A new Tsowa Safari Island spa has opened on the banks of the Zambezi, giving UK business travellers who extend a southern Africa work trip a quiet place to recover upstream of Victoria Falls.
Tsowa River Spa sits among the trees on the private island lodge in Zimbabwe’s Zambezi National Park. Paige Gehren, co-founder of Tsowa Safari Island, describes it as “a place of energy and healing”. The opening comes as World Mental Health Day on 10 October puts stress and burnout back in the headlines.
The timing reflects a wider change in why people travel. In Hilton’s 2026 Trends Report, 56% of travellers named rest and recharging as their main reason for a leisure trip this year, while 57% of US respondents said they were interested in a quiet or silent retreat. The Global Wellness Summit’s 2026 forecast called nervous-system regulation “the next frontier” of wellness, alongside a growing backlash against tracking and optimising every hour of the day.
For employers, that matters beyond the holiday market. Staff who spend long stretches on the road are increasingly adding personal days to work trips, and the growth of bleisure travel has made destinations that offer real downtime more relevant to travel policy. Companies looking at how wellness fits into time away for work now have another option in a region better known for adventure than rest.
What the Tsowa Safari Island spa offers
Every treatment begins with a foot-cleansing ritual, using cool stones on hot days and warm stones when the weather turns.
The menu is built on two South African brands. Healing Earth, made with minerals and botanicals and free from synthetic fragrances, parabens and petrochemicals, is used for body, hand and foot treatments. Esse, a certified organic, vegan skincare line built around the skin’s microbiome, is used for facials.
The announcement does not give treatment prices or opening hours, so travellers should confirm both when booking.
How do you get to Tsowa Safari Island?
The island can only be reached by boat. Guests first take a game drive through the Zambezi National Park, then cross the river to the camp.
Victoria Falls and Botswana’s Chobe National Park are both within reach for a longer day out. British passport holders need a visa to visit Zimbabwe, and the KAZA Univisa also covers day trips into Botswana, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s entry requirements for Zimbabwe. Anyone bolting the stay on to a work trip should check with their employer where business travel insurance ends and personal cover needs to begin.
A small camp built for quiet
The lodge has just nine tents and takes a maximum of 18 guests. The tents stand roughly 20 metres apart among the riverside trees, and no mature trees were removed during construction, so each has a clear outlook on the water. The camp runs on solar power with no generators, leaving the river and the wildlife as the only background noise.
There is no fixed schedule, and guests decide how much or how little to do. Options include canoeing along quiet channels, walking the island in search of Pel’s fishing owl and African finfoot, sunset cruises and evenings on the fire deck overlooking the river. Alternatively, guests can book a treatment and spend the afternoon on their private deck.
That lack of structure is the point for travellers arriving at the end of a demanding run of meetings. With so few beds, space is limited, so those planning to add a stay to a trip to the region should book well ahead. The Tsowa Safari Island spa will not sit inside most travel policies, but as a self-funded extension it offers a rare thing on a work itinerary, which is nothing to do.
