Africa Travel Guide & Planning Resources
Planning a trip to Africa can feel overwhelming – especially if you’re travelling independently or visiting the continent for the first time. But you’re in the right place.
I’ve been travelling, researching, and planning trips across Africa for over 16 years, and I now spend around six months of every year exploring different parts of the continent. The entire purpose of this website is to help you plan safe, realistic, and unforgettable trips to Africa — whether you’re backpacking, travelling solo, or looking for a more adventurous itinerary.
I also run my own Africa tour company, where I design and lead small-group trips across the continent.
This Africa Travel Guide brings together my best travel tips, planning tools, and trusted resources – everything you need to start planning your own incredible journey. From visas and transport to safety, itineraries, and tours, these are the exact resources I personally use when travelling in Africa.
If you’re looking for honest, experience-based advice about travelling in Africa – not generic information – you’ll find it all here.
Africa Trip Planning & Inspiration
From deciding where to go and when to visit, to planning itineraries, safaris, and unforgettable experiences, these guides will help you plan the Africa trip you’ve been dreaming about.
The Practical Stuff
Visas, insurance, health, money, and packing – the essentials you need to organise before heading to Africa. These guides will help you travel smarter and safer, leaving you free to focus on the adventure.
Epic Adventures
Things to Know Before You Visit Madagascar
15 Things to Know Before You Visit Benin: Voodoos and Voodon’ts
Climbing Kilimanjaro: How to Prepare & My Tips for Reaching the Top
The Best Things To Do in Sierra Leone & Itinerary
The Complete Guide to Gorilla Trekking in Uganda & Rwanda
16 of Africa’s Best Hikes
Climbing Mount Nyiragongo Volcano in the DRC: Everything You Need to Know
The Ilala Ferry, Malawi – My Best Worst Journey Ever
The Tazara Train – Travelling Overland from Zambia to Tanzania
Rock My Adventure – Africa Group Tours
Want to travel Africa, but don’t want to go alone? Then join one of my Rock My Adventure tours!
Experience amazing, adventurous and authentic Africa with a group of new friends!
Rock My Adventure offer highly-personalised and life-changing group tours in Africa, bringing together solo travellers, couples and small groups for immersive, fun, off-the-beaten-path adventures.
Our aim is to show you the real Africa, not just the epic safaris and bucket list activities (although we do all of those too), but we also include cultural experiences, history, nightlife and every day life – our trips have it all!
Useful Africa Resources
The sites below offer a great starting point to ensure you stay safe and healthy whilst travelling in Africa.
I strongly advise that you seek the advice of your doctor or a specialist travel clinic before you travel to Africa to ensure you are covered for everything.
Safety
- Foreign & Commonwealth Office (UK): I check here for any travel warnings about the places I am visiting.
- Travel.State.Gov (US): Similar to the FCO, this has all of the US travel advisory warnings.
Health Info & Vaccinations
- World Health Organisation: The major authority on travel health everywhere in the world.
- Travel Health Pro: This is my general go-to resource.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Useful information on travel health by destination.
- NHS Inform: This has replaced (the far more superior) NHS Fit For Travel.
Visa Information
Knowing whether you need a visa or not, how much it’s going to cost you, and whether you need to apply in advance is one of your biggest considerations when travelling to Africa.
The embassies are usually your best source of information, however, their websites can be difficult to navigate/out of date, so you can also cross reference on the sites below.
- Project Visa: This is a great resource to get information on the visas you need for every country.
- Wikipedia: You can check your visa requirements by destination and nationality which is really helpful
The rules vary from country to country and from passport to passport so you need to ensure you are prepared. I’ve written more about visa prep in my Top Africa Travel Tips post, but just always make sure you have 6 months (in some cases 1 year) left on your passport and at least 2 pages per country for stamps and visas.