Africa Itinerary - Look good?

Hey y'all, planning to start my 12-month RTW trip in Africa. Tentative itinerary is as follows:

Fly to Nairobi, spend 5-6 days in and around Kenya. From there, head to Tanzania, climb Kili. Next, pretty much head south towards Cape Town, and fly out from there ~2 weeks later.

Does this seem like enough time? Will I need to book any flights between Tanzania and SA? Is overland travel reliable enough to facilitate this itinerary?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Please PM if you are feeling like the coolest person ever.

Many thanks in advance,

Will

Hmm, I don't think you wrote that correctly.. you have 12 months and you only want to spend 6 days in Kenya and 2 weeks in SA? That seems a bit off to me.

If I were you, starting in Kenya I would do a safari in the M.M. and check out Lake Nakuru before heading to Uganda where you can easily spend 1 month doing everything: hang out in the Ssesse Islands, Murchison or Sipi Falls, Kampala, Lake Bunyoni, possible Gorilla trek. If you are not super familiar with Africa I woudn't go farther, instead I would cross back through Kenya to the coast and hit Watamu and Mombasa before heading down to Tanzania: Zanzibar or Pemba, Mt. Kili, Ngorongoro Crater, possible trip out to Lake Tanganyika (if you are adventurous - this will not dissapoint) where you can get a ferry down to Zambia. Then you could do Zambia, Malawi or alternatively Zambia to Botswana, to Namibia, down to SA where you can again easily spend 1-2 months exploring it all and including trips to Swaziland and Lesotho.

I recommend grabbing a guidebook like Shoestring Africa from LP and checking out the suggested itineraries.

Thanks very much for the reply--very informative.

In fact, what I did write was correct; was only planning to spend 1 month in Africa, with ~8-10 of those days dedicated to climbing Kili. Kili is the only thing I plan to book in advance; I'd be figuring-it-out-as-I-go for the week in Kenya prior to Kili, and the ~2 weeks after Kili heading down towards Cape Town.

Clearly, it seems as if there is plenty to do. I suppose my real question lies with respect to transportation, and the general lack of direction of my plan. I know I won't have a problem getting to Kili from Nairobi, but as far as getting from Kili to Cape Town, will I be able to do this? Will I need to fly? Is 2 weeks way too short for this leg of the trip?

Many thanks again, and feel free to PM and/or email.

Best,

Will

A month to go from Kenya to Cape Town is just not going to work. You will be on a crappy bus the ENTIRE time. I highly suggest cutting it down to one, maybe two countries at the most. If you are bent on visiting both Kilimanjaro and South Africa, the ONLY way to do this without spending loads on visas and spending all your time looking out the window.. is to fly. This will allow you to be much more flexible and allow you to see so, so much more. If you are flying into Nairobi, I suggest doing a 3-4 day safari from there, possibly to somewhere like Amboseli, then hopping directly on a bus to Kili. From there on to Zanzibar before hopping on a flight to South Africa. That is already 2 weeks of your month gone. As there is loads to do in all 3 countries, I can promise you are not going to be bored. The road through Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe is incredibly long and it can be hard to find transport not to mention break downs, police checkpoints, border crossings (where you can be stuck for hours), and so on. That is far, far too long of a journey to squeeze into a month, no matter who you are or what your travel style. You will not see anything. Unless the only thing you really care to do is say you've been somewhere to impress people back home. Trust me, they don't care and they are already impressed by you going around the world. Take this time to at least see stuff out there. Who knows when you will be back - the last thing you want to remember is all the hassle you got on horrible bus rides.

Sounds like great advice. Thanks again for the reply. Truthfully, I haven't done too much research on Africa; I was just planning on keeping it in theme with the rest of the 12 months, which is to not plan much of anything at all.

Kili is the only thing I'm going to book in advance, save a few flights, and is the main thing I want to accomplish in Africa. Given this fact, if you could choose, would you do Kenya/Kili/Zanzibar then fly to and spend 2 weeks in SA, or just stay in that area and fly out from Nairobi, and why?

Thanks again for the help, it is much appreciated.

Edit: I must also note that it's not like I'm pressed for time or anything--I could definitely extend 4 weeks into 5 or 6. I was just planning on getting to South Ameri by early-mid Feb (after leaving Philly a few days after New Years), Europe by like mid May, etc etc. But yea..not really on any sort of timeline. Should probably buy a guidebook tho!

Double Edit: BnA RTW Flight Planner doesn't seem to think there's much of a $ difference in flying in/out of Nairobi as opposed to flying into Nairobi, then to Cape Town (connecting in Joburg), then out of Cape Town.

Will

I don't have any first-hand experience here, but if you're sort of new to the travel thing and/or Africa, why not look into joining up with an overland tour. Lots of them go from Nairobi to South Africa and take you to some of the highlights along the way. Just google "Africa, Overland, Tours" and you'll find a bunch of options. Might make sense for your itinerary.

respectfully, i'm not new to the travel thing, but am new to Africa. looking to have as little of a plan as possible--just enough time to do a small segment of it and not feel rushed.

@Wild Jasmyn: after speaking with a friend about her time in Africa, seems like maybe I just want to nix SA altogether and stay in the Kenya/Tanzania/Uganda area? Maybe allot 5-6 weeks for this as well?

Like you said, the last thing I want to do is feel rushed.

Thanks again for the help, all. V much appreciated.

Cheers,

Will

For 5-6 weeks... I think I would start in Kenya (minimize time in Nairobi tho, not much there except the Elephant Orphanage), then either head to the Masai Mara or Ngorongoro/Serengeti for a safari depending on where the great migration is, then to your Kili trek, then a week in Zanzibar to recover seems popular after a Kili trek! So that would be about three weeks... then I would fly down to Johannesburg from Zanzibar or Dar and spend 2-3 weeks heading to Cape Town overland. This would be the minimum amount of time to get between those two IMO and I just don't think the going overland the whole way thing is feasible- realize it's a ~4 hour flight between Zanzibar and Jo'burg for scale!

To be fair you could always do either East Africa or just Southern Africa with only 5-6 weeks (I've spent that much time in both and didn't feel bored either time- if anything I was rushed), but I think both are different enough that it's worth your while if you have the money and inclination- none of Africa is particularly cheap honestly. Plus I actually preferred Southern Africa as I found it to be more diverse than the north, but that might just be me.

Thanks for the reply, Andromeda.

At this point, I suppose the plan is to arrive in Nairobi around Jan 4, Kili 15-22, then fly out ~Feb 15. Will probably just stick to Eastern Africa too, and do South Africa the next time around. From the sounds of it, seems like I'll have enough time to see lots, and not feel rushed. Again, this is the goal.

Please throw any and all additional ideas my way, but I think I have the anwer to my question.

Thanks again all, appreciated.

Best,

Will

I did a similar Kilimanjaro resa in Tanzania with Dahlsafaris. What I learned from that trip is that you have to travel slowly in Africa and specially in Tanzania. We meet another group on the mountain that become stuck, because of one of the heaviest snowfalls for many years. They where very unhappy because they would miss their flight out of Africa. So plan with good margin and pole pole (slowly slowly) as they say in swahili.

Hi Will,

All good, except I agree about spending more time. There is such a thing as African time, and that is much slower than the rest of the world. There is also so much to see and do, it would be a shame to rush through it just in transportation. Add 2-3 weeks if you can.

I wish you avery nice trip to Tanzania