I am going next month, and this is what my travel compnay says: Don't trade money with street dealers. Use banks or hotels. All hotel accounts must be settled in foreign currency (like US dollars or SA rands). The hotel must bill you for your extras in Zimbabwe dollars; however, payment must be in foreign currency (like US dollars). Hotels only accept US notes printed after 2001. If you wish to pay in Zimbabwe dollar, you must pay for meals and beverages (even in the hotel) at the time they are consumed. If you charge it to your room, it must be paid in US dollars (or other foreign). Payment of hotel accounts should be made in foreign currency, but it may be made if you (1) produce an official receipt from a bank or authorized dealer indicating you have changed foreign currency into local currency. The receipt must clearly indicate that you hae exchanged sufficient funds to settle the amount on the invoice. The hotel will be required to stamp teh receipt with the amount utilized in paying your account. (2) Payments of hotel accounts may also be made in local currency if you have changed foreign currency at the hotel desk and have a hotel receipt for the exchange. Most Zimbabwe hotels, restaurants, shops no longer process credit cards. You need to bring sufficient amount of cash (US or SA or such. You need small denominations printed after 2001 (if US).

I hope this helps.

Hi thanks for the update. Hard to believe I'm asking all of this about a country we lived in until 20 years ago. Just goes to show you how much has changed! I'd be really interested to hear your views and comments about your trip plus anymore tips! I have to admit considering staying on the Zambian side - maybe that's just because of all the stuff in the news. Hope you have a great trip look forward to your updates - Karry

It can be quite a problem. Holiday companies have, of course to offer the 'official' advice as it is illegal to change foreign currency on the 'blackmarket' Unfortunately the whole country is run on 'blacmmarket' rates not official rates. The last official rate I heard was something like USD1 = Zim$30000 however the unofficial rate (which changes at an alarming rate) was USD1 = Zim$2,000,000. The last 'official' inflation rate (published in Feb2008) was 165,000 % but the latest guestimate was over 1,000,000 %. Very difficult to comprhend. So if the hotel etc are going to bill you in Zim$ but expect payment in USD then it all depends on the rate of exchange they are using.

Just to show how ridiculous the financial market is in Zim, it is reported today, Thursday, that ONE USD is now trading for 5,200,000,000 (5.2 BILLION) Zim dollars, which is nearly double the rate last week !!

It's really something else eh? It's obviously going to get much worse and much more expensive - apparently the latest through the grapevine is that tourists are being targeted at road blocks in the main tourists destinations as well - anyone know how true that is?

i would be interested to hear if tourists are being targeted. We will be there the second week of July. I'm hoping with the elections over, things will be calmer. I don't plan on changing my reservations, but we will certainly be cautious! I have pre-paid for several activities, so I hope that helps us as well.

Hi

We were in Vic Falls just under 2 weeks ago, when the rate was about 3.5-4.5 billion zim to the USD. It literally changed every day. We came armed with USD as we were not sure of the situation. We stayed at the Shoestrings Backpackers.

Ok, so firstly we did NOT notice anything at all alarming (although I acknowledge the situation has changed even in the last 2 weeks). Everyone there reassured us that Vic Falls seems to stay out of any political problems historically and doesnt tend to see any of the issues (although they did say there is slightly more of a police presence than normal) Honestly I felt safer in Vic Falls than JoBurg!

We got to know a few of the locals (as the backpackers is also the local bar). They recommended, if we wanted to use Zim dollars, to only exchange about 10 US a day, as the exchange rate is moving so quickly. We went down to the bank to do this, the queues were so mad we just decided not to bother doing this, and paid everything in USD - which was just not a problem and a lot easier. It was mad to see someone pay for 2 beers (8 billion Zim by the way) with this HUGE wad of cash!

We were wandering around on our own and the only pain was touts, who are so desperate they even want to trade your old socks for souvenirs. We were told by the staff at the backpackers the touts really are struggling at the moment.

Its my understanding most of the major hotels and activity centres take credit cards but its easy to check (email hotel or one of the tour operators directly) - but they often put a 5% "processing" charge on this. My suggestion is work out what you want to do before you get there and take the cash. There arent really a large range of restaurants and pubs to go drinking in, so you will probably find most of the places you go are tourist places that will definitely accept USD. One Australian couple we met ran out of USD, so were paying for stamps at their hotel in Australian money and getting USD change - so where there is money to be spent people will find a way of taking it from you.

Hope all goes well and your trip ends up happening!

hi, thanks for all the updates. We chickened out of staying at the Victoria Falls Hotel primarily for the reason of the road blocks that have been put in place in lots of areas running up to the elections and my brother who still lives in Harare advised that for ease just to stay Zambian side. Really disappointed but will still get to see both sides of the falls and show our now grown up kids that part of their heritage. We wanted to avoid as much hassle as possible and will still have a great time I'm sure. Anyone having recently got back from a trip since the elections with anything new to report and advice it'd be gratefully received.

Hi Our family just returned from Zimbabwe 20th July 08 visted Harare, Vic Falls And Hwange national park areas at all time we felt safe and didn't find anything that made us uncomfortable to be travelling there we found small $US dollars where the easiest to have had Visa was taken at the hotels. go and enjoy the people are wonderful and welcoming and as they tourism is so slow they are more than willing to accomadate your needs.

Thanks for all the info. Any truth in the fact that Mastercard is not accepted at all in Zimbabwe or Zambia - don't quite believe it myself?