Bulawayo's location makes it easier to access by road from Botswana and from South Africa. Bulawayo in some 100km away from the Zimbabwe-Botswana boarder at Plumtree and some 200km away from Franscistown Botswana's second largest city after Gaborone.
Visitors from South Africa or Botswana can therefore travel to Bulawayo by road. The roads from both countries to this city are well maintained with moderately busy traffic which peaks during key holiday seasons such as Christimas holidays. There are also public luxury buses that travel to Bulawayo from South Africa and Botswana including haulage trucks which many use as hitchhickers.
It is also possible to organise your Bulawayo travel using different airlines that fly to Bulawayo namely South African Airways, Air Zimbabwe and British Airways operated by Comair of South Africa. South African Airways flies into Bulawayo from Johannesburg on a daily basis. Bulawayo flights are available online offering these available routes and prices.
Some visitors to Bulawayo also prefer to travel from Harare after having flown from Johannesburg or direct from London on Air Zimbabwe. Air Zimbabwe flies daily to Bulawayo even though it has serious reliability issues. Flights often get cancelled overnight without prior notice to preparing passengers.
Amazingly, recently the government banned the launch of a new air line - Fly Kumba- (meaning fly home) on the eve of its inagural flight directing that no airline would service the same routes as Air Zimbabwe. Other airlines come to Harare such as Ethopian Airlines and Egypt Airlines, Kenya Airways and Air Malawi. Since the problems in Zimbabwe and the deteriorating Zimbabwe economy over the past 10 years most airlines pulled out of Harare.
Recently a newspaper report indicated that British Airways will be returning to Zimbabwe in March/April 2010. Some visitors to Zimbabwe also prefer to drive to Bulawayo from Harare. There are reputable car hire companies in Harare such as Avis and Europcar. However these still face a challenge with processing some international cards. At the time of this post in early February 2010 they were only accepting VISA cards. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is overall in charge of ensuring more cards are functioning in Zimbabwe.
There are other numerous professional car hire companies in Harare which are not international brands but locally recognised brands. These compete well with the big names above and obviously have more affordable rates. Private individuals may also offer their cars for hire, however visitors just need to ensure the car is in good condition and has all its papers in place to avoid trouble with the traffic police on the highways.
When planning your Bulawayo travel by road, budget the entire day and plan some stops in-between in cities such as Kwekwe and Gweru. These are located centrally between the two points and have fairly good facilities for your rest and eats even overnight stops. The trip takes altogether some 6 hours to complete at averge comfortable speed. On the way there are some frequent toll gates that cost USD1.00 for small passanger cars.
Other accepted currencies at the toll gates are Botswana Pula (BWP), Euro, South African Rand and British Pound. Since the dimise of the Zimbabwe currency and weaking of the exchange rate, Zimbabwe's recovering economy now runs on multi-currencies.
Zimbabwe's roads are almost free of highway criminals. Visitors may travel without fear but yet alert. Giving a ride to strangers is generally discouraged by the police.
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