Six Senses Stilted Eco-Lodges on the Zambezi

 November 17, 2022 - Here’s one for wildlife lovers. Six Senses enters its first sub-Saharan project with a riverside game reserve and wellness resort within Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls National Park. Hippos are very much included.

Raised and concealed among the trees, the lodges at Six Senses Victoria Falls will front Princess Elizabeth Island on the approach to the largest waterfall in the world. The resort will offer uncompromising and sumptuous hospitality within a UNESCO-protected area while blending into the verdant nature all around.

Green and gorgeous

The modular scheme of Six Senses Victoria Falls consists of a series of lodges and villas connected by raised walkways and bridges. This balances stringent environmental standards, a weightless aesthetic, and mighty engineering. After all, the stilts need to withstand a heavy knock from a passing elephant!

Everything has been designed around what’s most important: giving you a bird’s eye platform and authentic connection with the natural flora and fauna, which in Zimbabwe come in size XXL. Elephants, pods of hippos, buffalo, big cats, and primates roam the banks of the Zambezi.

Guest services

From the main welcome pavilion, you’ll transfer to the lounge lobby, where amenities will include a raised restaurant and lounge, specialty dining and braai bar, and sunset look-out bar. The Six Senses Spa and wellness facilities will include four treatment rooms, a gym, a yoga deck, outdoor hot pools, a panoramic sauna, and an integrated retail and concept store. The jungle gym is literal, and you’re therefore accompanied by a ranger. 

Along with on-site signature experiences such as the Earth Lab, Alchemy Bar, and Grow With Six Senses children’s activities, Six Senses Victoria Falls couldn’t be better placed for access to the river on the Six Senses cruiser, the falls, the game reserves, and paying homage to Zimbabwe’s heritage and artisan culture.

Accommodations

In addition to the 22 lodges with private terraces, there will be 15 deluxe lodges with suspended pools. Some of these lodges can be inter-connected. Plans are also afoot for 17 individual pool villas, nine of which offer multi-bedroom accommodation. The design brief is to capture Zimbabwe’s  eclectic and authentic spirit, with timber floors and natural finishes serving as a canvas to showcase ceremonial and bespoke furnishings and artwork. The aim is to achieve timeless sophistication and comfort overlayed with colors, textures, and craftsmanship.

The seamless blurring of the interior and exterior design evokes reconnection to nature and moments of mindfulness to breathe in the savannah breezes and river mists to the rhythm of a chirruping cicada. 

Six Senses Victoria Falls is slated to open in 2025. 

Source: Stilted Eco-Lodges on the Zambezi (17/11/2022)

[Read more on this controversial proposal on the Keep Victoria Falls Wild website.]