African Vacation Advice

[brewerfan82]

A friend of mine and I are planning a trip to Africa and I was wondering if anyone here had any experience and/or advice on this. We haven't narrowed down exactly where/what we want to do yet, but we're thinking of spending about two weeks there sometime in 2010 and hoping to keep it under $5000 each. Although, we want to make sure we can experience as much as we can, so we'll hold it off longer to save up more money if needed. We definitely want to participate in some sort of safari while out there and I've done some web research and found quite a few organizations that offer 10-14 day safaris, but I'm a little concerned about how trustworthy some of these places are. Does anyone have any experience with any organizations that they'd recommend going through?

 

Thanks a bunch! And any other advice concerning the trip, safety, things to experience, etc. would be much appreciated!

[Diskono]

If you're into that sort of thing, they just started accepting applications for World Cup tickets:

 

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/ticketing/index.html

[Hsee2006]

Africa is a great trip but can be a bit tricky. North Africa, Egypt and Morocco are nice but they are more Middle Eastern in feel rather than African. The other countries in north Africa can be difficult as some don't give passports to Americans.

 

I think South Africa has a lot to offer as far as beauty, relative security and nature. Capetown is one of the most beautiful places in the world and you can take a cheap airline to fly across the country to Kruger National Park or Johannesburg. Also, within a relatively short flight Madagascar (currently political turmoil aside) is suppose to also be pretty nice along with Tanzania and Kenya (which is really a major hub in Africa).

 

These countries should give you a pretty good taste for africa. If you speak French then west africa is not a bad choice but there are many more pockets of political insecurity. Also, remember if you go to South Africa in the middle of U.S. summer it will be middle of winter there.

 

enjoy

[GAME05]

if you're traveling with a tour group you can be a little less concerned with minor security/political issues in countries because you're in that group and you tend to be segregated off from the bad problems--Kilamanjaro is a good example, the rest of the country is terrible, but hiking the mountain and the safaris afterward is safe. Kilamanjaro, specifically, will run a pretty decent amount of money, but it has its whole separate ecosystem and you can combine that hike with a safari afterward. There and other areas you can find low-altitude balloon rides that I think you'll find very memorable.

 

what you'll get with safaris generally are rides in Jeeps and then you stay in super-fancy tent areas with beds and they make dinner for you and everything.

 

but make use of your hotel safe and carry around a photocopy of your passport instead of carrying around the actual one in case it gets stolen. One tip I heard once that was a great idea is to carry around a second wallet with expired/cancelled credit cards and just a little bit of cash, that if you get held up, you give them that, they don't know any better, and you're not out anything.

 

but with a place as big and as relatively unknown as Africa (at least to us), signing up with a tour group wouldn't be a bad idea. Safety will be fine and you won't have to deal with a lot of the unknowns. That's assuming you want to go beyond the well-developed tourist countries of Morocco, Egypt and South Africa--those three places you won't have any problem managing things on your own.

 

Not long ago I used to work for a tourist publishing company, where we published updated tourist information for countries and cities around the world, including Africa (it includes safety and political information). you can find it at http://www.professionaltravelguide.com. There's a lot of information that the site gets complicated, but there's no registration or any fees to use it. I also quit the job, so there's no bias anymore, but it's still a way better site than tripadvisor or the like. It's got bigger cities like Cape Town and Johannesburg (I edited that one) and Cairo and the like, but otherwise search for the country. It should get you at least an idea of the places you'd like to visit based on any particular interests you had in mind (such as Botswana for photography).

[Invader3K]

My sister in law and her husband actually went to Kenya recently on a mission trip. She said the attitude toward Americans right now is pretty good there (with Obama having just been inaugurated when they went in January). Kenya is also a pretty stable country. However, they went with a mission group and said if they would go back, they would do it on their own. I guess the mission group was somewhat disorganized. Anyway, you'll want to be well prepared, make sure you get your vaccines ahead of time. Also, like Game05 was alluding to, it's a good idea to carry around some small bills. Her husband basically got held up by some guys while he was getting fire wood, and he had to give them about 20 bucks to let him go.

 

It's a good idea to know the attitudes of the area regarding different social issues. They told us some areas you would get kicked out of if they caught you with a beer, while other places that was basically all they drank. People are also expected to dress in certain ways...like in some places my sister in law had to be wearing a long skirt, as women wearing pants is a faux pas.

 

Anyway, good luck. Make sure you do some research, and be ready for an adventure. I'm sure if done right, it can be a rewarding experience.

[blatzlight]

I went to Ghana in 2000 to study. Absolutely loved it. Watch out for spiders - one bit me and could have killed me. But do it, you won't regret it.

[brewerfan82]

Thanks for all the insight! All of your advice and experience are a real help for us! I'm continually amazed by the Brewerfan.net community!

 

If anyone has any additional/specific advice or experience regarding:

• Travel/safari agencies to go through
• Countries to visit (especially to see a broad range of wildlife; elephants, cats, primates, etc.)
• Parks and landmarks to visit
  

Or anything else to add, that would be fantastic! Thanks again!