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Click on the subheadings below to jump to their contents:
- 3 Reasons Masvingo is a ‘must visit’ Destination
- Harare/Masvingo highway (road) condition & best type of vehicle to use
- Accommodation options in Masvingo
- Masvingo’s tourist destinations of interest
NB: It is strongly advised to read all the reviews on this site in their entirety to ensure that the destinations really suit all your needs & preferences.
3 Reasons Masvingo is a ‘must visit’ Destination
Masvingo is one of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces and the country’s oldest city/town is found there (named after the province). Some things that make Masvingo a unique holiday destination in my opinion & in no particular order are firstly the rich history it carries. It would be doing a disservice to yourself & family, to be Zimbabwean, or even a non Zimbabwean, but visit the country & not experience the site that gave Zimbabwe its name, the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. These ruins are even recognised & celebrated by the world under UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 1986.
Secondly, it is in Masvingo where the country’s third largest man made water body is found and that is Lake Mutirikwi. The country’s second largest game park, Gonarezhou National Park is also found in this province.
Third reason is definitely the diverse wildlife. I obviously can not talk about our ancestors & not acknowledge the fact that there is no other group of people under this sun that mastered the art of conservation of nature, wildlife & environment than our African forefathers & mothers did. Think of the effectiveness of totems, sacred mountains, bushes & caves, among others… It would therefore be a missed opportunity to visit all the other parts of Zimbabwe and fail to visit a part of the country which still has a lot of its history well documented and is also accompanied by so much tangible proof.
Harare/Masvingo highway (road) condition & best type of vehicle to use
Harare/Masvingo highway is one I would describe as a “roller coaster” kind of highway at the time of this publication. Any type of road you have ever come across in this country, we definitely found on this highway. Roadworks were in progress though so if your visit is in a year or two to come, things would have probably significantly improved.
One type of road you can expect is a very wide, smooth road with neat & highly visible road markings. This is the new road being constructed & based on that one experience driving on it, it is an excellent job being done with its construction. Due to the work still being in progress, another type of road we experienced was dirt roads as we had to take several detours. The whole drive was 3 hours long for us in an SUV with high ground clearance. In a smaller vehicle however, one should expect to take about 4hours due to these detours and just other bad road conditions along the way.
The bad road conditions include heavily potholed sections of the road & tiny strips with severely chipped edges where a lot of caution is needed to try and reduce the damage to tyres. These make up the third type of road to expect on this highway. Conditions are especially bad when approaching & passing smaller towns like Chivhu, Mvuma and others. Overall, if you can go with a high ground clearance vehicle (not necessarily 4 wheel drive) that would be great, however, with a bit of patience a small vehicle will get you there too. Remember to also budget for two toll gates along this Harare/Masvingo highway.
Accommodation options in Masvingo
Masvingo has quite a number of accommodation options ranging from Hotels, lodges, BnBs in town and also self catering chalets and campsites at the tourist destinations listed below. The campsites have ablution blocks with hot water. For this trip we stayed at a hotel in town as the trip had business that needed to be taken care of in town. One advantage I saw of staying in town was that it is central to all the other destinations I had planned for us to visit which are listed below.
Some of Masvingo’s destinations of interest
This list is definitely not exclusive as there are so many other parts of this province that I did not manage to visit due to time constraints. I therefore look forward to continuing to add onto this list more of what the province has to offer as I continue to learn about it & visit it more. As a start though, here are 3 ‘must visit’ destinations in Masvingo. You can find my detailed reviews & information to start planning your trips by clicking on the names:
I hope you plan a trip to Masvingo soon & enjoy the above mentioned places… Remember to always have a little intimacy in your life & as always I’m talking about Intimacy With Nature 🙂
