangani spiritually important to many Zimbabweans and asks visitors to respect traditional beliefs, and locally you point with a clenched fist rather than a finger. Nyanga's roads are very rough, and a 4x4 is the sensible choice. one source
- Bring enough cash for your whole stay. Nyanga town seems to have only one bank and ATM, and the ATM does not always work. one source
Checked 19 October 2026. Conditions change, so confirm with the park or venue before you go.
Mist, a missing hiker and the man who doubted the slave pits
At the start of January 2014 a man called Zayd Dada walked up Mount Nyangani with his wife and another couple. When the others stopped to rest, he kept going, and he left his mobile phone with his wife. Hikers coming down met him walking beside a stream, talked to him and said he seemed fine. That is the last anyone saw of him. Two weeks later the parks area manager, Onias Bepe, told The Herald he had probably fallen from a cliff after the weather turned.
The mountain that keeps people
Dada is the best known recent case, not the only one. In the 1980s two teenage children of Tichaendepi Masaya, the finance minister of the day, disappeared on the mountain and helicopter searches found nothing. (The Zimbabwe Field Guide gives the year as 1981, the Manica Post says the late 1980s.) An eight year old, Robert Ackhurst, went missing in 1986. Others have died after walking off the plateau in cloud, and it falls away hard on the east and west sides. A hiking guide says the car park has a board listing the people lost, and that in cloud the place where the path leaves the plateau is very easy to walk past.
What happened to them depends on who you ask. Parks staff talk about mist and ravines. Plenty of people living below the mountain talk about a spirit presence that is not happy. The local advice is that if you come across a brightly coloured snake you do not know, a clay pot smouldering with no fire under it or a brick of gold in the grass, you pretend you saw nothing and keep walking. Headman Samhembere told the Manica Post in 2014 that Nyanga, the founder of the chiefdom, had a friendship with a mermaid called Chirikutsi who lived at the Pungwe Falls, and that she came out one day and took his family into the water. The mountain even has its own film, Mysteries of Mount Inyangani, made in 1999 by Ingrid Sinclair and Joel Phiri.
On a good day the walk itself is not the hard part. One blogger who went up in 2014 found it easier than she expected and reached the top in under two hours, past proteas in flower, and said the summit is almost always in mist even in the middle of the day. The rangers were not pleased that her group had gone up without a guide, not long after a solo climber had vanished.
A wrong guess in 1905
In 1905 the Rhodes Trustees helped bring a professional archaeologist, David Randall-MacIver, out to these hills. Getting there meant four hours on the train to Rusapi (now Rusape) and then 55 miles on horseback or by wagon. He found the higher ridges often wrapped in mist in winter, and four stone forts each about three miles from the Rhodes farm, close enough to pass signals between them.
Settlers called the sunken stone enclosures slave pits. In Mediaeval Rhodesia, published in 1906, he took the idea apart: why would anyone pave a dungeon, give it drains and a lighting hole and build its walls with such care? He threw out the cattle pen idea as well, because the tunnel is too small for a cow, and decided the owners must have lived in the pits themselves. That part has not lasted. Nobody has ever found roofing in a pit, and the thinking now is that they held small stock such as goats, sheep and pigs. Local tradition talks of little hornless cattle, but no bones have turned up to prove it.
Where he was right was the water. He traced furrows tapped off streams close to their source, held back by stone dams and run for miles along the hillsides, with gradients he reckoned some modern engineers with all their instruments could not match. Before him Carl Peters and others had put the ruins down to Semitic outsiders, and Richard Hall to Arabs from the coast. Randall-MacIver said local Bantu speaking people built them. The argument ran on until the Inyanga Research Fund paid Roger Summers and Keith Robinson to dig from 1948, and Summers’s 1958 report found nothing foreign in the beads, pottery, bone or metal. If you want one book now, it is Robert Soper’s The Terrace Builders of Nyanga (2006).
More cows than kudu
On 7 November 2015, 42 volunteers and rangers split the park into nine sectors and counted every animal they saw. The headline was the domestic stock: 227 cattle inside a national park, more than any wild animal except wildebeest. They found three side-striped jackals, one rock rabbit and one blue duiker. Whole blocks were left out because the pine and wattle was too thick to count in. Black wattle crept in from plantations outside the boundary and pine spread from the stands planted between Rhodes and Mare dams, and a survey in 1988 already put about 40% of the park under alien trees. Fire is the other worry, and some of it is lit on purpose to push game towards poachers.
