Bulawayo — Art Deco, Food, and the Doorway to Matobo

Most travellers to Zimbabwe overnight in Bulawayo without seeing it. They land, transfer to Matobo Hills or Hwange, and never come back to walk the city. They miss the most consistently surprising urban afternoon in southern Africa.

Why the city is what it is

Bulawayo was laid out in the 1890s on a grid wide enough for a span of oxen to turn around — the streets are extravagantly broad. The boom years were the 1930s and 1940s, and the architecture is mostly art deco — one of the densest collections of original 1930s art deco buildings on the continent. Many of them are unrenovated, which is a curse for the city and a gift for the visitor; it looks like a film set.

What to do, in a half-day

The walking tour. Centenary Park, City Hall, the National Gallery, the National Museum (one of the most underrated natural history collections in southern Africa — complete dinosaur skeletons, full mounts of every Zimbabwean predator). Take the half-day Bulawayo City Walking Tour; the guides know the architecture by date and architect.

The food. Bulawayo is the only Zimbabwean city with a proper street-food culture — the Indian and Lebanese diaspora left a mark. The Food & Culture Walk is the simplest way to taste it.

The Railway Museum. Steam locomotives, signal boxes, and the tracks that built the country. Niche; extraordinary if you are at all interested in industrial history. Railway Heritage Tour.

Why we recommend a night

Most travellers transit through Bulawayo. We recommend at least one night before or after Matobo Hills. The granite landscapes of Matobo are forty minutes south of the city; one of the lodge groups we work with is on the road between the two. A night here means you arrive at Matobo rested, not after an international flight.

For a multi-day Bulawayo-and-Matobo journey: Stories in Stone — six days in Matabeleland, mostly Matobo with two Bulawayo days, designed to introduce both.

Plan a Bulawayo-anchored Zimbabwe journey.

— Josh