Ilala Lodge

The Ilala Lodge was great and the location was perfect. It was a quick (5/10 minutes anywhere we needed to go) and we were able to walk into town for shopping. The Zambezi River cruise was one of my highlights of the entire trip. It was like being in a National Geographic movie. We had a herd of elephants leave an island and cross the river in front of us to the other shore.

I loved being able to see the mist from the falls and the park setting! We saw our first elephant here too. It felt like an oasis and we really loved it. The restaurant was very good and the staff was very accommodating. I would definitely stay here again.

Victoria Falls was a treat! We did the Gorge Swing over the falls and had a great time! Again, the Ilalla Lodge was perfect for us!

The service and food at Ilala lodge were amazing and the rooms were nice!

Zimbabwe was spectacular. The helicopter tour was very cool, to be able to see the Falls by air, land, and water all in one day! Thank you for setting up the sunset boat cruise, we saw a ton of wildlife!

Superb location in Victoria Falls town, close to the Falls, the markets, restaurants and curio shops. Great for an immersive Victoria Falls vacation.

‘The Falls were incredible! We had the best time hiking and exploring the park. It’s hard to imagine how huge they are just reading about them; seeing them in person was amazing.’

‘We had a very enjoyable time in Victoria Falls and the guesthouse was very nice and ideally situated.’

Ilala was in a great location and although larger than the other places was still very cozy.

Exceeded our expectations. The hotel was beautiful staff very friendly and helpful. Excellent food and very helpful activities planning/services. Really enjoyed it here as it felt more grand than we expected.

I really enjoyed my trip to Victoria Falls. Everything went well and I thought Ilala Lodge was wonderful. I walked over to the Victoria Falls Hotel. It’s beautiful but I prefer the intimacy of Ilala Lodge as well as the fact that you can walk to the Falls along the main road.

Ilala – lovely spot to stay. We had lots of fun – Did the adventure package including the sunset boat, helicopter, flying fox, zip line and swing. Loved it all. Very nice food at the Ilala. Went to Victoria Falls Hotel one night for dinner. Gorgeous grounds.

Victoria Falls Ilala Lodge. Very nice. We liked being near the falls so we could walk there and also to the bridge. Hotel was clean and comfortable. Hotel restaurant was excellent for dinner and for the breakfast buffet. Falls was great but we also enjoyed just sitting on the deck at the Victoria Falls hotel and having a drink. We felt safe and noticed tourist police everywhere. Souvenir sellers were everywhere but we got used to them and said no and they left you alone. Would recommend hotel and would stay there again.

Ilala lodge was a good substitute for the Victoria Falls hotel, where we went for afternoon tea.

Ilala Lodge was lovely and we were all very happy staying there and could have spent another night. Flight of Angels was fantastic and am so glad we got to do it this time as it was something I regretted missing last time.

Ilala Lodge was excellent in all aspects, in particular the chef prepared meals. The Falls were unbelievable, a word that all too often these days is overused – however in this case its use is overwhelmingly appropriate. As one of the 7 natural wonders of the world it took your breath away!

Ilala Lodge. Another great choice. Right in the centre of town close to all shops, restaurants etc and 5 minute walk to Falls Park and bridge to Zambia, and upgraded to a suite with great view of the “cloud” generated by the Falls which whilst at low flow were truly majestic.Terrific dinner in the hotel restaurant and good personal service at breakfast. Sunset cruise on their own 12 seat boat with drinks and high tea was most enjoyable. Another “pool time” for us and just right!! There might be more “luxurious” places, inc “resorts” and the colonial style Falls Hotel, but not better. 10/10

Ilala Lodge – fantastic food, the restaurant was always quite busy so it was necessary to book. Room was very clean and comfortable and there was a lovely pool and bar area. We booked some trips through the agents at the hotel – an elephant ride which I would definitely recommend and a sunset cruise.

Illala Lodge we had a nice ground floor room with doors to the garden. Proximity to Vic Falls was excellent – maybe 20 mins walk to the Falls, noticed other properties were further from the falls and may have needed a taxi to get there. We took an evening dinner cruise on the Zambezi – took pot luck with one of the local companies but that was also worthwhile.

Ilala Lodge – this was nice because of its proximity to Victoria Falls – it’s about a ten minute walk. The staff was very nice. The restaurant was a little pricey. The complimentary breakfast was good.

Really nice room. Good location for Falls. Excellent dinner on veranda both evenings.

