Camping at Mana Pools National Park

What a night costs in 2026

The February 2026 ZimParks tariff prices everything per site or per unit, not per person, and sites are sold whole: once yours, nobody shares it. Rates below are the international tier, include 15% VAT and the 2% tourism levy, and sit on top of the daily conservation fee ($24 per international adult) and vehicle fee ($3 per day). Maximum two vehicles per site.

Nyamepi: the classic riverfront campground

Nyamepi is the heart of self-drive Mana and the only communal campsite in the park: 30 sites on the Zambezi at park headquarters, each taking up to 6 people and 2 vehicles, with refurbished ablution blocks (hot water, flush showers and toilets) and a braai stand per site. Firewood is sold at reception for $5 a bundle, and that is the entire shopping list the park offers, so everything else comes with you from Karoi, 177 km back up the road.

Pay the extra $35 for the riverfront row if you possibly can. Sites 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 16, 17, 20, 21, 25 and 27 sit on the water, which at Mana means hippos grazing past the tent at night and the Zambezi as your washing-up view. The camp is completely unfenced, elephant walk through most days, and the food-storage rules below are not decoration.

The exclusive sites: your own stretch of Zambezi

The exclusive campsites are the formula Mana regulars book year after year: one group, one site, one piece of river frontage with nobody else in sight. Mucheni is a cluster of four sites 8 km west of Nyamepi; Nkupe sits about a kilometre east of Nyamepi on its own frontage; Ndungu, Gwaya and BBC string out along the same bank. All cost $235 per night for up to 6 people, with extras at $60 per person.

Facilities are honest and minimal: a braai stand and a rudimentary toilet at most sites. Gwaya is the comfortable exception, with a cold shower, flush toilet and basin. Water comes from the river or from Nyamepi reception, so arrive fully equipped. For small parties, New Ndungu 1 and 2 offer the same single-group exclusivity for a maximum of 3 people at $90 per night, the quiet bargain of the tariff.

Chitake Springs: the hardest booking in Zimbabwe

Chitake Springs is a different park. About 65 km inland from the river, at the foot of the escarpment in the park's southern sector, a spring seeps into the Chitake riverbed and becomes, in the dry season, the only water for many kilometres. Buffalo herds come to drink and lions come for the buffalo, sometimes through the campsites themselves. You check in at Nyakasikana Gate rather than Nyamepi, access is strictly 4x4, and the season runs dry months only, at its best from July to November.

The headline sites, Chitake 1 (under a big natal mahogany about 150 m from the river crossing) and Chitake 3B, cost $355 per night; Chitake 2 and Baobab cost $235. All of them book out up to a year ahead, and regulars email the day their preferred dates open.

Be honest with yourself before you book. There are no facilities of any kind, no water, no toilet, no attendant, and every drop and every scrap of kit comes in with you. This is a walking and sitting experience by design, lions walk through camp, and most visitors bring a professional guide. If this is your first time camping in big-game Africa, start at Nyamepi and earn Chitake on a later trip.

If you want a roof: the ZimParks lodges

The same booking machinery covers the park's self-catering lodges on the riverbank at Nyamepi. Hippo, Nyati and Muvee sleep 4 in two bedrooms for $155 per unit per night; Musangu and Muchichiri sleep 8 for $235, with extra beds at $35. All come with a kitchen, deep-freeze, bedding and utensils, so you bring food and drink and little else.

They are honest rather than fancy, tired in places and overdue for refurbishment, but a whole 8-sleeper on the Zambezi for $235 undercuts every private camp in the park by an order of magnitude, which is why the two big lodges are the first accommodation in the park to sell out, often close to a year ahead.

How to book, step by step

There is no online booking system, no calendar and no pay button: zimparks.org.zw cannot take your money. Everything runs through ZimParks Central Reservations, sites are sold whole and prepaid, and there are no per-person walk-in rates any more. It works fine once you know the steps.

