About this guide

Who's behind Visit Mana Pools?

The only guide you need to read twice: the walking rules here are not a formality.

What this site is

An independent guide to Mana Pools with no commercial interest in where you stay. The walking rules here are widely misdescribed, and getting them wrong is not a small mistake.

Where the rules come from

Park fees come from the gazetted ZimParks tariff document itself, published February 2026, not from copied operator pages, and every fees page shows when we last checked it. That matters at Mana more than most places: many sites still claim an accommodated discount that the gazette simply does not give this park.

The walking, driving and river rules come from the official Mana Pools and Chitake Codes of Conduct. A lot goes unpublished at Mana: visitor statistics, wildlife censuses, gate opening hours and most private camp rates. Those gaps are marked. Wildlife likelihoods are calibrated against published traveller sighting data.

Found something outdated? Tell us and we will fix it.

Sister guides

Mana Pools is one of three Zimbabwean parks we cover, with Hwange and Gonarezhou, and part of a wider handful across Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana, Uganda and Kenya.

Where to go next