Bulawayo

If Harare is Zimbabwe's capital, Bulawayo is its older heart. This is the country's second city and the centre of Matabeleland, and it does not feel like Harare at all: it is quieter, flatter, drier, and laid out on a grand scale that catches every first-time visitor off guard. For a travelling cricket fan it is the tournament's calmer stop, and one with real depth of history behind it.

The name tells you where to begin. Bulawayo comes from kwaBulawayo — loosely, "the place of the one who is being killed" — the royal town of King Lobengula, last king of the Ndebele, in the turbulent years before colonial rule. That royal past is why the city is still called the City of Kings, and it sits underneath everything else here, including the cricket.

Queens Sports Club is Zimbabwe's second Test ground, the one that is not in the capital. It sits in the middle of Bulawayo, an easy walk from the main hotels, and it is a proper club ground rather than a stadium: a pavilion, grass banks and boundary-edge seats, the kind of place where you sit close to the game rather than above it.

Its most famous day came in December 1996. Zimbabwe and England played out the first Test in the history of the game to finish with the scores exactly level — England ended on 204 for 6, needing 205, the match a draw by the width of a single run. It produced one of cricket's best-known post-match lines and it is still the first thing many fans associate with this ground.

Queens is a confirmed venue for Cricket World Cup 2027. Its exact capacity is quoted differently in different places and Zimbabwe Cricket has flagged upgrades for the tournament, and the fixture list has not been published, so treat both the number and the schedule as provisional and follow the official ticket and fixture information as it is confirmed.

Because Queens is central, a match day here is refreshingly simple. Most visitors stay in the CBD within walking distance of the ground, or a few minutes away in the nearer suburbs, so there is little of the long stadium commute you get in the bigger host cities. The scale is human: short queues, easy movement, and a crowd you feel part of.

Time it for heat. October and November are the hot, dry weeks before the rains, and Bulawayo sits high enough — a little over 1,300 metres — that the sun is stronger than the air temperature suggests, even if the altitude keeps nights pleasant. A hat, sunscreen, water and a plan for afternoon shade will do more for your day than almost anything else.

The first thing you notice in central Bulawayo is the width of the streets. The city was laid out in the 1890s on a generous grid, and the enduring local story is that the main roads were made broad enough to turn a full span of oxen — a wagon and team — without having to reverse. Whether or not every detail holds up, the effect is real: broad, straight, low-rise avenues that give the centre a calm, unhurried openness.

That grid is lined with some of the best-preserved early-twentieth-century architecture in the region, and the city wears it plainly rather than as a showpiece. Walking the CBD by day is the simplest way to read Bulawayo: the scale, the shopfronts and the quiet tell you a lot about a place that was built to be Matabeleland's working capital.

Bulawayo grew up as Zimbabwe's railway city, the junction where lines from South Africa, the coast and the interior met, and that history is still visible. The Bulawayo Railway Museum keeps old steam locomotives and carriages from that era, and it is a genuinely absorbing hour even if trains are not your thing — it explains how this particular city came to exist.

The other side of Bulawayo is its arts scene. The city has a long reputation for jazz, mbira and theatre, and it hosts some of the country's best-known cultural events. Spots like the Indaba Book Café sit at the centre of that, mixing live music with a place to sit and read the city. It gives Bulawayo an evening character that is more listening than clubbing.

The staple to try is sadza — a thick maize-meal porridge — eaten with grilled or stewed meat and greens, and it is best somewhere busy and local rather than in a hotel dining room. Bulawayo is cattle country, so a good steak is easy to find, and the braai (a grill over coals) is as much a social occasion here as a meal.

By day the city has an unhurried cafe culture that suits its pace, from the arts-minded Indaba Book Café to old-establishment dining rooms like the Bulawayo Club. It is not a big restaurant city, but what it has, it does without fuss — which is very much the Bulawayo way.

Bulawayo's signature landscape is the Matobo Hills, about an hour south — a UNESCO World Heritage site of balancing granite boulders, some of the richest San rock art in the region, black and white rhino on foot with a guide, and the hilltop grave of Cecil Rhodes at the viewpoint he called World's View. It is the single day trip that most defines a visit here. Closer in, the Khami Ruins — a stone-built royal city and another World Heritage site — are about half an hour west.

The city is also a springboard for the wider country, though distances are real. Hwange, the country's largest national park, is two and a half to three hours away, and Victoria Falls is around five hours by road or a short flight. Plan those as their own legs rather than day trips. Our safari guide and Victoria Falls guide cover the onward trips in full.

Like the rest of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo runs largely on US dollars in cash. Bring clean, undamaged notes in small denominations — ones, fives, tens and twenties — because change can be hard to come by and cards are accepted only at some hotels and larger businesses. Cash machines are unreliable, so do not plan to withdraw your way through the trip; arrive with what you need.

Most visitors get a visa on arrival at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport, about 22 kilometres north of the centre and 25 to 30 minutes by road. If you intend to pair the cricket with Victoria Falls, the KAZA UniVisa covers Zimbabwe and Zambia and allows day trips into Botswana. Fees and rules change, so confirm the current terms before you fly and see our visa guide for the detail.

For getting around, arrange transfers through your accommodation or hire a car with a driver; ride-hailing exists but is limited, so do not rely on it. Bulawayo has a reputation as one of the calmer, friendlier cities in the region — the CBD is comfortable to walk by day — but take the usual sensible steps at night, use booked transport, and keep your passport secured with a copy on you.