Last updated on October 1st, 2021 at 01:23 pm
How long should you stay in Africa?
Is forever too long? I’m kidding. But really, I get asked this question all the time from travelers in my Private Facebook Group who are planning a trip to Africa.
If you’ve checked out my route traveling Africa, you’ll know that I originally planned on a 6-8 week trip. Then as I started traveling, I was having so much fun that I ended up backpacking for 7 months!
Here are 4 Tips to Plan Your Stay in Africa
1. Spend as LONG as Possible!
I originally planned a shorter trip because I was scared and nervous to travel the continent alone as a female. I wasn’t even sure that backpacking most of Africa was possible.
Let me tell you– it is. And you’re going to love it. I’ve helped hundreds and hundreds of backpackers travel Africa, and everyone loves it.
So if you can plan a longer trip because you’re in between jobs or just out of university and don’t have a job lined up, that would be ideal.
- One week is too short, so make 2-3 weeks the minimum time you’d spend.
- A 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year+ trip would be a significantly better length of time.
- If you can’t take off a few months to travel for a least a few more years (due to a work or school commitment) then a smaller trip is better than nothing.
2. Visit Multiple Cities in Each Country
African countries are incredibly different from each other. The difference between South Africa and Mozambique, two neighboring countries, is incomparable. So your trip should incorporate at least 1 other country– if not many, many more. I visited 13 total during my backpacking trip.
However, each part of each African country is very different too. For example, Ethiopia has over 80 different ethnicities and languages. Visiting the capital city, Addis Ababa, will be completely different from the active lava lake in the east, which is completely different than the castles in the north west.
That’s why I recommend visiting at least 3-4 different cities in each country. Because the culture, food, language, and activities you will have will vary totally.
For example, in South Africa:
- Visit vineyards and enjoy some of the world’s best wine in Stellenbosch
- Climb Table Top Mountain & enjoy fun vibes in Cape Town
- Shark Dive in the Hermanus (considered the Great White Shark Capital of the world!)
- Spend lazy days on the beach in Jeffreys Bay
- See Penguins at Betty’s Bay
- Eat amazing Indian food in Durban, which besides India, reported has the most amount of Indians living than anywhere else in the world
- Incredible hiking in Drakensburg
- Hustle and bustle in Joburg
- Safari in Kruger
- Attend Afrika Burn (a regional Burning Man event) in Stonehedge
See how different all of those places would be? You’d visit 10 different cities and have a wildly different experience in each one. And that’s just one African country!
3. Stay Minimum of 2-3 Weeks Per Country
Because each country is so different, you’ll want at least 2-3 weeks minimum to see each country. However, if you actually want to experience the culture more, 3 to 6 weeks or even up to 3 months per country would be much more ideal. Plus the slower you travel, the cheaper your trip.
4. Don’t Underestimate Transportation Time
I traveled my entire trip by public transportation. While you can’t find most the information online, there is a bus that goes everywhere. Or a train, a cargo boat, or some other mode of transport.
The good news is public transport is cheap.
The bad news is that it’s so slow.
For example, a distance that would take me 2 hours back home, takes at least 6 hours. Partly because people get on and off during the whole trip so the bus is continually stopping. Partly because there is always road problems– either construction or a bunch of donkeys are blocking the road.
Almost any distance, even seemingly small ones, can eat up an entire day. Even if my driver told me it would only take 4 hours, a regular so-called “short” ride looked like this for me:
- Some buses don’t go the whole distance to the city you want. You’ll have to take a bus to a city in-between, spend the night, and make the rest of the trip on the next day. Meaning it will take you 2 full days of travel just to get to your second town.
- Sometimes the bus will have a mechanical issue or the train you were supposed to take is off schedule by a day. So you’ll end up spending an extra day just waiting to leave.
- Crossing borders can be a simple process– taking an hour or so. Or, the border could be really slow and take 4-6 hours to cross. You’ll never know until you get there because it differs each day and is totally unpredictable.
- While public transport is completely slow and annoying, think of it as part of the journey. There is no better way to understand the culture in any country than to take public transportation. Some of the funniest, weirdest, smelliest, and unbelievable stories I have from my trip are from a 12 person mini-bus that had 22 people and 7 chickens on it.
Need More Help?
Here’s a free PDF that you can download that will help you understand and plan this better. It shows my route through two countries I traveled (Mozambique and Kenya), the cities I traveled to, and the length of time I spent just on transport.
Hope this helps! If you need anything else, you can find me in my Facebook Group (the password to enter is Travel Africa).
