How to travel (Southern) Africa

Africa is not a continent that is easy to travel to and through. It´s definitely not a backpacking destination but also definitely worth a visit - so here I will share some tips for those who are also interested in travelling there sometime but don´t really know the options and what to consider.

Disclaimer: Of course, I am not an expert on Africa travels. I can only give account on the base of my very limited experience I have but I think it´s a start! If you have further questions, there are lots of helpful other blogs out there, or you can ask me and I´ll try to help you as well as I can!


Number 1: Ways to travel

Group tour: There´s tons of group tours out there. There´s of course G Adventures for younger travellers. My tour was labelled "wild and free" addressing ages 18-39. The group language is English but half my group was German. In Germany, you might stumble upon "GoXplore with Gebeco" or "Dr. Tigges" which is kind of all the same thing and in the end their tours are G Adventure tours. It´s a bit confusing but that´s the way it is. Other buses I saw were from Intrepidtravels or Nomadtours. At first, I considered going with Marco Polo Young Line travel. If you want the tour language to be German, I guess this is a good thing to go for.

My experience with G Adventures was very positive. Our two group guides were experienced, well organized and always friendly and helpful. G Adventures has very high standards and this reflects in the tours. The people on the group are like-minded, which makes it highly likely that you´ll be happy to socialize with them. I was very happy with my group. The itinerary was tightly-packed but if you leave out some optional activities you have more time to relax in between.
Also, you are given many helpful tips for packing and organising in advance. Therefore, you don´t have to worry about anything apart from how much cash to bring and in which currency.
At times, I felt that this way of travel was a bit too comfortable for me and left me feeling a little bit out of touch with all the amazing things I saw. I am used to having a more direct feel to the surroundings by exloring everything myself, not simply being handed everything. Yet, I couldn´t have imagined a better way to travel there. I felt very safe and I liked that I didn´t have to worry about organising anything.

Individual travel by rental car: While more than 2/3 of tourists were part of one or the other group tour I´d say, I also met some couples or families travelling in a rental car from lodge to lodge or camping ground to camping ground. In Windhoek, I saw many bigger cars with fixed, packed-up tents on top of them which makes the camping a lot easier I´d say. Out of curiosity, I asked a couple how much they paid for their car. They said it is about 120€ for the car per day - plus food, activities, gas, and lodges if you don´t want to camp every day. This is divided by two if you travel with a partner, so I guess the price is ok. If you did this for three weeks, the car and sleeping would add up to about 1600€ p.P. which is a reasonable price I suppose.

Backpacking: I put this here with a big question mark. I didn´t meet anyone who was truly backpacking in the original way. The lonely planet says that there are inter-city buses that run more or less regular and are cheap but I wonder how safe they are and also how much sense this makes because few people come to see the cities but to experience the nature - and the local buses don´t go where you would like to go as a tourist. I met one Italian guy who chose Windhoek as a base and then participated in various organised day-tours from there. I also have a friend who travelled through South Africa for three weeks but he was travelling with a local so that´s a different thing altogether I guess.

Number 2: Safety

While with the group, I felt safe. When I knew my passport and second credit card somewhere safe, I also felt good (or at least better) about walking around.
Namibia has a 30% unemployment rate. No work = poverty = criminality = tourists get robbed. As long as it´s petty theft, ok. Just follow some rules, especially in the cities, and you´ll be fine (easy to say for me, I still haven´t internalised all of them but one day I will!). Copy important documents and have copies in various backpacks and also stored online in a cloud. Leave valuables at reception/in a safe. Don´t carry backpacks if you can avoid it, it means you have something on you that can be interesting for someone else. If walking through the city, take a little cash in your pockets and that´s it. Best is: avoid walking through cities altogether, sad but true, unless you are with a walking tour or a guide (note: other people on my group walked through the city and were fine. I´m not saying that if you walk you´ll get robbed for sure. Avoiding walking diminishes the chances of anything happening greatly though). Book taxis at reception or wherever you are and let them drive you - especially at night.


Number 3: Packing list and how to prepare

I don´t think I´ve ever packed so carefully for a trip as for this one. I´m definitely getting older haha. Be aware that I was there in the African winter so if you go in summer you might need different clothes etc.

Clothes

• warm clothes for cold nights (leggings, thermo underwear, hat)
• clothes to layer up - I loved, loved, loved my zip-off hiking pants on this trip! With 15°C in the mornings and up to 35° C in the daytime, you don´t have to change legwear all day but just zip the lower part off when needed and put it back on in the evening
• shoes: one pair of outdoorsy sandals (I had my Birkenstock and was happy with them) and one pair of trainers. Didn´t need hiking boots. 

