The cheapest way in
Tashinga Campsite
The park's only serviced campsite, at headquarters on the Ume estuary, with hot showers, drinking water and tents to hire.
Zimbabwe · Lake Kariba · national park since 1975
Matusadona National Park Independent Guides & Information
A wedge of escarpment, valley floor and lakeshore grass between the Ume and the Sanyati, where most visitors arrive by boat. This guide sets the two published fee systems side by side, explains how to cross the lake, and lists every camp, lodge and houseboat with who runs it.
Photo: Privilage Thulani Siamsiya (CC BY 4.0)
The ZimParks gazette and the trust's levy, side by side and dated
Which Kariba crossings actually land at the park, and which do not
Park-run camps, private lodges and houseboats, with who runs each one
Lake levels from the Zambezi River Authority, not from a brochure
Where is Matusadona National Park, and how do you get across the lake?
Matusadona fills the stretch of Lake Kariba's southern shore between the Ume River in the west and the Sanyati Gorge in the east, about 20 km across the water from Kariba town. Park headquarters and the main campsite are at Tashinga in the north-west, while the only road gate, Chifudze, is in the far south-west.
- 1 Tashinga Park headquarters, reception, shop, clinic, the main campsite and a 700 m airstrip, on the Ume estuary
- 2 Ume River entry point The western entry on the Ume, the river that forms the park's western boundary
- 3 Changa Entry point and harbour on the north-eastern shore, next to Changa Safari Camp
- 4 Sanyati Gorge Entry point at the mouth of the gorge that forms the eastern boundary
- 5 Chifudze gate The road gate in the south-west, 68 km from Tashinga by ZimParks' count
- Pan with a hide or viewing platform
- Dam
- Gate or barrier on the map
- Tarred trunk road
Why this guide exists, and where the numbers come from
This guide is written by someone who overlanded much of Africa in his own Land Cruiser with a rooftop tent, and for whom the national parks were what stayed. The information about them online was usually missing, wrong or years old: fees from three tariff sheets ago, camps that had closed, roads described by people who had never driven them.
So this guide runs on the park authority's own tariff document rather than a copied operator page, on thirty-year climate normals rather than brochure weather, and on what the camps tell us directly. Every claim carries a date. Where the Matusadona Conservation Trust is silent, so are we, apart from saying that it is silent.
Nothing here is for sale. Listing a camp is free and no position on any page can be bought. Some outbound links earn us a small commission, and that changes neither the order of a list nor a single figure on these pages.
Found something out of date? Tell us and it changes the same week.
Where to stay in Matusadona National Park
Thirty-eight places to stay, from a park-run pitch at Tashinga to a luxury cruiser moored off the shore. These four are not the best four; they mark out the range.
Run by the park itself
Tashinga Cottages
Three solar-powered cottages built and operated by the park, where the money you pay goes straight back into running it.
A lodge inside the park
Changa Safari Camp
One of the two private camps inside the boundary, fully inclusive, and one of the few in the area that publishes its rates.
The top end, on the water
MV Matusadona (houseboat)
A three-cabin luxury cruiser that moors along the park shore, and the benchmark for what a houseboat stay here can cost.
Everything you need to plan a visit
Entry fees
Two published fee systems that do not agree, why the trust's $30 levy is the one to budget for, and what the water fee adds.
See the fees →Lodges, camps & houseboats
Park-run campsites and cottages at Tashinga, two lodges inside the park, island camps on the Kariba side and the houseboat fleet.
Browse lodges →Getting there
An hour by speedboat from Kariba, three hours on the vehicle ferry, or a full day by road. Which ferry does not come here at all.
Plan the crossing →Wildlife
Elephant and buffalo on the lakeshore grass, hippo and crocodile in the bays, and wild dogs back since February 2026.
What you'll see →Best time to visit
June to October for game on the shoreline, and why the level of Lake Kariba matters as much as the month.
Pick your month →Things to do
Boat cruises in the drowned forest, guided walks, multi-day escarpment trails and tigerfishing under a five-fish daily limit.
See activities →Our own research
We priced every park in Africa
We collect the official tariff of every park we cover, convert it, and hold each one to the same standard day. Twenty-nine parks are in the index now, the famous ones included. These three pages come out of that table.
The most expensive safari parks in Africa
Ngorongoro charges $278 for a standard day and $148 of that is the descent into the crater. The ranking straight down, with the line item behind each number.
See the ranking →The most expensive parks for self-drivers
One person, one car, no one to split the vehicle fee or the campsite with. Uganda's foreign-vehicle tariff turns the order upside down.
See the self-drive ranking →Africa's most expensive published safari beds
The highest nightly rates any camp in our network puts in writing, and why the real top of the market names no price at all.
See the rates →Latest updates to this guide
Every change to this guide, dated.
- 2026-09-24 First edition: entry fees with both the ZimParks gazette and the trust's levy, 38 places to stay including the houseboat fleet, routes across the lake, wildlife, best time and a page for every month. See the page