• 1. Pick your sites from the table above, with two or three preferences in order. For September, the exclusive sites, the lodges and Chitake, start up to a year ahead.
• 2. Email info@zimparks.org.zw, or phone Central Reservations on +263 8677707627. The Mana Pools station office (+263 718 058 794) can confirm conditions and opening dates for your year. A registered ZimParks booking agent is a legitimate alternative if the office is slow to reply.
• 3. The office replies with availability and a total. Ask explicitly whether the quote includes the daily conservation fee ($24 per international adult) and the vehicle fee ($3 per day), because site fees, entry fees and extras are paid at three different points.
• 4. Pay in full per their instructions. Your site is not held until it is prepaid.
• 5. On the day, check in at Marongora HQ on top of the escarpment and pay conservation and vehicle fees there; without the Marongora permit, the Nyakasikana gate sends you back up the hill. Extras such as firewood and fishing licences are paid at Nyamepi reception.
• 6. Bring the confirmation and every receipt, printed or saved offline. Signal dies long before the valley floor, and you will not be let out of the exit gate without proof of payment. Carry US dollars in cash, small notes; card and mobile-money facilities at Marongora and Nyamepi are unreliable.

The email, ready to copy

This is everything Central Reservations needs in one message, which saves you a round-trip of questions:

“Hello, I would like to book camping in Mana Pools National Park. Dates: [arrival] to [departure], [x] nights. Party: [x] adults, [x] children with ages. Vehicles: [x], [type, e.g. Hilux with rooftop tent]. Preferred sites, in order: [1st], [2nd], [3rd]. Rate tier: [international / SADC / Zimbabwean]. Please confirm availability, the total including the daily conservation and vehicle fees, and how you would like it paid.”

Two useful additions if they apply: ask which Nyamepi riverfront numbers are free for your dates rather than accepting a generic allocation, and if you are heading to Chitake, say so explicitly and confirm the Nyakasikana Gate check-in.

The rules that make Mana different

• Full prepayment. Sites are sold whole through Central Reservations and paid before you arrive; nothing is sold at the gate.
• Be in camp from 18:00 (May to July) or 18:30 (August to October) until 06:00. Night driving and spotlighting are prohibited, with no exceptions.
• No fences, ever. Elephant and hippo walk through Nyamepi, hyena patrol every camp after dark, and lions drink beside the Chitake sites. That is the point of the place, and it is on you to behave accordingly.
• Lock all food away, out of sight and smell, in the vehicle or a sealed box. Never in the tent.
• Maximum two vehicles per campsite. Motorbikes, overland trucks over 5 m and buses over 25 seats are prohibited from the park entirely.
• Do not collect firewood, not even dead wood. Buy it at Nyamepi reception for $5 a bundle.
• Carry every scrap of rubbish out. You can be fined $100 at the exit gate if you cannot show your rubbish.
• No off-road driving. Park within 10 m of a designated road and no further, and cross riverbeds only at designated crossings.
• Walking beyond your campsite needs a permit from the park office, floodplain only for unguided walkers, no children under 16, and 30 metres minimum from elephant, lion and painted dog.
• Fishing needs a $15 per day licence, maximum 5 fish per angler, Zambezi only. Motorboats are banned inside the park.

Which site suits you

First time at Mana, or first time camping in big-game country: take a Nyamepi riverfront site. You get hot showers, flush toilets, other campers within shouting distance, the park office next door for permits and firewood, and the full unfenced Mana experience the moment the sun goes down. Standard Nyamepi sites do the same job a row back for $35 less.

Self-sufficient and after solitude: the exclusive sites are the reason to come. Mucheni and Nkupe give you the classic private river frontage, Gwaya adds the only real plumbing in the exclusive tier, and New Ndungu is the pick for a couple or trio on a budget. A group of up to 8 that wants beds and a deep-freeze should chase Musangu or Muchichiri the day bookings open.

Chitake Springs is for experienced bush campers only. No facilities, no water, lions in camp, a strict 4x4 approach and a check-in at a different gate. It is the most intense camping in Zimbabwe and the hardest booking in the country, and it rewards exactly the people who do not need this paragraph to tell them so.

Sources

• Official ZimParks tariff, February 2026 (checked 12 Sep 2026)
• ZimParks: Mana Pools National Park (checked 12 Sep 2026)
• Mana Pools Code of Conduct for Visitors, revised 2023 (checked 12 Sep 2026)
• Zimbabwe Field Guide: Mana Pools route log (checked 12 Sep 2026)