Where to Stay in Harare: Best Areas Compared

Unlike cities where visitors cluster in the downtown core, almost every leisure traveller in Harare does better staying in the leafy northern and eastern suburbs. While the Central Business District holds historic hotels near Harare Gardens, the suburbs three to ten kilometres north offer tranquil jacaranda-lined streets, secure garden compounds, swimming pools and walking access to Harare's best restaurants and cafés.

Avondale, Belgravia and Milton Park (best central-suburban balance)

Sitting just three to four kilometres north-west of the downtown grid along King George Road and Second Street Extension, Avondale and neighbouring Belgravia give you the shortest drive to the National Gallery and Harare Gardens while keeping you in a peaceful residential setting. You are within walking distance or a five-minute taxi hop of Avondale Flea Market, traditional restaurants like Gava's, supermarkets, bookshops and embassy villas converted into intimate boutique guesthouses.

Newlands, Highlands and Chisipite (quiet diplomatic gardens)

Stretching north-east from the centre toward Enterprise Road, Newlands and Highlands are classic old-Harare garden suburbs shaded by towering msasa and jacaranda trees. Accommodation here consists mainly of colonial-era homesteads and modern architectural lodges set in multi-acre gardens with lap pools and birdsong. You are well placed for quick drives east to Chapungu Sculpture Park in Msasa and south to Mukuvisi Woodlands, with popular dining hubs around Newlands Shopping Centre and Highland Park.

Borrowdale, Ballantyne Park and Sam Levy's Village (upscale northern hub)

Ten kilometres north of downtown along Borrowdale Road, Borrowdale is Harare's most affluent residential and dining district. Centred around the open-air red-brick lanes of Sam Levy's Village, the area offers upmarket boutique hotels, luxury lodge suites, wine bars, sushi and steakhouse terraces, and immediate road access north to the granite domes and rock paintings of Domboshava. If you want polished evening dining and shopping right outside your gate, Borrowdale is the top pick.

Central Business District and the Kopje (business and transit)

Around Africa Unity Square and the southern edge of Harare Gardens stand the city's large multi-storey business hotels, including the historic Meikles complex. Staying downtown puts you next to the National Gallery and ministries, though the surrounding streets empty out after office hours, so you will take taxis north to the suburbs for dinner.