Every lodge, camp and campsite in and around the park, from simple campsites to exclusive-use camps on the game circuits. Independently listed, and nobody can pay to rank higher.
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Kafue's accommodation is almost entirely independent: sixteen of the 27 places to stay are owner-run, often by the families who built them, and Mayukuyuku and Musungwa are Zambian-owned. African Parks owns and operates no beds in the park; all accommodation is third-party concession, and the only genuinely park-run beds are the basic DNPW chalets at Chunga. Look for the green and brown badges if you want your money to stay close to the park.
Stone-and-thatch chalets and safari tents, self-catering possible · East bank of the Kafue River, northern sector
A rustic independent lodge that wears its history: the stone in the walls came from Zambia's oldest copper mine nearby. Walks go out with African Parks rangers, and the self-catering houses make it one of the very few in-park addresses you can do on a modest budget. David and Elke Chivers bought the lodge in November 2024 and told us so themselves. Two things to plan around: the lodge takes no cards at all, so bring cash in dollars, euros, sterling or kwacha, and a booking needs 50 percent down with the balance 30 days before you arrive. Book through hippolodgezambia.com; the old hippolodge.com domain is now a parked sale page.
Campsite under a wild fig plus en-suite tents · Northern sector
One of the small band of self-drive campsites African Parks itself points visitors to. Pitch your own tent under the fig or take one of the en-suite tents if the drive up defeated you.
Campsite
From $45 pppn camping1 May to 31 October, told to us by the camp on 1 September 2026
Small luxury tented camp · Central sector, 45 minutes south of the M9 river crossing
Four suites and a lot of water: each has its own plunge pool or hot tub, an indulgence almost nothing else in Kafue offers at this size. Two activities a day are in the rate, drawn from game drives, river trips, walking safaris and a wetland bird hide, and the camp sits between the Kafue River and a natural wetland in the central sector.
Swimming pool
En-suite bathrooms
From $640 pppnMarch to December on their rate sheet; January and February are not priced
High-spec luxury tented camp · Busanga Plains, fig-tree island in the far north-west
Wilderness's flagship in Zambia, on a fig-tree island in the middle of the Busanga Plains. The raised decks look straight over the seasonal floodplain and the lion prides that hunt it. Note that Wilderness has exactly two Kafue camps, this and Busanga Bush Camp; the 'Wilderness Kafue' and 'Busanga Explorers Camp' you may read about do not exist.
Rustic-luxury tented camp · Busanga Plains, sycamore-fig island
The intimate sister to Shumba: four tents on a sycamore-fig island with an unshared slice of the plains around it. Smaller, quieter and a shade less formal, and the one Busanga camp where the whole guest list fits around a single fire.
Small tented camp · Busanga Plains, tree island mid-plains
Mukambi's seasonal outpost on the plains, and a marker of the realistic Busanga calendar: it opens on 15 July, not in June. If you see it listed as Mukambi Plains Camp with bucket showers, that is the old name and a stale description; the camp now runs an infinity pool and a star bed.
A guiding-led camp in the middle of the plains where the money goes into the field team rather than the furniture. For birders chasing the Busanga specials, the in-house expertise is the draw.
Rustic thatched riverside camp with satellite bush camp and campsite · Central-north, at the Kafue-Mushingashi confluence
Founded by Chris and Charlotte McBride and now under new management. The setting does the work: a river confluence, a hot spring, the ruins of Zambia's oldest copper mine and a sector of the park where you will rarely see another car.
Thatched river lodge and luxury tents · Kafue River bank at the M9, central sector
The natural first stop: on the riverbank where the M9 crosses the Kafue, reachable in an ordinary car about four hours from Lusaka. Founded in 2001 by a Dutch family and still independently owned. Sources disagree on whether the lodge stands inside or just outside the gazetted boundary. Either way its game drives run in the park.
Treehouse-style tented camp · Central-west, on the Shishamba lagoon
Mukambi's bush camp on a lagoon deeper into the park, established 2015. Four raised tents watch a waterhole that does the game-viewing for you between drives, and the star bed is the way to spend at least one of your nights.
Eco-luxury tented lodge · Kafue River, central-south
The camp that brought electric safari vehicles to Zambia, on the bank of the Kafue with an eleven-month season that makes it a rare green-season option. The operator describes it as in-park; other sources place it just outside the boundary.
From $600 pppn1 March to 31 January; closed February only
River chalets, campsite, glamping and a wilderness site · Central, on the Kafue River off the Spinal Road
The camp that makes Kafue work at every budget, and one of very few that publishes its full rate card. Campsite pitches have private fireplaces on the riverbank, and the chalets stand comparison with lodges at twice the price. Know that there is zero phone signal: tell people at home before you disappear.
Campsite
En-suite bathrooms
Self-catering
From $35 campingLodge April to December; campsite and glamping year-round; wilderness site May to November
Tented chalets plus a separate self-drive campsite · Kafue River bend, 8 km off the M9, southern edge of the northern sector
Shut. Mayukuyuku closed on 1 December 2025 for renovations after the former directors Pippa Turner and Patrick Moyo sold it to Agrofuel Investments, who also own Zamlodge Chalets and Campsite in Kafue; the staff were kept on. No reopening date has been announced anywhere, and both mayukuyuku.com and kafuecamps.com failed to resolve when we checked on 3 September 2026. Reported by Zambia Tourism on 11 November 2025. Do not build a trip around this camp until it says otherwise itself.
