When is the best time to visit the Nyika plateau?

The dry season, from about May to October: the roads are open, the grass is short enough for the animals to be seen across the hills, and the days are clear and cool, with frost on the coldest nights from about June to August. The rains, from about November to April, turn the plateau green and bring out the wildflowers and the orchids, but the dirt roads up are then hard going or closed, and a visit in those months is confirmed with the park before setting out.

How many days does the north of Malawi need?

About a week from Lilongwe. A day's drive reaches Mzuzu; two or three nights at Chelinda give a full day on the plateau and a drive or walk out at either end; a night at Vwaza Marsh fits on the way down; Livingstonia takes a night, with the climb from Chitimba; and Nkhata Bay on the lake closes the loop before the drive back south by the lakeshore road. The islands of Likoma and Chizumulu add several days of their own, set by the steamer's sailings.

Can I walk up to Livingstonia?

Yes. The path from Chitimba climbs the escarpment with the road, cutting off the bends, and takes a few hours with an early start to avoid the heat on the lower slopes; the lodges at Chitimba can find a local guide and carry luggage up by vehicle. The walk down the next day is quicker, and the view of the lake makes both directions worth the effort.

Travel deep dive

The Far North: Nyika's Rolling Grassland and the Mission on the Escarpment

The far north of Malawi is a different country from the lake and the south: a high plateau of rolling grassland where the nights are cold, a mission town built on a shelf of the Rift escarpment with the lake far below it, and dirt roads that make each of them a journey. Mzuzu, the main town of the north, is the base for both, about five hours by road from Lilongwe, and a visit to the north takes about a week, with Nkhata Bay and the islands of the northern lake within reach of the same base. The drives are long and the roads rough, so each stage is a day, made by daylight.

Updated 2026-10-07

Mzuzu, the town of the north

Mzuzu is where the main road from Lilongwe meets the lakeshore road from the south, and it is the last town of any size before the plateau and the escarpment: the place to draw cash, fill the tank and buy food for the days ahead, since the parks have no fuel and little to buy. It is a plain working town of markets, banks and bus stations in cool, wet hills, and the hills around it grow coffee, arabica from smallholders, which is drunk in the town's cafés and sold by the bag.

The Nyika plateau

Nyika National Park covers a high plateau in the north-west of the country: mile after mile of rolling grassland under a wide sky, with pockets of evergreen forest in the sheltered valleys and along the streams, and the cold, clear air of high ground. Zebra, roan antelope, eland, reedbuck and bushbuck graze the open hills and are watched from close by on foot as well as from a vehicle; leopards live in the forest patches and are seldom seen. In the rains the grassland fills with wildflowers, orchids among them, and in the dry season the nights bring frost. The park's centre is at Chelinda, with a lodge, a camp and a campsite beside a dam, and walks, game drives and mountain-bike rides go out from there; an entrance fee is charged at the gate.

The road onto the plateau

From Mzuzu the main road runs north to Rumphi, and from there a dirt road climbs west through the hills to the park gate and on across the plateau to Chelinda, most of half a day's drive in all. The road needs a four-wheel drive and is hard going or closed in the rains, from about November to April, so a visit in those months is confirmed with the park beforehand; a car with a driver hired in Mzuzu or Lilongwe brings a vehicle suited to it. Fuel is carried from Mzuzu, and so are the warm clothes the plateau's nights call for in any month.

Vwaza Marsh

Below the plateau's western edge, on the Zambian border, lies Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserve: a low, hot country of marsh, lake and mopane woodland, the opposite of Nyika in every way. Elephants come down to its lake, Lake Kazuni, near the gate, hippos live in the water and buffalo and antelope move through the woodland; a camp by the lake is the place to stay, and the reserve is reached from Rumphi on the way to or from the plateau. An entrance fee is charged.

Livingstonia on the escarpment

Livingstonia stands on a shelf of the Rift escarpment high above the northern lake: a mission settlement of the late 19th century, built by Scottish missionaries, whose stone church, brick-and-stone houses and tree-lined lanes still make up the town. The church has a stained-glass window showing Livingstone at the lake, and a small museum in the old mission house tells the settlement's story; a short walk away, the Manchewe Falls drop from the escarpment's edge with a cave behind the water. The view from the lip of the shelf takes in the whole northern lake and the mountains of the far shore.

The road up from Chitimba

Livingstonia is reached from Chitimba, a village with beaches and lodges on the lakeshore where the main road north runs beside the water. From there a steep dirt road climbs the escarpment in a long series of hairpin bends, a slow drive in a four-wheel drive and a walk of a few hours for those who go up on foot, with the lake growing wider below at every turn. The road is confirmed locally in the rains, and a night in Livingstonia, in one of the guesthouses at the mission or a lodge on the escarpment's edge, is the reward for the climb.

This overview comes from Visaja's worldwide missions database (visaja.com), checked against official government sources; for binding answers, the mission itself always has the final word.