Africa travel tips

30 guides across 18 countries — when to go, how to get around, which ATMs not to use, and what a fair price looks like.

people walking on street during daytime

MarrakechMoroccoSpices, souks, and desert sunsets

aerial view of city near mountain during daytime

Cape TownSouth AfricaWhere mountains meet the ocean

rocky beach with white cottages under clear blue sky

ZanzibarTanzaniaSpice island beaches and a Swahili stone city

The pyramids of Giza on the edge of the desert

Cairo & the PyramidsEgyptThe last standing wonder of the ancient world, on the edge of a megacity

Wildebeest massed on the Serengeti plains during the migration

Serengeti & NgorongoroTanzaniaTwo million animals moving in one direction

Victoria Falls at sunrise, spray rising from the gorge

Victoria FallsZimbabweThe smoke that thunders, a mile and a half wide

The carved hypostyle columns of Karnak temple

LuxorEgyptThe greatest open-air museum in the world, on both banks of the Nile

Acacia trees on the golden grass of the Masai Mara

Masai MaraKenyaThe same plains as the Serengeti, and the river the herds have to cross

Le Morne rising above the Mauritian lagoon

MauritiusMauritiusAn Indian Ocean island with a lagoon most of the way round it

The blue-and-white terraces of Sidi Bou Said above the Mediterranean

Tunis & CarthageTunisiaA Roman capital, an Arab medina, and a blue-and-white village on the cliff

Algiers rising in white terraces above its bay

AlgiersAlgeriaWhite terraces down to the Mediterranean, and almost no tourists

Volcanic ridges falling to a beach in Cape Verde

Cape VerdeCape VerdeTen Atlantic islands where Africa, Portugal and Brazil met and stayed

The granite boulders and shallow water of Anse Source d'Argent on La Digue, Seychelles

SeychellesSeychellesGranite boulders older than the Indian Ocean, standing in water the colour of glass

Boats moored at the Red Sea shore in Hurghada as the sun sets behind the desert hills

HurghadaEgyptA reef the length of a coastline, and three hundred and sixty days of sun over it

People walking the dirt road between the giant trunks of the Avenue of the Baobabs at sunset, Madagascar

MadagascarMadagascarAn island that broke away eighty-eight million years ago, and where nine in ten species live nowhere else

a beach with clear blue water

Diani BeachKenyaWhite sand, colobus monkeys in the canopy, and a reef a swim away

Agadir beach at dusk, under the Kasbah hill and its illuminated inscription

AgadirMoroccoTen kilometres of Atlantic beach, three hundred days of sun, and no medina

The Chouara tannery’s stone dye pits, seen from a terrace above the Fes medina

FesMoroccoThe largest car-free urban area on earth, and it has been that way for 1,200 years

a group of boats floating on top of a body of water

DakarSenegalWest Africa at full volume: mbalax, Atlantic surf, and a slave island in the bay

Accra spread out under a wide dusk sky, seen from above the city

AccraGhanaThe friendliest capital in West Africa, and the door to the slave coast

person in white dress in front of pink building

LalibelaEthiopiaEleven churches cut downwards out of solid rock, and still in use every morning

white and brown animal with antler on brown sand

Sossusvlei & the NamibNamibiaThousand-year-old dead trees under the highest dunes on earth

a pond with lily pads and lily pads

Okavango DeltaBotswanaA river that never reaches the sea, and everything that lives comes to drink

two brown Giraffe on brown grass field

KrugerSouth AfricaTwo million hectares, tarred roads, and the Big Five from your own car

aerial photography of hills and trees

BwindiUgandaAn hour with a family of mountain gorillas, and half the world’s remaining population

The Red Sea shore at Sharm el-Sheikh, with Tiran island on the horizon

Sharm el-SheikhEgyptThe Red Sea, which is the best diving in the northern hemisphere, with a resort attached

brown rock formation beside body of water during daytime

Garden RouteSouth AfricaThree hundred kilometres of forest, lagoon and cliff between the mountains and the Indian Ocean

blue painted building

ChefchaouenMoroccoA medina painted every shade of blue, on a mountainside in the Rif, three hours from anywhere

brown brick building near body of water during daytime

EssaouiraMoroccoA walled Atlantic port of white and blue, with trade winds that made it a kitesurfing town

group of people riding on camels

Merzouga & the SaharaMoroccoThe dunes of Erg Chebbi, 150 metres high, at the end of the road from Marrakech