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If you're interested in Africa, just go there on your next vacation, instead of the usual package tour of the Caribbean.
Online fares to places like Accra can be found for around $1200. A hotel that is a suitable place to sleep safely and hang out for the day will run no more than $20 a night, with ceiling fan, mosquito net, and running water. Meals are very cheap in market stalls of local restaurants. So altogether, a couple of weeks there would cost less than your usual annual vacation.
There is an excellent resource in YouTube, to give you some good views of what Africa ls like. Pick a city and search, here are a few street scene videos of places in Africa that I enjoyed.
If you're interested in Africa, just go there on your next vacation, instead of the usual package tour of the Caribbean.
Online fares to places like Accra can be found for around $1200. A hotel that is a suitable place to sleep safely and hang out for the day will run no more than $20 a night, with ceiling fan, mosquito net, and running water. Meals are very cheap in market stalls of local restaurants. So altogether, a couple of weeks there would cost less than your usual annual vacation.
There is an excellent resource in YouTube, to give you some good views of what Africa ls like. Pick a city and search, here are a few street scene videos of places in Africa that I enjoyed.
I've always been interested in taking a trip to Africa some day. To be honest though, it's always been the cost of air travel there as well as the fact that it always looked like I'd be taking a number of long connecting flights to get the region. There's no real direct flights from my section of the country though I suppose if I can get a deal on a flight to NYC, there'd be directs from there.
So do you recommend Ghana? I had a friend who went there in college and fell in love with the place. Senegal has always sounded interesting as well. A lot of the places I've really wanted to go for some time though are are in East Africa. My father went to Ethiopia in the 1970s and I've always enjoyed the food and people I've known from there, in addition to the unique cultural elements. Mozambique for some reason has always interested me for the cultural mix and the beaches on the Indian Ocean.
Did you travel to Madagascar? I've always wondered for such a large island how easy is it to travel around the country.
I've always been interested in taking a trip to Africa some day. To be honest though, it's always been the cost of air travel there as well as the fact that it always looked like I'd be taking a number of long connecting flights to get the region. There's no real direct flights from my section of the country though I suppose if I can get a deal on a flight to NYC, there'd be directs from there.
So do you recommend Ghana? I had a friend who went there in college and fell in love with this place. Senegal has always sounded interesting as well. A lot of the places I've really wanted to go though for some time though are are in East Africa. My father went to Ethiopia in the 1970s and I've always enjoyed the food and people I've known from there, in addition to the unique cultural elements. Mozambique for some reason has always interested me for the cultural mix and the beaches on the Indian Ocean.
Did you travel to Madagascar? I've always wondered for such a large island how easy is it to travel around the country.
Airfare time and distance has always been a deterrant for me as well. Additiionally, I've always heard it's not so easy to just cross borders to travel more extensively either.
Before I posted this, I did an Expedia search, and found JFK-Dakar for well under $2,000 round trip, via Madrid or Paris. Accra was even cheaper, with an ad for a site claiming as low as $1,000.
Unless you have a couple of months, trying to travel around several countries in Africa can be daunting. Ground transport across international borders can be rudimentary, or non existent in the rainy season. Major capitals, like Accra, can be noisy, traffic-choked, and possibly rather dangerous. An introductory visit to Africa might be a flight to the capital, then use ground transport to some other city a couple of days away, with a stopover or two in intermediate towns. Bobo Dioulasso and Antsirabe (in the videos above) are not the capitals of their countries.
My first trip to Africa, I flew to Canary Islands very cheap (same fare as Madrid), then a short flight from there to Mauritania, truck to Dakar, train to Bamako, Mali, and then got as far overland as Mopti, passing through Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. Then back again, but I flew direct Dakar to Las Palmas. I was able to do that in three weeks. There are no longer any direct flights from the Canaries to Africa, so that option is now closed. I think nowadays the whole trip would be more difficult, I was then able to just pick up visas and make transport arrangements along the way. But it is astonishing how regularly pieces fit into the puzzle on the fly, once you just get out on the road.
The point is, you can shop around for an affordable fare to an African destination, and just go, and see what happens when you get there. You will either get Africa behind you, or (as I did) open yourself up to a lifetime of new travel possibilities. I'd go back there in a minute -- one-way.
