We were recommended Chanter's by a friend and after the 7 hour bus journey from Lusaka was delighted on arrival.
The lodge was very clean, with extremely helpful staff, and most importantly had excellent air con! The swimming pool was also the perfect place to relax and cool down as our days were generally very active.
The lodge does exceptional Zambian food - and as its located close to town you can easily walk.
We stopped at the Royal Livingstone which despite being amazing for watching the sunset and looking very upmarket, is not somewhere i would choose to stay. It comes across as very colonial, and is so far from the town you could quite easily stay there and never experience teh Zambian culture.
Also to mention the prices were more than reasonable!

Chanter's Lodge is a great place to stay in. Richard Chanter (the owner) was very helpful and friendly. He catered to every need and the quality of service is incredible. He makes service a feeling. Other staff are also very nice and helpful. Richard helped arrange all the river cruises, bungee jumping and rafting and even dropped us to the center while going there for business!

The rooms are nice and clean but not luxurious. The pool area is very pleasant and it is well maintained despite the scorching sun of Zambia. (Only the number of sun beds is too low but maybe Livingstone is not the place for sunbathing.) Chanter's features a restaurant also which is pretty good. The property seemed very safe.

The only downside of the lodge is that it is further off from the centre and the Falls. So you basically have to take a taxi to the centre and the Falls. This is not a problem as the staff are more than willing to arrange a taxi (be prepared to haggle or you pay too much big time!). (Taxi drivers usually ask $10-15 per taxi to the Falls but will do it for $5 and a grumpy face, but it's up to you how much you want to support the locals. The arranged transports, not taxis, are much more expensive.)

Chanter's is really terrific and I suggest making early reservation as Richard might even give some discount. The accommodation is worth every dollar and more in Livingstone where proper mid-range accommodation is not that abundant! The hotel doesn't compete with the pricey luxury estates near the Falls but offers a superb price-quality ratio.

Chanters Lodge is clean, friendly, quiet, pretty, simple and just about ideal for seeing Victoria Falls. Richard was very helpful with helping us plan our time so as to see the most of the falls and river. He also was able to give us occasional lifts into town which saved us cab fare. The food at the lodge was very good. The room was spacious and comfortable. I highly recommend Chanters Lodge.

I VERY highly recommend Chanters Lodge. I cannot say enough good things about our experience there!

Ordinarily I expect what I read online to be exaggerated, so I tried to keep my expectations in check, even after reading great reviews of Chanter's Lodge. In this case however, I found the great reviews didn't do justice to the amazing service and delightful place. We were delayed a day and our visit was shortened to two nights, due to a canceled flight and an unplanned night in Lagos Airport, and Richard, the owner of the lodge, was very accommodating. I was able to reach him from Nigeria and let him know and he gave me his cell phone number. From the moment he picked us up at the airport (where he had to wait for us to file a lost luggage report- some of our luggage apparently preferred Johannesburg to Livingstone), he was incredibly thoughtful and attentive. A UK native, he has over 20 years of experience in hospitality and has been living in Zambia for many years and is very knowledgeable, which helped a lot since this was our first stay in Africa.

We arrived at the lodge and were immediately shown to our room, without any check in hassle. The service is so personal in this lovely lodge that there aren't even room numbers. It is better than any service at a 5 star hotel. There is a beautiful garden and a pool (see pictures), and a restaurant and bar overlooking the garden. We ate there for almost every meal, and were able to just bill to our room so we didn't have to worry about settling the check. The service at the restaurant was great and everything was very tasty. We tried samosas, and schnitzel, and veggie curry, all delicious. We also had two of the Zambian specialties, a bean dish and a game stew made with Impala that were very tasty and were served with one of the staples, nshimi, that is made from maize. We also had delicious grilled sandwiches, tuna and chicken, salads, and breakfasts. The lemon pancakes (crepes) were fantastic.

Richard and his team are also very helpful in booking tours, everything from helicopter rides to safaris to sunset cruises. He was able to book us on a helicopter ride the afternoon we arrived and we booked a sunset cruise for the following evening down the Zambezi river. Both tours were amazing. He also gave us good advice about crossing over to the Zimbabwe side of the falls which turned out to be completely worth the visa and park fees (see pictures). Our stay in Livingstone was truly wonderful, and would not have been as special without our stay at Chanters.

Thank you Richard!!

You can read more about the lodge on their website and blog.
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