West Africa Trip

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West Africa Trip

Postby NathanJanssens » Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:54 am

Hi

I am planning a trip through West Africa and would like you guys' advice.

I'm leaving Nov 26 from Belgium, plan is to get back home about 6 months after.I might stay a bit longer depending on the financial situation at that moment.

Here's what I roughly had in mind:

26 Nov: Fly from BRU via ADD to LFW, Togo. Get visa on arrival for 7 days.
Get the visa extended for 30 days in Lomé, as well as get the visa for Ghana.
Possibly get Visa Touristique d'Entente (VTE) for later on.

6 Dec - 5 Jan: Travel Ghana.

6 Jan: Go back to Togo (on the VTE or buy a new Togo 7 day visa and get the VTE in Lomé then). Meet up with friends for a day or ten.

15 Jan: Enter Benin, cross it from south to north.

1 Feb: Enter Niger from Benin. Assess situation and decide whether or not to go to Agadez.

From there on, the timing is somewhat more vague.

Enter Burkina Faso from Niger, get a new VTE (60 days validity) in Ouagadougou.

Enter Cote d'Ivoire from Burkina Faso.

Fly back to BRU from ABJ.



Possible variations on this are not to visit Niger, do Burkina Faso very briefly and in return visit Liberia and Sierra Leone. Possibly even making our way up north, all the way to Dakar, Senegal.

I'm traveling with a friend, we both have seen a bit of the world already, but West Africa is a bit unknown to both of us. (I spent a month in Senegal last year, but I'm guessing Senegal is not much like Niger or Liberia)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially on safety.
Also, if anyone knows if it's possible to get a VTE in Niamey, please let me know!

Thanks!
NathanJanssens
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Re: West Africa Trip

Postby coldharvest » Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:59 pm

NathanJanssens wrote:Hi

I am planning a trip through West Africa and would like you guys' advice.

don't act the fuckin' fool
Thanks!

not a problem
I know the law. And I have spent my entire life in its flagrant disregard.
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Re: West Africa Trip

Postby NathanJanssens » Mon Oct 21, 2013 11:50 pm

coldharvest wrote:
NathanJanssens wrote:Hi

I am planning a trip through West Africa and would like you guys' advice.

don't act the fuckin' fool
Thanks!

not a problem

So, any reply to the rest of my post? :)
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Re: West Africa Trip

Postby nowonmai » Tue Oct 22, 2013 10:14 pm

I must have dreamt I already did this

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Re: West Africa Trip

Postby buffybot_in_beirut » Thu Oct 24, 2013 8:51 am

Rephrase your text into a few specific questions and re-post on the Thorn Tree. Seriously. It's a shadow of its former self since LP shut it down for weeks and then reopened it with North Korean-style censorship, but it's still the best source.

I was in Benin and Togo so many millennia ago that I can't give proper advice any more. I preferred Benin. Ghana is supposed to be fantastic, with friendly, well-mannered and sophisticated people. Security-wise, Niger is a bit iffy I think due to spillover from Mali. I have a very low opinion of security officials in French-speaking Africa, but they are particularly annoying and threatening only further east (Congos, Gabon etc.). Sierra Leone is a worthwhile destination: pretty, safe, friendly, un-arrogant. Bit of a hassle to get there. You either need to cross nasty Guinea, or come from Liberia, which takes forever - but you have plenty of time, which is good. Get to Sierra Leone before the rainy season starts. It's depressing under constant grey clouds and with frequent rain. Guinea-Bissau is on my things to do list, just because it's such a fucked-up and run-down country. Apparently you can still visit it pretending to be the dumb, harmless tourist. Just make sure you don't look Columbian. And read Forsyth's "The Cobra" before you go there.
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Re: West Africa Trip

Postby obruni » Sat Oct 26, 2013 1:54 pm

Have you confirmed that you can in fact get a Ghanaian visa outside of your home country? From what I've heard/seen it is pretty much impossible these days to get it on the road. Ask on TT.

Also, have you confirmed that the VTE still exists? Unless you have some updated information I would not count on getting it, especially that easily. Back in the day you could reliably get it at the Togo embassy in Accra and the Benin embassy in Lagos but aside from that it was not so likely. Make sure you have updated info on this, again ask on TT, if you don't already.
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