Ilala was awesome – couldn’t have imagined a better hotel. Close to the falls and the rooms were great. Went to the Vic Falls Hotel for dinner one night – cool to see, but too many tourists. A couple of days were sufficient for Vic Falls.

The Ilala Lodge was beautiful and the food was great! I would recommend it highly.

At the start of the holiday, the Ilala Lodge was a great choice close to the Falls and African in atmosphere; accompanied by the warthogs on the lawn outside the bedroom window and the elephants trying to gate-crash the hotel, an ideal start to Africa. Falls absolutely stunning!!

Needless to say that the Ilala Lodge and Arathusa Lodge were amazing and there was not a concern to be had after we arrived!! All the staff and the conditions at the Lodges were top notch!! We were pleasantly surprised that breakfast was included at the Ilala lodge as we were not expecting that!!

We had a GREAT time in Zimbabwe and Botswana! Everything went so smooth… Ilala Lodge and Chobe Game Lodge were both EXCELLENT places. I can not say more about the staff and these two places, not to mention the beautiful settings. Just great. Thanks for all your help putting together an excellent trip. Loved it! We saw everything including lions and leopards! Wonderful!

Ilala lodge was a great option. Very nice to be so close to the falls with just one night here and the accommodation was great. Restaurant was good too.

Fantastic accommodation, close to the falls, the staff were outstanding and the service second to none, would recommend this accommodation to anyone.

We loved Ilala Hotel and Vic Falls. So awesome. The hotel had charm and the internet worked. The staff was so accommodating. You really felt you were in Africa.

Our stay at Vic Falls was nice as we went on a lion walk, rode elephants and enjoyed the sundown cruise. The hotel was nice and the restaurant had an excellent menu.

We loved Ilala Lodge. Staff, position and food were all great.

Ilala Lodge was wonderful – luxurious, thoughtful, good food and service and we loved the Falls even getting to see the lunar rainbow!

Vic Falls – Ilala Lodge was really lovely and comfortable, and the kitchen staff were so obliging with heating up our pre-packed kosher food at no extra charge. Very impressive. Just a word of warning: outside of the hotel, the street venders were pretty aggressive in their sales pitches – not threatening, but every time we stepped foot outside the hotel many of them approached us to sell their knick knack. Perhaps the travelers could be forewarned as to how to deal with them? There were “tourist police” that tried to help us whenever they could, but they weren’t always around.

Ilala was very nice as well. The food at all 3 were outstanding. The safari was thrilling! Such an adventure. And the elephant walk and lion encouter were also amazing. Getting to scratch a lion’s belly was an experience I will never forget. Victoria Falls was beautiful. It was nice that Ilala was right in town bc we were able to walk right to the craft market and Mama Africa for dinner, which was also a once in a lifetime experience. Although we only had one full day in Vic Falls, I think Venessa and I both really appreciated feeling like were were getting a taste of the “real” Africa….it was the first time were were walking amongst the locals, etc. I think we were both wishing we had more time to visit Botswana.

Finally, the Ilala Lodge was also outstanding. They have excellent food and service.

The Illala Lodge in Victoria Falls was a great place to stay. The food was excellent and the service was very good. It was convenient place to walk to the Victoria Falls Park on the Zimbabwe side.

Ilala Lodge was great, good room, great grounds, lovely food and Victoria Falls was in full force. We walked out there and opted not to wear raincoats etc and got absolutely drenched but loved it. You can’t do it properly with umbrellas etc!! We also walked with the lions which was an absolutely wonderful experience.

Victoria Falls were amazing! Ilala Lodge was wonderful! We could see the spray of the falls from our room. The pool area was great! We loved the experience of the Elephant Safari and the walk with the lions. It was truly amazing! We bought the dvds and have showed them to our family. Our nieces and nephew were amazed that we got to ride an elephant. The sunset cruise was lovely. We had the perfect weather and a gorgeous sunset.

We had a memorable cruise on the Zambezi and saw a bull elephant swimming the river which was very exciting. Ilala Lodge is probably the best accommodation at Vic Falls. Cruise excellent as was the helicopter trip – we would recommend both as essential.

Onto Victoria Falls, and again thanks to your planning. A nice hotel, within walking distance of the falls themselves. Baboons within the grounds and within the town itself as well as wild warthogs everywhere within town. It was a bizarre experience, but excellent nonetheless. Not much in the town itself, but plenty of activities. We undertook the helicopter trip over the falls, unbelievable views and even watching elephants from the air. We became more adventerous during the stay, doing the Lion Walk, another fantastic experience with 4 lions of various ages. I also undertook the bungee jump, something no-one ever thought I would do, particularly at 54 years old! Fantastic, although I dont know if I could do it again.