Africa is still rather too "exotic" (scary?) for many people - way out of their comfort zone. Most are fascinated and interested in seeing Africa but the adventurous sort would be the only ones who actually go through with booking a trip. Big difference traipsing through an African country and lounging on the beach in the Caribbean.
I'd love to visit Accra. When my mother was evacuated by the US government from Biafra, Accra was her safe haven.
Several of my relatives have lived in Africa: an uncle in Algiers then Addis Ababa, an uncle lived in what is now Eritrea, my Aunt lived in Namibia and Angola and mum lived in Nigeria/Biafra and Ghana.
Africa has always been a draw for me.. but not necessarily places where my family have lived. When my mum died and we thought we'd spread her ashes in places where she lived, it wasn't hard for my sisters to volunteer for Nevis, the Philippines, even Minnesota. They looked at me and said "Nigeria is for you". LOL. Id rather go to Zanzibar, Windhoek or Kigali and of course, Marrakech. My mom spoke Igbo and when her cancer reached her brain something happened and she would talk to us in Igbo or French... good thing my one sister knew French. She only taiught me a few Igbo words.
I'd love to visit Accra. When my mother was evacuated by the US government from Biafra, Accra was her safe haven.
Several of my relatives have lived in Africa: an uncle in Algiers then Addis Ababa, an uncle lived in what is now Eritrea, my Aunt lived in Namibia and Angola and mum lived in Nigeria/Biafra and Ghana.
Africa has always been a draw for me.. but not necessarily places where my family have lived. When my mum died and we thought we'd spread her ashes in places where she lived, it wasn't hard for my sisters to volunteer for Nevis, the Philippines, even Minnesota. They looked at me and said "Nigeria is for you". LOL. Id rather go to Zanzibar, Windhoek or Kigali and of course, Marrakech. My mom spoke Igbo and when her cancer reached her brain something happened and she would talk to us in Igbo or French... good thing my one sister knew French. She only taiught me a few Igbo words.
Your family sounds like it would make for a good novel.
I'd like to go to Mali, Senegal, and Cape Verde Islands not because they are exemplars of democracy or modernism but simply because they produce some of the most beautiful and evocative music on the planet.
If you're interested in Africa, just go there on your next vacation, instead of the usual package tour of the Caribbean.
Online fares to places like Accra can be found for around $1200. A hotel that is a suitable place to sleep safely and hang out for the day will run no more than $20 a night, with ceiling fan, mosquito net, and running water. Meals are very cheap in market stalls of local restaurants. So altogether, a couple of weeks there would cost less than your usual annual vacation.
That's exactly what I tell my friends. Go somewhere different and actually learn something instead of the same Caribbean and Disneyland vacations every year. I have a friend who visits the same Caribbean country every year. Reason? It's cheaper. So I then sugested that he takes a vacation every 2-3 years instead of yearly so he can save a little chunk of money enough to pick a destination he has not visited before (like Europe of Africa). Suggestion was ignored.
Back on topic, since I'm East African and a beach person I will be biased and vote for Zanzibar as the best travel destination in Africa. Aside from the wonderful beachfront hotels, the town has a lot of history that would be interesting to many. I also fell in love with Port Victoria, Cape Town, and Sun City resort, and will go back in a hearbeat. Mombasa is also another one and very gay friendly (as Zanzibar and Cape Town are). I visited Accra once but was not very impressed, however I also didn't invest a lot of time in touring the city. Nairobi is so-so with a bunch of scam artists (but so are most big cities in Africa, to be fair).
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Of course, I'll forever be so glad I did go. I'm also glad it was a tour with two African guides who knew the ropes. There were a few sticky situations they got us out of, due to the naïveté of some of the group. It wasn't one of those posh safari trips which my friend went on. Those seem a bit sterile & too sheltered from the real world, from her pictures and descriptions. We were on paths less travelled, to places I hadn't heard of, on a big 4WD bus. We camped in the middle of nowhere oftentimes. The trip blew all my expectations and perceptions completely out of the water. I'd definitely go again.
