The city has wide tree-lined streets and is surrounded by beautiful parks, a legacy of Cecil John Rhodes. Within the city are many examples of early Victorian buildings, which are maintained by the Bulawayo City Council and landlords as heritage sites. Bulawayo houses the country's main museum, the Natural History Museum, a Railway Museum, the Bulawayo Art Gallery, which is housed in a most attractive turn-of-the-century building, theatres, the Mzilikazi Art and Craft Centre (a pottery, and sculpture centre with drawing and painting studios) and good hotels. It also has one of the finest caravan and camping parks in Zimbabwe, run by the City Council. 

Bulawayo has a history that spans from as recent as the colonial times, reaching back to the beginning of time. Within its pages are found stories of local geology, stunning art of ancient artists, remains of a great African state, the bloodstained history of two remarkable African kings and a slow transition to modern city life through traders, hunters, missionaries and the ox-wagons of the 19th Century.