Vic Falls was just spectacular…. Ilala lodge was just breathtaking, the staff were very assisting, the lodge was just magical and wonderfully situated with the spray from the falls.

Victoria Falls and Ilala Lodge were wonderful. We felt we could have stayed there another day. We rode the elephants and that was so much fun and exciting, even though our old hips were in pain.

The trip to Victoria Falls was well worth extending my trip for, I met several people from australia who were staying across the street from Ilala Lodge, at a place called the Kingdom, I did have dinner with them there one evening, and while it is a newer facility than Ilala lodge- it reminded me of a theme hotel at Las Vegas, so while Ilala Lodge may be a little tired and needing some upkeep- it felt more authentic and traditional.

The Ilala Hotel was also very well, clean and with a good room service and meals.

The Ilala was great and Victoria Falls is unbelievably beautiful.

The Ilana hotel was lovely too, gracious, spacious, great service and food in a great location with a fabulous view of the “smoke”. We walked to the falls and saw the Victoria Falls Hotel, the Tourist Police were wonderful at keeping the hawkers at bay with their goods including Zimbabwe 5,000,000.00 notes!! I loved the flights on the small aircraft, with the take offs and landings giving us a birds eye view of the various areas, I saw Water Buffalo, Giraffes and Elephants from the air.

The Ilana hotel was lovely too, gracious, spacious, great service and food in a great location with a fabulous view of the “smoke”. We walked to the falls and saw the Victoria Falls Hotel, the Tourist Police were wonderful at keeping the hawkers at bay with their goods including Zimbabwe 5,000,000.00 notes!! I loved the flights on the small aircraft, with the take offs and landings giving us a birds eye view of the various areas, I saw Water Buffalo, Giraffes and Elephants from the air.

The honeymoon was amazing! It far exceeded all of my expectations. Every location was beautiful and the service was excellent.

I can’t even begin to pick my favorite place or my favorite hotel. The service everywhere was fantastic. The food everywhere was wonderful and the activities were amazing!

The hotel was nice, the rooms were good, but the food was a bit of a disappointment, quality-wise. However, all the staff was very kind, and also helpful when planning activities. The falls itself were magnificent, as were the activities we did (Sunset Cruise and Walk with Lions).

Ilala Lodge was ok. The people were very nice and close to the falls (by foot). We heard about an over one, close too… one of the olders of the place, in a clonial building… very nice too. Good period for the falls even somme are not very active but with more water. It would be difficult to see something with the mist. Helicopter tour as really to be done because it helps to understand the context… and it’s so nice ! NB : communicating rooms = good option.

The transfer to Zimbabwe was very smooth without any problems. The Ilala Lodge was also very nice, the rooms and bathrooms just very different after the luxury in Savute. We arrived in Victoria Falls already at 1pm, so we visited by foot the national park in the afternoon. The falls were very nice to see, but the town itself was not pleasant and we did not feel very comfortable. As we already made the walking tour on the first day, we honestly did not really know what to do the whole next day. We then booked a helicopter flight and a Zambezi sunset cruise, but actually we were not really interested in it and just booked it to fill the day. So this day was actually our biggest disappointment during the whole trip. We would definitely recommend only 1 night in Victoria Falls and not more as there is nothing else to see and do besides visiting the falls.

On our arrival at Ilala Lodge we were upgraded to a beautiful big room, with it’s own balcony and sitting area, where a bottle of champagne awaited us and a hand written card from the lodge congratulating us for our wedding day.

They were very pleased to finally see us and made us feel extremely welcome! The service was excellent in all respects, always delivered with a smile and they couldn’t have been more helpful. Our room was comfortable but smallish and with no great view from the ground floor. However, that may have been an advantage as we sat on the outdoor dining terrace instead, sipping a sundowner watching rainbows forming above the spray from the Falls!

Overall we thought Ilala Lodge was top class, it’s managed to retain a feeling of history and tradition with an air of “stateliness” that most modern establishments can’t match.

The Falls were spectacular, of course, but being in full flood the spray tended to obscure the view as we approached the bridge. We booked a couple of excursions with Wild Horizons; the excursions were fine, but unfortunately they were about twenty minutes late picking us up on each occasion, and were also late for our transfer back to the airport. I think they were picking up from several hotels but gave everyone the same collection time.

