Planning a road trip on South Africa’s stunning Garden Route? Don’t miss this step by step Garden Route itinerary: what to do, where to stay + what to skip. Everything you need to know before you go.

Travel to Rwanda doesn't need to be difficult or scary. In fact, it's one of the world's safest countries and has loads to offer the adventurous traveller.

Wondering what are the best things to do in Knysna? Here are the most amazing activities to do in town. #7 is such a life....

Travel to Rwanda doesn't need to be difficult or scary. In fact, it's one of the world's safest countries and has loads to offer the adventurous traveller.

Senegal travel is truly surprising. Visit colonial towns, go surfing and see incredibly bird life. Here is all you need to know to visit Senegal.

We are proud members of the U.S. Peace Corps community and love to partner with our fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, who often have some of the best insights into the culture and authentic travel experiences available in their host country. We asked Madisen Hughes, a former Volunteer and current resident in Malawi, to share her...

Learn how to travel to Eritrea, what cities to visit, what attractions to see, and what to expect as a tourist in this Eritrea travel guide.

Don't forget these 14 crucial things when planning a trip to Africa. You can't afford to miss these items, your trip could depend on it!

Breathtaking Places To Visit | Tour Guide, travel tips, tourist attractions in Senegal

Breathtaking Places To Visit | Tour Guide, travel tips, tourist attractions in Comoros #visit Comoros #visit Africa

Lalibela and the legendary rock-hewn churches should not be missed on your trip to Ethiopia. Here you will find helpful tips!

Angola is a vast country in Africa, offering unique travel experiences. It’s one of those places very few know nothing about, and even fewer have traveled there. Usually, the only…

Things to do in Mpumalanga Mpumalanga is one of my favourite provinces in South Africa. Meaning 'the place where the sun rises', it is blessed with breath-taking natural beauty and abundant wildlife - which attracts tourists from around the world. Personally, I become more enamored of this province every time I go there. I am also surprised by how many South Africans have not been there yet. There are so many amazing things to do in Mpumalanga that every South African should visit at least once. If you are visiting South Africa, then you should definitely add it to your

If you are considering a trip to Addis Ababa, here is the Ultimate Guide to the city on the best places to stay, the best restaurants, the must-see places and more.

Mt Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. If it’s not on your bucket list, it should be! Here's a guide to Mt Kilimanjaro Trek.

Franschhoek isn’t only about good food and good wine, they also offer enjoyable activities. So here are ten of the many things to do in Franschhoek.

🗻 Click here to check prices and availability of this day trip to Atlas Mountains from Marrakech!

Whether you're climbing Kilimanjaro or basing yourself in Moshi, here's a list of day trips and fun things to do in Moshi.

Discover Kampala, the administrative and business capital of Uganda, through the eyes of someone who lives there since 2004. This is a local’s travel guide to Kampala written by Leslie Weighill from The Real Uganda. This complete travel guide to...

Rwanda is a rising luxury travel destination in Africa. The country is clean, green, safe and organized, and the contrast is huge when crossing the border from any of the…

Want a break from roughing it? Treat yourself to one of these unique glamping sites in the Western Cape and immerse yourself in adventurous luxury.

Looking for what to do in Mozambique? Check out my 10-day Mozambique travel itinerary and start planning your own trip right now.

Cairo was a place that I never thought that I would get to. It was always on the list because of the history and some of the most known archeological sites in the world. I would even say it was on …

Franschhoek isn’t only about good food and good wine, they also offer enjoyable activities. So here are ten of the many things to do in Franschhoek.

Situated along the Garden Route, Mossel Bay is a seaside destinations in South Africa. In this post check out the best things to do in Mossel Bay and more

Benin in West Africa is probably most famous for being the home of the Vodun or Vodou (more commonly known in the West as Voodoo) religion, of which Haitian Voodoo is derived. Voodoo is one

Discover The Gambia with award-winning travel writer and photographer, Kathryn Burrington with her guides on where to stay, what to do and where to eat plus a vast range of travel articles from this exciting country in West Africa.

12 attractions not to be missed at Hermanus

Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, often serves as both the starting and ending point for travelers exploring this magnificent country. Despite its

Read for the best things to do in Rabat, Morocco as experienced during a self-guided walking tour of the city. Highlights include the kasbah & the medina.