Gear

• for camping: a headlamp is THE BEST thing ever. I bought mine especially for this trip on Amazon and I was thankful for it every night. 
• a powerbank to charge your technology on the go
• an adapter/good USB cable (the lando has USB ports so I was fine without a working adapter)
• hand sanitizer, hair conditioner (I always leave it at home but especially on trips my hair gets so tangled), tissues (doubles up as toilet paper), wet wipes maybe
• a second wallet to leave at reception with a second credit card (gives you the peace of mind, I tell you)
• I bought a "pacsafe" shoulder bag for this trip but found it wasn´t soo necessary. It´s a bag that prevents pickpocketing but the risk for that on my trip was pretty low so I would have been fine without it. It´s nice though to know that your valuables are in there and noone can just quickly slip them out.
• a second, old phone if you have one to bring in case your other one gets stolen. Also, backup your photos regularly on the trip or you´ll be very sad if anything happens. 

Health

Our CEOs always made us wash our hands right before eating. Salads and ice cubes didn´t give me any problems. Use hand sanitizer often.
Vaccinations: There´s many doctors who offer consultation on travel vaccinations. I found one nearby and got all my shots within a few days. She recommended me some updates on the regular vaccinations, cholera vaccination to prevent diarrhea, and to preventively take Malarone on the trip
Malarone/chemoprevention on Malaria: Our group was divided into people who took it prophylactically and some who didn´t. Seems like it´s very much up to the doctor you speak with if they recommend it or not. I was there in dry season so I came back without any mosquito bites but I´m still glad I took them. It gives you peace of mind (again) and my body responded to it well. I didn´t have any side effects. Other than that: Take the usual precautions. Long clothing in the evenings, put on mosquito spray with at least 50% DEET (like nobite). 

Generally, I was perfectly healthy on this trip. I didn´t need my travel pharmacy. Only in the end I caught a cold in the freezing desert night and I was quite tired in the end but hey, if that´s everything I´m not complaining at all!

Number 4: Let´s talk Money

This was definitely my most expensive trip I´ve ever taken. When I tell you the numbers, I don´t want to brag but just to give you a guesstimate on what to expect. 

Here´s what I paid: 

• G Adventures tour for 8 days (includes bus, sleeping, tour guides, most but not all meals, some activites but not many): 875€
• flights Frankfurt-Addis Ababa-Victoria Falls and Windhoek-ADD-FRA with Ethiopian Airlines (totally ok airline, didn´t have any problems) including Rail&Fly: 990€ 
• (note: I only booked the flights two weeks before with my travel agent. The flights that G Adventures offered me were 1400€ but I was able to be flexible with the dates i.e. have two extra nights in Windhoek so I saved sum dollars there. At first I thought my flights were quite expensive but the others I spoke to paid even more than that so I guess that´s an ok price)
• additional activities in Africa: 380€ (including the rafting that was 130€ and the Delta flight that was 107€)
• food that was not included: 90€
• drinks (water, alcoholic beverages): 22€
• tips: 105€ (note: in Africa it is expected to give tips for a job well done. For tour guides you give 2-3€ a day or 10€ for the polers for 24 hours. For our CEOs/group guides 5-8 USD a day is recommended by the organization which adds up to 80-125 USD p.P. for both guides (around 70-110€)
• visa: 30 USD (only for Simbabwe, Botswana and Namibia were free. All three countries are visa on arrival for Germans so no hassle really)
• airport transfers: 40€
• extra gear bought beforehand (bags/torches/water purification pills which I didn´t need but it was on the list): 100€
• vaccinations and medications: 300€ (I guess/hope I´ll get this back from my insurances)

All in all: 2.800€ (not including the vaccinations because I hope I´ll get them refunded)

Both my bank accounts are much emptier than before but I´m starting a new job soon so I´ll be happy to see some cash flowing in again soon! Ha ha.

On this note: I´m sure it can be done cheaper. A friend went to Ruanda and her flights were only 400€ and she didn´t do very expensive activities on site which left her with a much cheaper holiday all in all. The other tourists I met would pay around the same amount of money as I paid I´d say unless you are more people piling into one car - but note that lodges in Botswana are said to be quite expensive. 

To sum it all up, I would do it again the way I did it. I would also book group tours again. They are great for travelling places I wouldn´t want to backpack alone in or am too lazy to organize myself for. Also, I like the element of surprise and not knowing exactly what expects me. If I make the itinerary myself, I make very conscious choices on what to do and what not do do and that already builds up expectations that I don´t like very much. 

Having said all this, just let me say that your feedback and your thoughts are very welcome! Let me know what you think, either here in the comment section or on my social media. 

For now, bye, and see you! All the best and I hope I could help!