Things to Do in Borrowdale Village

Borrowdale Village sits in Harare's leafy northern suburbs, where jacaranda-lined avenues give way to low-rise shopping plazas and the faint smell of charcoal smoke drifts from roadside braai vendors by late afternoon. The area's anchor is Sam Levy's Village, an open-air retail complex that the late Sam Rahamin Levy built around 1990 and that has since grown to more than 150 stores, restaurants, a cinema, and a bowling alley spread across sun-warmed brick walkways.

It feels less like a mall and more like a small town square, and on weekends the benches fill with families, couples splitting ice cream, and teenagers loitering near the fountain. A few minutes' drive away, Village Walk has a quieter, more utilitarian counterpart with its supermarket, antique dealers, and a handful of cafes where you can hear birdsong between the buildings.

What draws people to Borrowdale is not any single landmark but a texture of comfort that much of Harare lacks. The streets are wider here, the hedges are trimmed, and there is a sense of suburban order that makes it easy to forget you are in a city of two million. That said, it is hardly sterile. The Saturday morning Village Green Market brings out vendors selling fresh produce, honey, and biltong, and the air gets thick with the tang of citrus and dried mango.

The Borrowdale Race Course, home to the Mashonaland Turf Club since the colonial era, still hosts Saturday fixtures, and on Castle Tankard day in May the crowd dresses up and the grandstand hums with the thud of hooves on turf and the clink of champagne flutes. For travelers staying in Harare more than a day or two, Borrowdale tends to become the default neighborhood for meals, errands, and a cooler evening walk under the msasa trees.

Borrowdale is a driving suburb. Most visitors rely on taxis, ride-hailing apps, or hotel shuttles to get between Sam Levy's Village, Village Walk, and the race course. Walking between the two shopping centres takes about fifteen minutes along Borrowdale Road, though there are not always proper sidewalks, and the stretch feels exposed on a hot afternoon.

Within Sam Levy's Village itself everything is on foot and the layout is compact enough that you will not need transport once you arrive. Minibus combis run along Borrowdale Road into central Harare, and they are by far the cheapest way to travel, though they fill up and the schedule is more of a suggestion than a timetable.

For the golf club or the race course, you will want your own wheels or a pre-arranged pickup. Most hotels in the area offer airport transfers, which is worth arranging in advance since the drive from Harare's Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport takes roughly thirty minutes depending on traffic. Fuel stations cluster near the Sam Levy's Village intersection, so topping up is straightforward if you are driving a rental. Plan ahead.