Best Things to Do in Harare

Harare rewards travellers who combine its museum-grade Shona sculpture studios and shady botanical parks with half-day excursions into the ancient granite landscape of the Mashonaland Highveld. Pair an indoor gallery or craft market in the morning with a woodland walk or hilltop sunset in the afternoon.

1. View Shona masterworks at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Step inside the modernist 1957 pavilion on the edge of Harare Gardens to see permanent and rotating collections of Zimbabwean stone sculpture, masks and contemporary painting.
2. Walk among open-air stone carvings at Chapungu Sculpture Park. Stroll through fifteen acres of msasa woodland in Msasa where hundreds of monumental serpentine, springstone and opal-stone sculptures by first- and second-generation Shona masters stand under the trees, and watch resident carvers at work with chisels and rasps.
3. Marvel at the Chiremba Balancing Rocks in Epworth. Drive thirteen kilometres south-east of the centre to see weathered granite boulders stacked in seemingly impossible equilibrium, including the iconic formation printed on Zimbabwe's banknotes.
4. Climb the granite dome of Domboshava for San rock art and sunset. Hike across streaked orange and grey lichen-covered granite whalebacks thirty kilometres north of town to inspect prehistoric hunter-gatherer cave paintings and watch the sun sink across the Highveld.
5. Spot giraffe, zebra and sable antelope in Mukuvisi Woodlands. Follow walking trails or join a horseback ride through 263 hectares of preserved indigenous miombo woodland right inside the city suburbs.
6. Book an afternoon at the Wild Is Life animal sanctuary. Meet orphaned elephants, giraffes, pangolins and kudu at a conservation sanctuary near the airport where rescued wildlife is rehabilitated for release.
7. Browse Avondale Flea Market and Doon Estate in Msasa. Shop for hand-caranked serpentine birds, Tonga woven baskets from Binga and hand-painted textiles.
8. Wander the National Botanic Garden in Alexandra Park. Explore 58 hectares showcasing Zimbabwe's miombo, lowveld baobab and eastern montane flora.
9. Take in the 360-degree skyline from the Kopje. Drive to the top of the granite hill where Neharawa's village once stood to see how Harare's avenues radiate across the plateau.
10. Share a platter of sadza, nyama and peanut-butter greens. Sit down at an open-air garden kitchen or cultural restaurant for Zimbabwe's signature Highveld comfort meal.