- Important points
- Choosing wings
- Where to stay in Africa?
- Nightingales are not fed with fables
- In telegraph style
- The perfect trip to Africa
Huge and significant on the world map, Africa has occupied the minds of travelers for many decades. Washed by two oceans and two seas, the black continent is the perfect place to take your dream tour and see striking contrasts, incredible landscapes, lost worlds and treasures left to us by ancestral civilizations. It is believed that a trip to Africa forever changes the familiar world of a person and he understands how different his own existence is from the life of those who were born on the continent, which is increasingly called the cradle of humanity.
Important points
- For a trip to Africa, in addition to a substantial amount in your wallet, special vaccinations are often required. They are not required, but very desirable and their list for a particular region should be checked with the nearest infectious disease doctor.
- Getting medical insurance is the second important item on the must-have list before departure.
- Many African states offer visa-free entry to Russian tourists. The most popular among them in terms of attendance are Botswana (up to 90 days), Morocco, Namibia, Seychelles (up to 30 days), Tunisia (for 3 months).
- The list of African countries where a visa is required for Russian citizens, but issued right at the border, is also very impressive. Upon receipt at the border posts of Ethiopia, CAR, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, Mauritius or Cape Verde, the tourist may be required to present a hotel reservation, return tickets and confirmation of financial viability.
Choosing wings
The African destination in general is not the cheapest in terms of air travel, but with the proper level of Internet proficiency, you can always monitor ticket prices and take advantage of advantageous special offers from air carriers. In every country where it is customary to travel to Africa, there are fairly modern airports. Dozens of airlines from Europe and other continents make many flights there every day:
- The planes fly directly from Moscow to Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and the rest of the countries will have to get there with docks.
- The largest transport hub in the east of the black continent is the capital of Kenya, Nairobi. Here you can transfer to local airlines of other African countries. Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Turkish Airlines regularly fly from Moscow to Nairobi. Travel time, taking into account connections in Doha, Abu Dhabi and Istanbul, is from 12 hours. The cost of a ticket from the Russian to the Kenyan capital is about $ 450.
- Another popular African air destination is Cape Town in South Africa. The road there from Moscow with a connection in Dubai, for example, will take about 17 hours, and a round-trip ticket will cost about $ 700.
- To fly to Madagascar quickly and cheaply will not work. The most pleasant options are usually offered by the French and Dutch carriers Air France and KLM. The price of the issue with a docking in Paris or Amsterdam is from $ 1300. You will have to spend at least 16 hours on the road, taking into account the transfer.
Where to stay in Africa?
Hotels in Africa are a very diverse concept. On the black continent there are hotels of all famous world chains, and lodges in the savannah, and small private guesthouses on the ocean shores of Cape Verde, and colonial hotels in Cape Town, and beach bungalows in the Seychelles or Mauritius. The price of one night in a hotel in Africa can start from five dollars and fly away into cloudless heights, and therefore an economical backpacker and a nouveau riche spoiled by the benefits of civilization of any bottle can find affordable accommodation here.
Nightingales are not fed with fables
Where to eat in Africa is a complex, multifaceted question that requires a thorough approach. The main commandments of a traveler on the black continent are to use bottled water for any purpose, not to allow the presence of ice in drinks, even in high-profile hotels, and avoid tasting street food.
The all-inclusive system in hotels on the Mediterranean coast of Africa is often the reason for the excessive consumption of free alcohol, which is not always kept in the proper traditions of preparation. In Africa, it is generally worth avoiding food and drinks in questionable places, because the consequences of such feasts can be dire.
Having chosen a good hotel that supports the international hotel classification system as a place of residence, try, if possible, to have breakfast and dinner there. Pre-vaccinations against intestinal infections will also help to avoid troubles.
In telegraph style
Experienced independent tourists who traveled through Africa far and wide have their own opinions about its countries, prices, beauty and expediency of travel there. Briefly, they look like this:
- Kenya is relatively inexpensive compared to other African countries. Great safari, but not overly developed infrastructure. It is difficult to move around the country without a rented car, and the main scourge is the local tribes, spoiled by the attention of tourists and insistently demanding money for absolutely everything.
- Tanzania is the perfect route for your first trip to Africa. It is better to organize a beach vacation not in Zanzibar, but in Pembu - inexpensive and not crowded.
- Malawi is a poor and very cheap country with excellent diving on the lake of the same name. National parks are not very expressive.
- Mozambique - ideal beaches and low prices for holidays. The only "but" is the complexity of the transport infrastructure.
- Botswana is a country with the best national parks in Africa. Botswana is more expensive than other African republics and a daily camping safari will cost a tourist a minimum of $ 200 here.
- Namibia - good service, well-developed infrastructure, excellent roads and perfect beauty of the landscape.
- South Africa is an unreasonably expensive country, but attractions like Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope are worth the money and the long flight.
The perfect trip to Africa
The black continent is located in two hemispheres at once - northern and southern, and several climatic zones "play" on its field. Africa is considered the hottest continent and it is here, in Ethiopia, that the place with the highest average annual temperature is located. In Dallol settlement it is + 34 ° С.
In territories close to the equator, there is practically no change of seasons, but abundant rainfall falls equally actively in any season. To the north and south, in subequatorial climatic zones, the rainy season occurs in summer, and in winter, tropical trade winds bring dry air. Then the tropics begin and high temperatures, combined with low doses of precipitation, lead to the formation of deserts and semi-deserts.
The best times to visit Africa are winter and spring, which fall between December and May in the Northern Hemisphere and June-November in the Southern.