Closed, last rates were 2025Closed until further notice: shut on 1 December 2025 for renovation under new ownership, with no reopening announced
Meru tented chalets, family house, treehouse sleep-outs and private campsites · Namwala GMA, east bank of the Kafue; the park is 10 minutes by boat
On the east bank in the Namwala GMA, where the river itself is the park boundary, which is why a stay here incurs no daily park entry fee; you pay only for river activities and any day you cross into the park. Many guides wrongly place KaingU inside the park. The rapids-and-islands stretch of river it sits on is the prettiest in Kafue, and it is the park's canoeing specialist.
Luxury tented lodge, tents of about 67 m² on raised decks · Southern shore of Lake Itezhi-Tezhi
Four huge tents alone on the in-park lakeshore, with a night-drive programme built around mapped aardvark burrows that gives you a real shot at one of Africa's hardest animals. Be aware the lake itself is severely depleted after two drought seasons, so come for the game, not for lake scenery.
Rustic-comfortable bush camp with a teak deck lounge · Nanzhila Plains, far south, on a dambo edge
The southern sector's game-viewing heart, marketed as the home of the predators and delivering the park's best small-carnivore night drives. Counter-intuitively it runs the shortest season in Kafue, mid-June to mid-October, because season length here tracks ground conditions rather than latitude.
Tented chalets · Lake Itezhi-Tezhi shoreline at the Musa riverbed
The sister camp on the lakeshore, at its best late in the year when predators concentrate along the receding water. The camp carries a standing notice that the lake has not returned after two drought seasons. The wildlife has stayed regardless.
Conventional lake-view lodge, self-catering houses and campsite · Lake Itezhi-Tezhi shore at Shanjungu, at the park boundary
A conventional Zambian lodge rather than a safari camp, and that is its value: real rooms from $100, self-catering houses and a campsite, all published in an official tariff. The right base for exploring southern Kafue on a budget with your own vehicle.
Eco-luxury nest-architecture camp · Busanga Plains, tree-lined island
Opened in 2021 and unlike anything else in the park: four rooms woven like colossal weaver nests in the trees of a Busanga island. Game drives happen in silent electric vehicles, which changes how close the wildlife lets you come.
Rates on requestBusanga season, roughly June to October
Simple thatched bush camp · Southern tip of the Busanga Plains
The affordable way onto the Busanga Plains: bucket showers, lamplight and five rebuilt chalets at the southern edge of the grassland. The cheetah record speaks for itself, and this corner of the plains is the best place in Zambia to look for them.
Owner-run tented chalets · Central-north, riverine forest over a lagoon off the Kafue River
The camp serious safari-goers name first in Kafue. It grew out of what was Jeffery & McKeith Safaris, now merged into Classic Zambia, and the attached conservation NGO runs anti-poaching across this sector. Walking is the point here, backed by hides and boat time on the river.
A sole-use camp on the northern Kafue for groups who want the river to themselves. You take the entire camp with its own guide and vehicle, which for a family works out closer to mid-range per person than the exclusivity suggests.
Tented suites with pool and spa · North, at the Moshi-Lufupa confluence
A newer tented camp bringing pool-and-spa comfort to a sector that mostly does bucket showers. It sits where the Moshi meets the Lufupa, with the game circuits of the north-west within reach.
The remotest listing in this guide, on the Lunga River in Kafue's far north. This is for second or third visits, or for people whose priority is simply distance from everyone else.
Rustic wilderness campsite · North, on the route toward Busanga
A rustic site on the northern route, useful because wild camping is prohibited everywhere in Kafue and the distances are enormous. Basic by design: come self-sufficient.
International-brand luxury tented camp · Central Kafue, on the Kafue River
Minor Hotels' arrival reshapes the top of the Kafue market: no international chain has operated here before. We could not verify the opening date, exact location or rates from the operator's own site, so treat this listing as provisional and confirm everything directly.
Basic chalets and campsite · Central, on the Kafue River near the M9
Chunga now functions mainly as park headquarters and airfield, and the old DNPW camp beside it is the one state-run facility we could identify. Nothing about it is bookable online; ask at the gate or through DNPW, and have a fallback plan.
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Every price on this page is in US dollars.
Indicative 2026 rates from operators' own rate cards and published tariffs, gathered July 2026. Many Kafue camps quote on enquiry only. Watch two things when comparing: whether park fees are included (Mayukuyuku and Konkamoya include them, most others do not), and conservation levies of $30 to $40 a night at some camps. A caution on older guides: Lufupa River Camp, Lufupa Tented Camp, Leopard Lodge and Puku Pan all appear closed or dormant, Mukambi Plains Camp is simply the old name of Busanga Plains Camp, and the Jeffery & McKeith brand merged into Classic Zambia Safaris. We list none of them as live options.
Facilities and activities come from each property's own website, read in July 2026. We only record what that property's own page states. A blank means we could not check it, not that it is missing. Filtering on a facility shows only what we confirmed, and tells you how many places we could not check.
