Elephant Cafe
The exclusive Elephant Café is built on a wooden deck on the Zambezi River, upstream from Victoria Falls. Enjoy three magical experiences in one as you cruise up the Zambezi River, interact with elephants and dine in the tented restaurant.
The Elephant Café is built on a wooden deck on the Zambezi River, a 30-minute boat ride upriver from Victoria Falls. It sits in a place that is not only breathtaking, it’s imbued with an energy of interconnectedness and calm. It’s a place that invites in other wild animals like giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, and antelope from the surrounding Mosi-a-Tunya National Park. It’s a place that’s alive with bush-speak, from the throats of the river birds, from luxuriating hippos, from squabbling monkeys and baboons in the canopy overhead. It’s a place that carries the spirit of the elephant.
| Destination |
Elephant Cafe, Livingstone |
| Tour Starts |
Livingstone |
| Time & Duration |
Breakfast – $205
Time: 06:00
Duration: 4 hours (approx)Lunch – $230
Time: 10:00
Duration: 4,5 hours (approx)
High Tea – $190
Time: 14:00
Duration: 4 hours (approx)
Dinner – $230
Time: 15:00
Duration: 6 hours (approx) |
| Tour Ends |
Livingstone |
| Included |
- Return Transfer
- Meals
- Beverages
- Elephant Interaction
- $10 National Park Fees
|
| Excluded |
- Additional Services
- Items of personal nature
|
|
Details
Three magical experiences in one:
• A boat ride up the Zambezi River
• Elephant interaction
• Breakfast / Lunch / High Tea / Dinner
Enjoy a speedboat transfer (approx.30 mins) from Livingstone up the Zambezi River to the exclusive tented restaurant built on a wooden deck, upstream from Victoria Falls – the centrepoint of a riverside location that has been home to a herd of hand-reared elephants for many years. A road transfer option is also available.
You will then have the opportunity to meet the herd, learn their stories and enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime close encounter with these gentle giants before you are welcomed into The Elephant Café for a unique dining experience (Breakfast, Lunch, High Tea or Dinner) with Chef de Cuisine Annabel Hughes and her team who specialise in creating a foodie’s delight of fresh locally-sourced food and wild edibles.
Notification of any Special Dietary Requirements is essential!
Built on a deck over the Zambezi River with interior design done by Belinda Aston, the beautiful restaurant sits twenty-four guests and pre-booking is essential. Various meal options are available from early morning breakfast to three-course lunches, decadent high teas and a three-course dinner. The kitchen and restaurant are run by the amazingly talented Annabel Hughes. Her food is prepared using fresh local ingredients, with a strong focus on wild edibles, and thus the menu will change with the seasons.
Guests have the privilege of interacting with hand-reared elephants, of varying ages, before sitting down to eat their meal. The older elephants, like the bulls Bop, Danny and Madinda, were rescued from severe drought and culls decades ago, while others have assimilated from the wild, or were born into the herd. They are elephants that have grown up with safe human support using the “positive reinforcement method.” Being around them in close vicinity, discerning the rumble of their songs from deep within — sensing their wildness and enormity — touches something primal and very old within you. It’s an experience one will never forget.
Annabel is a partner in, and the Chef de Cuisine of, The Elephant Café. She writes the award-winning food and lifestyle blog, SavannaBel. Annabel, who was born in Kenya but grew up in Zimbabwe, moved to Livingstone three-and-a-half years ago. Although her primary career was journalism – which led her to working in places all over the world – food has always been a passion. After finishing high school, Annabel attended a French-inspired cookery
school in England, and in the subsequent years developed a heartfelt enthusiasm for gardening and foraging wild food. Annabel will take genuine pleasure in feeding our guests fresh, distinctive food that is as local as possible.
The Elephant Cafe offers African fusion food with a fine dining menu which changes according to the seasonal local and wild ingredients that are available at any given time. The Elephant Cafe offers unprocessed preservative-free food that is produced in Zambia. Many of the wild nuts, fruits and leaves that Annabel uses in her recipes are also much loved by the elephants.