Victoria Falls was good too in spite of the bad weather while there.

In Victoria Falls we found an opportunity to visit a township and that proved very enlightening and added greatly to our understanding of some South African issues.My wife even attended a ‘kitchen party’ ( Group of women bringing presents and advice to future brides). Road transport/connections at border were excellent.

We went to Victoria Falls next and stayed at the Ilala Lodge. The lodge was great and without us knowing, we met one of the main managers at the lodge who in turn provided us a room on the third floor that was spectacular. We could see the spray from the falls from our balcony. We signed up to take a boat ride one of the evenings and it turned out we were the only ones signed up. Therefore, we had a small boat with two guides all to ourselves. This was our first encounter with an elephant and was scary, but the guides told us to be calm and they will not do anything….they were right….whew!!! As you know, I was a little worried about our timing for getting to the hotel after landing in Vic Falls airport and going directly to the helicopter ride (Wild Horizons). This actually worked out very well. The ride was beautiful and was our first view of the falls. The next day, we were able to walk to the falls and thankfully our hotel staff recommended we take an umbrella. We got drenched. The falls are so beautiful and very big. We could not believe the amount of spray coming off of the falls and the amount of water flowing down river. It was truely an amazing sight. By the end of our walk along the falls, I do not think we had a dry piece of clothing on us. But at least we got some great pictures and memories. We also walked across the bridge and viewed everything from the Zambia side. I am glad we ran into some folks that said it was safe to do that, as it just added to the experience. Overall, Victoria Falls is a must see and we were very happy with every aspect of this point in our vacation.

Ilala is a wonderful hotel with excellent staff, they also have a wonderful restaurant.
Sunset cruise :
On this one we were lucky. It seems that Ilala lodge (or their activities company, zambeze Safari, or something like that) operates 2 types of boat for the cruise.
You have the usual boat, on 2 floaters, with a counter bar. And the Ra Ikana, the beautiful small wood boat that you told me about.
It seems we were booked for the first one, not the Ra Ikana… but as it was privatised for a group we were upgraded for the Ra Ikana
So that’s something you need to sort out when you do the booking, and make sure it’s for the Ra Ikana.
The cruise was excellent, very good food, very good guide, and we saw lots of things, a lot more than I would have thought.

It is very comfortable. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Vic Falls and are so glad we stayed on Zim side. We felt very safe there and wish more people would support those who make their living form tourism there.

This was fantastic, the Falls and everything was just amazing. I am so happy we did it, it’s spine-chilling the mass of water that cascades down…. Truly a must for anyone to include into a trip to Africa!!!

This was a very good recommendation – we were able to walk easily to the falls.

At the Ilala Lodge I followed your suggestion and put $25 into a box for the staff. However, I had the feeling my maid was expecting something personally when I last saw her, and now I worry that that procedure might not have been the wisest thing to do, although I specified to the desk that some of it was to go to the maid. It’s hard to know, and I haven’t been in that situation. I also tipped my tour conductor according to my instincts, since I wasn’t sure what the rate for that, as opposed to a game driver, which was specified. Maybe you can add “tour conductor” to the suggested tipping amounts, which were very helpful and certainly eased one’s awkwardness, incidentally.

This was comfortable and relaxing. The lodge staff were coping with the situation in Zimbabwe admirably and we were made to feel very welcome.

This is a beautiful property. We saw baboons, elephants and warthogs without leaving the room. Dinners were excellent and service was very good.

We loved Vic Falls, and really pleased that we decided to go here. The accommodation was lovely. We had a slight hick up here with the transfer company. They were transferring about 15 people from the airport to the various hotels, however we were waiting on the bus for over a hour with no air-conditioning, apparently awaiting 2 other pax who never showed. In the end a few of us went inside and saw the guide and said we had to go as everyone was getting quite dehydrated, especially and elderly lady who wasn’t copping too well. Their were a could of guides and buses, so what they perhaps should have done is run the people they had into town and wait for the 2 others with another vehicle. The bizarre thing was that there was no one left to come off the flight and through customs so I have no idea who they were waiting for and where they were supposed to be coming from! In any case all was well when we got to the hotel. The helicopter flight was just the best and everyone just has to do this!

This was our least favorite hotel. While the grounds were nice, and the proximity to the Falls was great, the rooms were somewhat dated and damp. I would suggest if you have other clients staying there, that they stay in an upstairs room. We still had a wonderful time, however!