heidels

Hi, a friend and myself are planning to backpack the continent of Africa! We are really flexible and are looking at taking 12 months to travel around. We realise some places are not safe to be travelling on our own, and I am hoping to find some recommendations on tour operators - We want any tour to be flexiable and not feel like we are just visiting the major sights with hundreds of other tourists without actually getting to know that counrty. Anyone have any advice?

ShayTay

You might find better info for backpackers on Lonely Planet. Also, you might look into overland trips. They appeal to the backpacker crowd and come in various itineraries, lengths of time, prices, etc. Do a search on the Internet and you'll find companies such as www.africanoverlandtours.com.

PredatorBiologist

Jenman Safaris seems to offer a wide range of good safaris with excellent value prices throughout the continent and of varying lengths and locations for the flexibility that you desire.

http://www.jenmansafaris.com/

luangwablondes

It might help if you tell us where you plan on traveling and what you think you want to see. Mostly you can get around East and Southern Africa with buses, trains, matatus, and some imagination.

If it is gorillas in Uganda, you can buy a place if available from wildlife service in Kampala and take public transportation out to Bwindi. For the Mara, inexpensive camping tours can be arranged out of Nairobi. For the Serengeti, the Crater, Manyara, Tarangira, out of Arusha or Moshi. For Kili, the same. To get to Zanzibar, just take the ferry out of Dar.South Luangwa is about the friendliest place for backbackers to get into a park with relatively habituated animals to vehicles-meaning great game viewing. Even the campsites here have some wildlife visitation daily. And they have a good choice of game viewing activities in the budget range, all booked thru the place you pitch up at. Lusaka and Kariba are good places to arrange canoe and camping tours in LZNP or Mana Pools after you arrive. There are regular scheduled trips. Even houseboating on Lake Kariba and maybe going into Matusadona. Obviously you will want to make your way to VF with all their activities. They can be arranged when you get there. To get into Chobe, Savute and Moremi, you can arrange to get with a mobile safari out of VF, Livingstone, Kasane or Maun easily.

Thats just a few examples. A good idea is to pick out a few safari operators in each place in advance that you like and in your budget so you can arrange in advance via email to get on their next trip when you arrive.

With 12 months, it makes no sense getting on any of the tour trucks. They seem to fly through the countries too fast.

luangwablondes

Forgot to add. Sometimes you can hitch a ride with an overland tour truck-like a long distance route from Dar to Malawi or Zambia. It will cost you something normally, but worth skipping that huge distance if not trying to get to places in between like Mukumi or Ruaha or the Selous. or even from SLNP to Chipata. I have infrequently picked up a few backpackers when I was selfdriving-- fuel is expensive, so don't be afraid to approach someone going you way with apparently a seat available, and offer to share the fuel costs.