By Sello Ramosepele · Founding Editor · 7 min read

Victoria Falls — Mosi-oa-Tunya, the Smoke that Thunders — announces itself from kilometres away, and by the time you step onto the veranda of the Royal Livingstone Hotel by Anantara, the spectacle before you is one that language has always struggled to contain.

The hotel sits on the Zambian bank of the Zambezi River, a few hundred metres from the lip of the falls. Zebras graze on the grass between the guest rooms. A family of warthogs trots past with the casual authority of residents who have been here rather longer than anyone.

The spa offers treatments inspired by traditional Zambian healing traditions — clay wraps using mineral-rich mud from the Zambezi, hot stone therapies using volcanic rocks from the Muchinga Mountains.

To stay at the Royal Livingstone is to understand, viscerally, what the phrase “wonder of the world” means. It is not merely a great hotel — it is an argument for the magnificence of the natural world.