Luxury route
Rovos Rail
Pretoria → Victoria Falls · South Africa · Botswana · Zimbabwe
- Distance
- 1,600 km
- Fastest time
- ≈ 3 days
- Top speed
- 90 km/h
- Operator
- Rovos Rail
- Train
- Restored Edwardian stock
- Countries
- South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe
- In service since
- 1989
- Runs
- scheduled departures 1–3× monthly
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
“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.
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
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
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