Experience the best of Lubumbashi

Lubumbashi is the main city of Haut-Katanga province, in the far south-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on a plateau about 1,200 metres high close to the Zambian border. It began in 1910 as Élisabethville, a Belgian mining town, and copper and cobalt mining still shape the city. Wide, tree-lined avenues laid out on the colonial grid mark the older centre.

The National Museum of Lubumbashi holds art and everyday objects from Katanga's peoples, and the University of Lubumbashi is one of the country's main universities. The city has an active art scene, and TP Mazembe, its football club, has won the African Champions League several times. Further north, the Kundelungu plateau and its waterfalls make a long excursion from town.

Everyday food is a stiff porridge of maize or cassava, eaten with grilled fish, goat or stews of cassava leaves. The dry season from May to September brings clear skies and cool nights, particularly in June and July, and is the easiest time to travel. Rain falls heavily between November and March, turning the red roads to mud.