The Victoria Falls Hotel

Hotel review

There is a spirited energy about the Victoria Falls Hotel that was infused in the early 20th century and never excised. It’s not just because King George VI or Agatha Christie were guests (Christie’s third novel, The Man in the Brown Suit, is set here), it feels like they might appear out from the Bulawayo room, gin and tonic in hand, at any time! The result is a pith-helmeted vigour that leaves you feeling that time has stood still.

Like the town of Victoria Falls, the VFH leans into Zimbabwe’s past. Kudu and buffalo trophies, pictures of royal visits to Zimbabwe, and cricket posters from the 1940s adorn the walls. The rooms—starched white sheets, mosquito netting, claw-foot bathtubs, large writing desks—are comfortable, bright and airy. While the color scheme (pale green, ivory, burnt amber) is decidedly Edwardian. Recent refurbishments have introduced new room classifications (classic, premium, and suites), in deference to the “discerning 21st century traveller.” But one suspects the ‘Grand Old Lady of the Victoria Falls’ doesn’t want to change too much. The Rainbow Bar, one of the country’s first places to grab a cocktail after a long day of game hunting, has been recently rebuffed and refitted, and renamed the Stanley Bar (it joins Stanley’s Terrace and the Livingstone Room as a celebration of the two explorers whose arrival at the falls started everything). There is time enough for drinks on the veranda, a swim in the swimming pool, or a round at the putting green. Only the fantastic view, towards the eponymous waterfalls, offers a glimpse of reality alongside history, as the iconic parabolic bridge spanning the Zambezi River is a source of busy cross-border traffic and bungee jumpers.

The most obvious nod to modernity are the contemporary stone sculptures that line the pathways of the hotel's extensive gardens. The Stone Dynamics Gallery has a permanent residency at the hotel, and the statues carved from local soapstone and springstone—a wide variety of masks, dancing figures, creatures, and totemic scenes—are available for purchase.

Symbology is important to this hotel, and its crest, featuring a sphinx and a lion, was an homage to Rhodes’ conception of the Cairo-to-Cape Town rail line. The line was never completed, but Victoria Falls Hotel remains the premier lodging along that notorious passage of yesteryear.

James Patterson Review published: 31/10/2018