Throughout history, humans have used the land to plant crops, chiseled it away at it to make homes and extracted its resources to fill their greatest desires. By using Earth’s resources to construct man-made realities, they have achieved great feats of engineering and controlled empires that expand the borders of many modern nations. It is these great feats and architectural masterpieces that have left many tourists awestruck and intrigued by the incredible craftsmanship and ingenuity of their forefathers. And it is sites like these that tourists flock to year after year when designing their perfect vacation. Yet, Namibia’s Damaraland is a different type of destination. Namibia is a place that may lack some of the amenities and historical relics that have put other countries on the tourist trail, but it is striking nonetheless–striking precisely because of its desolation, isolation and nothingness. It is dusty, it is sandy, it is empty. Yet, from this alien landscape, arises a feeling of immensity that is often overwhelming. These bleak landscapes evoke a sense of beauty and inspiration. What is most awe-inspiring about Namibia is its consuming vastness. And nowhere is this more apparent than Damaraland. The Herero of Damaraland The Herero are one of the eleven main ethnic groups that form part of Namibia’s colorful cultural ensemble. The Herero migrated into what is now Namibia’s Kaokoveld, from areas in Central and Eastern Africa. In the 1800’s, the group splintered. The Herero settled in Damaraland and became pastoralists and farmers. Their offshoot—the Himba—clustered around the Kunene region in the country’s northwest and have maintained a largely nomadic lifestyle. The traditional Herero garb is a fusion of traditional and European styles. The Herero style is heavily influenced by Victorian-era German missionaries and consists of layers upon layers of petticoats, voluminous skirts and shawls. However, the most distinct feature of Herero attire is undoubtedly the headdress–a horn-shaped hat that symbolizes the importance of cattle in Herero culture. Namibia’s Herero history is a tragic one. In 1907, the Herero staged a rebellion against the colonizing Germans. The rebellion backfired and resulted in the first genocide of the 20th century. The German forces squandered the Herero Rebellion and nearly extinguished the Herero ethnic group. Today, descendants of the surviving Herero number in the 200,000s, but estimates predict that if it had not been for the genocide, their population would be closer to one million–meaning they would have overtaken the Owambos as the predominant ethnic group in Namibia. Traveling to Damaraland, Namibia During the year I spent living in Namibia, I was fortunate to have visited many of the country’s top highlights. On weekends and between semesters teaching, I took every opportunity possible to visit the country’s stunning natural wonders–from Etosha National Park’s animal-studded plains, to the towering dunes of Sossusvlei. The landscapes in west-central Namibia elicit feelings of driving the empty roads of America’s wild west. We drove for miles, seemingly in the middle of nowhere and often in silence. At times, hours would pass before another car crossed our path. Throughout the drive, we would find ourselves marveling at the expanses of red rock or pointing at the outline of pastel-colored mountains in the distance. Petrified forest in Damaraland Our first stop in Damaraland was the Petrified Forest that lies to the West of Khorixas. The petrified forest sits in the heart of a dry, rugged hills of Damaraland. It contains the remains of hundreds of trees, estimated to be around 280 million years old. These trees are thought to have originated in Zambia’s Copperbelt Region. Many scientists believe that they were washed into west-central Namibia by the floods after an ice age. The moving floodwaters carried sand and mud, which covered the trees, preserving them and preventing their decay. Over time, the wood has been replaced by quartz and has resulted in trees that, aside from their physical appearance, resemble rocks in many ways. At the Petrified Forest, we were also able to see the famous Welwitchia Mirabilis–a plant species endemic to the Namib desert that is perfectly adapted to life in the arid environment. Welwitchia plants can live up to 2,000 years. Twefylfontein UNESCO World Heritage Site From the Petrified Forest, we continued onward to Twyfelfontein, Namibia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site and the highlight of our trip into Damaraland. Twyfelfontein is a site that contains one of the largest conglomerations of petroglyphs in Africa. The artists of the engravings are widely believed to be the ancestors of the San hunter-gatherers that have inhabited the region for thousands of years. The engravings are estimated to be around 2,500 years old and depict many of the animal species that were found in the region, including elephants, giraffes, rhinos and lions. In total, the number of engravings exceeds 2,000. Some of the pictorial illustrations are of animals found in other areas, such as seals and penguins. This reveals that the inhabitants of the Twyfelfontein area likely had contact with the coastal region of the country, more than 100km away. The area of the Huab Valley near Twyfelfontein was sacred to the early inhabitants of the area and held ritualistic significance. Many of the engravings, including the “lion man” portray the transformation between man and animal. Spitzkoppe Mountain Spitzkoppe is a highlight of traveling to Damaraland and a place that I regrettably skipped during my year of traveling and volunteering in Namibia. The 1728 meter rocky massif rises above the dusty plains of southern Damaraland and has become a symbol of the region and of Namibia as a whole. Next time I travel to Namibia, visiting the Spitzkoppe will be my top priority. Why Travel to Namibia’s Damaraland? While Damaraland certainly has beautiful tourist highlights, much of the region’s appeal lies in its empty spaces–spaces that are vast, endless and ever-changing in their geological characteristics and color schemes. They are spaces where barren lands are home to a resilient and resourceful population that is struggling to survive in one of the world’s harshest environments. As with all living organisms in the region, the people of the Namib Desert have adapted to survive in this uncompromising part of the world. They have learned to work the land, to reap its fruits and to find their basic needs for survival in a place that most humans would deem unfit for habitation. There are some environments that allow themselves to be transformed and still others so uncompromising that they have yet to be controlled. Instead, they transform the ways of life of those who live there and give them the strength and resilience to forge a life against all odds. In many ways, Damaraland defines Namibia as a whole. Few places in Namibia—save perhaps the Skeleton Coast and the Kunene Region—offer a better window into the harsh realities of life in one of the world’s most sparsely populated countries. Damaraland is vast. It is uncompromising. It is challenging. And it is starkly beautiful. For these reasons, the region should be a top priority when traveling to Namibia. ________________________________________ Was this Guide to Damaraland Namibia Helpful? Pin it!

