VacationSelector
Victoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter, Victoria Falls
Victoria FallsVictoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Victoria Falls by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Victoria Falls or Wilmington?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Victoria Falls for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria Falls’s own page.

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Victoria Falls 7, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Victoria Falls 24, Wilmington 48: Wilmington leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Victoria Falls 12, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Victoria Falls 8, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Victoria Falls 94, Wilmington 58: Victoria Falls leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Victoria Falls 22, Wilmington 45: Wilmington leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Victoria Falls 38, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Victoria Falls 45, Wilmington 28: Victoria Falls leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Victoria Falls 18, Wilmington 33: Wilmington leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Victoria Falls 32, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Victoria Falls 10, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Victoria Falls 34, Wilmington 33: Victoria Falls leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Victoria Falls and Wilmington.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Victoria Falls
29match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Wilmington
Best match
45match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Victoria Falls in July

26 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Victoria FallsWilmington

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Victoria Falls: 1991-2020 normals, Livingstone (13.1 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureVictoria FallsWilmington
Official languageEnglish, Xhosa, Ndau, Venda, Chewa, Khoisan, Kalanga, Shona, Tonga, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Northern Ndebele, Nambya, Zimbabwe Sign Language, Barwe-
CurrencyZimbabwe Gold (ZWG)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number999911
Elevation961 m9 m
Main airportVictoria Falls International Airport (VFA)18 km from centre12 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureVictoria FallsWilmington
City population33,060115,451
People per km²-839
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Victoria Falls or Wilmington somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.