A rather sleepy old colonial town and the unforgettable sight of the Victoria Falls. No Zambia holiday would be complete without a visit to Livingstone and the Falls.

No prizes for guessing after whom Livingstone is named. This old colonial town, the capital of Zambia?s Southern Province, gets its name from David Livingstone, the explorer and missionary who was the first recorded white man to see the nearby Victoria falls in 1855. With a population of about 100,000 the towns main existence these days is through tourism, with thousands of visitors coming every year to see the falls. The town originally grew around a crossing place on the wide Zambezi river, the importance of which grew as the mineral reserves to the north became more and more exploited. It was the opening of the railway there in 1907 which heralded the heyday of the town however, with the British South Africa Company basing its headquarters there. When this moved on to Lusaka 3 decades later, Livingstone maintained its position thanks to the growth in agricultural products such as cotton, with timber and hides also bringing in money. It was during the first decades of the 20th century that the town gained its colonial style buildings, many of which still exist today.

The main attraction of a visit to Livingstone today is to see Victoria Falls, the largest waterfall in the world. Situated a few kilometres outside town, there is a whole range of hotels catering for visitors and many ways of seeing this fantastic spectacle: by boat, by helicopter, by foot and even upside down on the end of a bungee rope! Although not the highest or widest falls in the world, when you take their width of just over 1 mile, and add their average height of 360 ft, it is the largest curtain of solid water. What makes it especially spectacular is that you can get so close to the edge as the Zambezi river disappears into a deep gorge immediately after the drop. You get wet but it is well worth it. The noise is deafening and the hawkers selling plastic macs do a great trade during the rainy season.

The Falls are situated on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe and the current problems in the later have really helped Zambia establish itself as the leading place to see the Falls from. Not only this, quick access to Game-viewing both in Zambia and in the Chobe National Park in Botswana neam that it is a destination in itself, offering the world-famous falls and safari.