Looking for what to do in Mozambique? Check out my 10-day Mozambique travel itinerary and start planning your own trip right now.

This is the ultimate list of things to do in Cape Town for every type of traveler, from adventures on Table Mountain to sipping local wines in the Cape Winelands.

Some places in South Africa leave you feeling flabbergasted, 'shooketh', and in awe. For me, that's Knysna. Tucked away along the Garden Route, the small seaside town oozes luxury, adventure, fine dining, and out-of-this-world wildlife encounters. But with so much to see along the Western Cape coastline, most travellers find themselves on the fence about whether or not to add Knysna to their Garden Route itinerary. Here's what I think: If you're looking for a destination that has something for every kind of traveller, Knysna is where you need to be whether you're in the mood for art gallery sojourns,

Franschhoek is one of South Africa's premiere wine regions, but often gets looked over in favor of Stellenbosch. Here are awesome things to do in Franschhoek, whether you love to eat French food, drink wine, or see beautiful South African nature!

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Want to explore Africa on a budget? Good news, it's possible! Here are the cheapest African countries to visit!

Planning a trip to the lovely town of Knysna, South Africa? Read this guide to find the BEST things to do in Knysna, where to stay and more!

Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, often serves as both the starting and ending point for travelers exploring this magnificent country. Despite its

Your ultimate guide to the best things to do in Knysna, from how to visit the iconic Knysna Heads, seeing whales & where the best beaches & sunset views are

This is the ultimate list of things to do in Cape Town for every type of traveler, from adventures on Table Mountain to sipping local wines in the Cape Winelands.

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Travel far enough south of Rabat on the Atlantic coastline of Morocco and you will find the bustling city of Agadir that is perennially bathed in sunshine. Surrounded by desert, mountains and neigh…

Wondering where to go in Africa? Find the ABSOLUTE best countries to visit in Africa here and get top tips on what to do and see in each.

The coastal city of Agadir is located on the southern Atlantic coast of Morocco and had to be rebuilt after a devastating earthquake in the 1960s. This guide will share the best things to do in the city and is home to beautiful beaches and the largest souk in Morocco.

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Need to plan your gorilla trek? Here is everything you need to know about gorilla trekking, from how to get your permit to what you should expect.

Cliff-hugging roads on scenic drives, epic sunsets, lush mountains, tasty cuisines, and colourful neighbourhoods. There are so many things to do in Cape Town. Here are 20 reasons why Cape Town should be on your bucket list.

Including the world's highest bungee jumping site.