Company has Zambian and Mozambican properties

Anantara Hotels Resorts & Spas is offering very different types of upscale southern Africa stays for H2O enthusiasts eager to experience plenty of water while on vacation.

The company teamed up with representation company Emerging Destinations on a recent webinar that promoted its Zambian hotel found by inland Victoria Falls — originally dubbed The Smoke That Thunders by locals because of the roar and mist created by the water crashing down — and its lodge on the Indian Ocean Mozambican island of Bazaruto, which Bongani Sikhosana, Anantara’s director of international sales for southern Africa, said features water of a more placid nature but which he said will still dazzle guests.

Anantara’s The Royal Livingstone is the only hotel found by Victoria Falls, providing guests with unlimited access to the attraction, which like the hotel is found in a national park.

“When you’re staying with us… you’ve got complimentary, unlimited access to the falls,” Sikhosana said.

All 123 of its guest units provide views of the Zambezi River, which feeds 1,708-meter-wide-and-108-meter-high Victoria Falls.

Adrenaline seekers can head for the Devil’s Pool, a shallow pool found next to the edge of the falls, with that experience offered in the June-November period, a time when water levels are lower.

Airborne views of the falls are also available for The Royal Livingstone guests on helicopter tours.

The Royal Livingstone has the likes of a restaurant and a spa that overlooks the Zambezi.

Sikhosana said guests will find themselves sharing resort grounds with different creatures, adding giraffes are found in the hotel’s “backyard. You see them on a daily basis. You can just wake up, open your window and there will be a giraffe in your window frame.

“We’ve got our giraffes, we’ve got our zebras, we’ve got our impalas,” with those mammals being free-roaming, he reported. Also to be found are “naughty” monkeys.

Sikhosana said that the Anantara Bazaruto Island Resort has 44 villas found in a part of the world with some eye-catching natural attributes, including white-sand beaches facing turquoise ocean water.

Diving and snorkeling are offered to guests, with Sikhosana stating that those viewing  the coral and tropical fish are certain to be impressed.

“It’s just a beautiful rainbow to see when you’re snorkelling,” he said of the marine life’s bright hues.

Seasonal whale-watching is available as well.

Guests can also learn Mozambican cooking and go dune boarding on the second-highest dunes in Africa. “The view from those sand dunes is quite unparalleled…We’re a paradise of fun activities,” Sikhosana said of the resort.

Guests can choose from three restaurants.

Both the Zambian and Mozambican properties offer Fine Dining by Design, which invites people to dine at a spot of their choosing on resort grounds.

Sikhosana said Antantara has an altruistic side, having built a school and clinic for Mozambicans.