Luxury route
Rovos Rail
Pretoria → Victoria Falls · South Africa · Botswana · Zimbabwe
“The Pride of Africa”: teak-panelled suites through the bushveld to the smoke that thunders.
Rohan Vos rescued derelict coaches from scrapyards and ran his first restored train in 1989; departures now leave from his own Capital Park station in Pretoria. Three unhurried days roll north through bushveld and baobab country into Zimbabwe, sometimes routed through Botswana, with a pause among the Matobo Hills’ granite domes or a dawn game drive in Hwange. Dinner is jacket-and-tie, phones stay in the suites, and arrival comes within drifting distance of the Falls’ spray.
Along the way
- Capital Park station, Pretoria
- Bushveld and baobab country
- Matobo Hills granite domes
- Hwange National Park game drive
- Victoria Falls spray on arrival
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from 3 OpenStreetMap relations, their own nodes end to end: relation 2117113 (263 km), relation 2114192 (778 km), relation 2276102 (465 km) — 1,506 km of the route between them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: 98.3% of this line lies within 250 m of real track (median 15 m); the longest stretch away from it is 7.5 km
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: Rovos Rail — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the Rovos Rail?
The Rovos Rail runs 1,600 km from Pretoria to Victoria Falls. It runs through South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
How long does the Rovos Rail take?
The fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 3 days for the 1,600 km. The line's top service speed is 90 km/h.
Who runs the Rovos Rail?
Rovos Rail, with restored Edwardian stock.
How old is the Rovos Rail?
The line has been in service since 1989. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
How often does the Rovos Rail run?
Scheduled departures 1–3× monthly.
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