A swallow from Lake Victoria
The bird that loses most from all those trees is the blue swallow. It spends the winter north of Lake Victoria, turns up in the high grass around the end of September and builds a cup of mud and grass inside a sinkhole or an old aardvark burrow, often raising a second brood before it leaves in April. BirdLife Zimbabwe estimates 150 to 250 pairs breed in the Nyanga mountains, which is no small share of a world population put at between 1,500 and 4,000 birds and falling. That is why BirdLife wants the open tops at Rukotso, World’s View and Bende Gap brought inside the park too.
In and around Nyanga National Park
10 places listedWhere to stay in Nyanga National Park 5
- 18.41°S 32.78°EChaletPungwe Drift Cottage 1farandwideafrica.com
- 18.41°S 32.78°EChaletPungwe Drift Cottage 2farandwideafrica.com
- 18.29°S 32.72°ECampsiteMare Caravan Park
- 18.29°S 32.73°EHotelRhodes Nyanga Hotel
- 18.28°S 32.70°EChaletUdu Lodges
Sights 5
- Chawomera FortRuins
- Nyangombe FallsViewpoint
- Nyangombe Swimming PoolAttraction
- Nyangwe FortAttraction
- Pit StructureAttraction
Quick answers
How much is the entry fee for Nyanga National Park?
International visitors pay US$12 (about €10.50 or £9) per adult and US$6 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 Nyanga National Park?
Zimbabwean residents pay US$5 per adult and SADC nationals pay US$10 per adult per day. You need ID or a passport to get the lower rate.
When were these Nyanga National Park fees last checked?
We last checked them on 18 October 2026 against 17 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 Nyanga National Park?
You have a good chance of seeing kudu, wildebeest, zebra, waterbuck, reedbuck and baboon. Blue duiker, leopard and wattled crane are there but rarely seen.
What are the best hikes in Nyanga National Park?
Mount Nyangani, Tourist Route (9 km) and Nyangombe Falls and natural pool (0.6 km). See the hikes section for times, difficulty and permits.
Nyanga and the parks nearest it
| Park | International adult | Distance | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nyanga National Park | US$5 €4 | · | Manicaland |
| Mtarazi Falls National Park | US$5 €4 | 19 km | Manicaland |
| Chimanimani National Park | US$5 €4 | 172 km | Manicaland |
| Umfurudzi National Park | US$10 €9 | 177 km | Mashonaland Central |
Guides for Nyanga National Park
Where the Nyanga fees come from
- ZimParks 2026 tariff: accommodation, conservation, venue and vehicle entry fees (PDF dated 29 January 2026, published on zimparks.org.zw in February 2026)
- ZimParks Parks Rates page (still links the 2023 sheet, the 2026 PDF sits in the same media folder)
- ZimParks 2023 rates (the Nyanga figures the July 2025 sheet kept until the 2026 tariff)
- ZimParks de-gazetted tariff 2025, revised July 2025 (PDF dated 14 July 2025)
- ZimParks online booking FAQs (child discount, payment, VAT and levy)
- Mana Pools Tourism Services summary of ZimParks fees, 18 January 2025 (child ages, 2025 rates)
- Bulawayo24 News, 25 January 2026 (2026 schedule in force with immediate effect, report sourced from NewZimbabwe)
- Tourism Update, 12 February 2026 (ZimParks increases fees)
- ATTA, 13 February 2026 (ZimParks lifts entry fees as VAT takes effect)
- The Herald, 11 January 2026 (VAT to 15.5% and tourism services lose zero rating from 1 January 2026)
- Tourism Update, 6 January 2026 (Zimbabwe VAT change)
- CITE, 27 October 2023 (SI 218 of 2023 keeps foreign currency payments valid to 31 December 2030)
- SafariFind, Zimbabwe park fees 2026 (last checked July 2026; vehicle fees only)
- ZimParks, Nyanga National Park page (entry fees tab, outdated figures)
- Storm, Nyanga mountains day hikes guide (where fees are paid)
- Zimbabwe Field Guide, Mutarazi Falls National Park
- Take Your Backpack, Nyanga National Park guide (costs as of 15 October 2026)
Open data: all park fees (CSV) · JSON (CC BY 4.0)
Cite as: Travel Africa Guide, "Nyanga National Park fees 2026", checked 18 October 2026, https://travelafrica.guide/zimbabwe/nyanga-national-park/
Map of Nyanga National Park
See every place on this map as a list