Pioneers: Our full report

Pioneers, officially called Pioneers Victoria Falls and sometimes referred to as Pioneers Lodge, is located ...

... in a quiet suburb 2km from the centre of Victoria Falls Town and 2.5km from the eponymous waterfall. While this location isn't quite as conveniently located as some of the other options in town its pleasant gardens, personalised service and pool promise to make this a relaxing option for your stay in Victoria Falls.

None of the Expert Africa team have stayed at Pioneers but on opening its sister property Batonka Guest Lodge quickly became one of our favourite options in the area so we are expecting great things here. Until we have visited here is a little more of what we know about the new property:

Pioneers opened in August 2021.
There are 50 air-conditioned rooms including four family rooms. Each has a verandah overlooking landscaped gardens with a pool acting as the centerpiece. We are expecting the rooms to be furnished and decorated in a similarly comfortable and stylish manner to those at Batonka.
The main area includes a small curio shop, activities desk, spacious indoor dining room, cozy lounge and extensive covered terrace overlooking the gardens. Both indoor and outdoor dining will be offered and WiFi will be available throughout the property.

Pioneers location probably makes walking into town or to the Falls a bit of a stretch for most but we'd expect the lodge to have a fixed price taxi transfer service in place on opening, in the same way that Batonka does.

Our view

We have not had the chance to visit Pioneers Camp yet, but both our team and our travellers have enjoyed our stays at its sister property, Batonka Guest Lodge. We expect that Pioneers will be another excellent option in the Falls and we look forward to visiting as soon as we can.

Tom Morris

Country manager: Zimbabwe

Geographics

Location: Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Ideal length of stay: If your only plan to see the waterfall, then a two-night stay gives you a full day to do this. If you are keen to do more activities in the area, we'd suggest you consider more.
Accessible by: Fly-and-Transfer

Food & drink

Usual board basis: Bed & Breakfast
Dining style: Individual Tables
Dining locations: Indoor and Outdoor Dining

Children

Attitude towards children

Our travellers’ wildlife sightings from Pioneers

Since mid-2018, many of our travellers who stayed at Pioneers have kindly recorded their wildlife sightings and shared them with us. The results are below. Click an animal to see more, and here to see more on our methodology.