Livingstone

Livingstone is deep inland on the Zambezi, far from any coast, and there is no beach life here. The river itself is not for casual swimming: crocodiles and hippos live in it and the current above the falls is strong. Most visitors swim in a lodge or hotel pool.

The one exception is a novelty rather than a beach. When the river runs low in the second half of the year, guided groups swim in Devil's Pool and Angel's Pool, natural rock basins on the very lip of the falls. It is a memorable half-hour, not something to plan a beach vacation around.

Eating in Livingstone is mostly done in lodges and a short list of town restaurants along the main road, serving grills, game meat and international plates for visitors. The local staple is nshima, a stiff maize porridge eaten by hand with relishes, greens and stews, and Zambezi bream, grilled or fried whole, is the dish worth seeking out.

The most memorable meals tend to be about setting rather than cooking: dinner on a lodge deck above the river or drinks on a sunset cruise. Range and depth are limited, and nobody comes here for the food.

The town's own sights are modest but have character. The Livingstone Museum is Zambia's oldest and largest, with archaeology, ethnography and a collection of David Livingstone's letters and belongings. A railway museum holds steam locomotives from the line that brought the town into being, and the main road keeps a row of colonial-era buildings with verandas and tin roofs.

The Victoria Falls Bridge, a steel arch built in the first years of the twentieth century across the gorge to Zimbabwe, is the landmark people remember, and a small field museum near the falls covers the deep archaeology of the area. Visitors come for the falls and the river; the town is an afternoon of sightseeing at most.

Evenings in Livingstone start early with a sundowner on a river cruise or a lodge deck and usually end not long after dinner. A couple of backpacker hostels have lively bars, and the town has a handful of local pubs and taverns, but there is no club scene to speak of. Early starts for rafting and game drives keep most visitors' nights short.

Victoria Falls, Mosi-oa-Tunya, the smoke that thunders, sits about 10km from town, a curtain of water more than 1.7km wide dropping into a narrow basalt gorge. In high water from roughly March to May the spray soaks the rainforest paths and can be seen from far off; in the low season the Zambian side thins to bare rock, while the gorges and rapids come into their own.

Below the falls the Batoka Gorge holds some of the world's most demanding one-day white-water rafting, along with bungee, gorge swings and hikes down to the Boiling Pot. Above them, canoe trips and cruises pass hippos and elephants on the upper Zambezi. Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park has walking safaris to see white rhino, and Chobe National Park in Botswana, famous for its elephant herds, is an easy day by road and border crossing.

There are few other towns within easy reach. The obvious outing is across the Victoria Falls Bridge to Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls town, a small resort with its own view of the falls, its colonial-era hotel and a craft market, which needs a visa that many visitors cover with a combined regional one.

Mukuni, a Toka-Leya village whose chief is the traditional custodian of the falls, can be visited with a local guide. Kasane in Botswana, about an hour and a half away, is mainly a gateway to river and game safaris. Beyond that, the region's appeal is wildlife and landscape rather than places to visit.

Livingstone works best for families with older children and teenagers. Game drives, walking to see rhino, boat cruises among hippos and the spray of the falls are unforgettable at that age, and lodges with pools and gardens make good bases. Many of the headline activities, from rafting to gorge swings and Devil's Pool, carry minimum ages, though, and there are no attractions made for small children.

Malaria is present all year, which deters many parents of young children, and the heat before the rains in October and November can be punishing. Distances are short, but nearly everything is reached by vehicle.

The town centre is small and walkable along its main road, but the things visitors come for are not in it. The falls are about 10km away and most lodges are strung out along the Zambezi upstream, so taxis, lodge shuttles and activity operators' pick-ups do almost all the work. There is no public transport a visitor would realistically use.

In practice it is easy enough: activities usually include transfers, and taxis are plentiful. Walking along the roads outside town is not advised, since elephants roam the park edges.

Shopping here means crafts. The curio markets in town and by the falls entrance sell wood and soapstone carvings, woven baskets, beadwork and copper pieces, and bargaining is expected. Bright chitenge cloth from local fabric shops makes a better souvenir than most carvings. Beyond that there is a small mall for practical needs and nothing in the way of fashion or design.

Livingstone has two price levels. Local meals, minibuses, taxis and town guesthouses are cheap, and backpacker hostels make a budget stay possible. But what most visitors come to do is priced for international travellers: riverside lodges, entry to the falls and national parks, visas, and above all the activities, from rafting and helicopter flights to Devil's Pool and Chobe safaris.

A stay that keeps to the town and the falls walkways is modest in cost; one that fills each day with excursions quickly becomes expensive.

There is no theatre, concert hall or regular live-music scene. What a visitor can attend is traditional dance: drum and dance troupes perform at cultural centres in town and at lodge dinners, sometimes including the masked Makishi dancers of north-western Zambia. The Lwiindi ceremony of the Toka-Leya people is the main event on the traditional calendar.

There is no bathing or spa tradition here, and wellness means the spa treatments offered by the larger riverside lodges and hotels. What Livingstone does offer is a slow rhythm upstream of the falls: decks over the water, birdsong at dawn and hours with nothing to do between a morning game walk and an evening cruise.

That calm sits beside the town's other identity as an adrenaline base, so it is worth choosing a quiet lodge on the upper river for a restful stay.