The Victoria Falls Hotel

The spray rises first. From Stanley's Terrace at The Victoria Falls Hotel in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, the column of mist that gives the Falls their Tonga name, Mosi-oa-Tunya, hangs above the trees at the end of the lawn, and the steel arch of the 1905 railway bridge frames the gorge below it. The hotel has owned that view since 1904.

History

The railway came before the hotel. Cecil Rhodes wanted his line from the Cape to run within sight of the Falls, and the bridge across the Second Gorge opened in 1905. A year earlier the railway company had put up a hotel of timber and corrugated iron to lodge its engineers and the first passengers. The permanent building followed, and by the 1910s the hotel was the accepted stop for anyone travelling north by train through Southern Rhodesia.

The Edwardian plan has survived every refit. In April 1947 King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and the two princesses stayed during the royal tour of southern Africa, and the Royal Suite still carries the name. The hotel passed through the colonial period and Zimbabwean independence in 1980 without closing, and a full redecoration in 2013 brought the public rooms back to their original palette. Operation has for decades been shared between Meikles and African Sun, two Zimbabwean hotel companies, under a joint partnership.

Architecture and design

The building is a two-storey Edwardian block with white walls, red roofs and deep colonnaded verandas, set in gardens that run down to the edge of the forest above the gorge. The long axis of the lawn is aligned on the bridge, so that from the terrace the eye follows a clear line to the spray. Inside, the corridors are hung with engravings, maps and photographs from the railway era, and the Bulawayo Room and the lounges keep their period mouldings. The hotel calls its style Edwardian rather than colonial, and the description is accurate: the proportions are those of an English country hotel of 1905, transplanted to the tropics.

Rooms and suites

There are 161 rooms and suites, arranged in wings around the gardens. The best face the Falls; others look over the courtyard or the lawns towards the forest. Furniture follows the period, with high beds, writing desks and ceiling fans alongside the air conditioning. The Royal Suite and the named suites on the first floor open onto private sections of veranda.

Dining

Stanley's Terrace serves afternoon tea every day, which is the meal most guests remember. The Livingstone Room is the formal dining room, with a dress code in the evening, and Jungle Junction sets out a buffet under the trees on the garden side, with a Zimbabwean dance troupe performing on most nights. Stanley's Bar is the pre-dinner room. A separate restaurant, the Bulawayo Room, takes breakfast.

Wellness

The Edwardian pool sits in a walled garden. A small spa and a hair salon operate on site, and the gardens themselves are large enough for a long walk, with warthogs and vervet monkeys on the lawn most mornings.

Weddings and events

The hotel hosts weddings and private dinners, usually on the lawn facing the gorge or on Stanley's Terrace, and the formal rooms are used for ceremonies and receptions in the rainy season. Conferences and incentive groups book the public rooms, and larger events spill into the gardens. Exact capacities are set by the banqueting office for each configuration.

Location

The hotel stands at the end of Mallet Drive on the Zimbabwean side of the river. The Victoria Falls railway station is beside it, and a footpath from the garden leads to the entrance of the Victoria Falls National Park and the bridge in about ten minutes. Victoria Falls Airport is roughly 20 kilometres away by road. For a luxury hotel in Victoria Falls, it is the only one placed within sight of the gorge itself.