Our road trip Africa by motorcycle was 563 days and we made around 50.000 km; cost of travel was 25 USD everything include pppd. We started to ride motorcycle fromMorocco, we passed 33 countries and had to finish in Sudan. 🙁
Road trip Africa by motorcycle | Cost of travel
When we started our world trip we decided our daily budget can be max 50 USD for both of us include everything (petrol, visas, food, accommodation, shipping / airfreight, fly, etc.) but it was except to climb Kilimanjaro, Gorillas trekking and safari to road trip Africa by motorcycle. They can change our cost of travel a lot because they are expensive things to do. This are options to do and we saved money for it before out of our budget. We could do all before leave Africa, some things are a once in a lifetime. 🙂
We divided Africa in three parts: West Africa,Southern Africa and East Africa trip by motorcycle. Southern Africa was a little hard part to keep our budget as it was wintertime so we needed some hotels sometimes and there is a lot to do and see.
Total road trip Africa cost was 11.975 USD per person for 19 months.
You can see on the basic photo of our calculate which part of Africa how much we spent in Africa trip.
The cost can change a lot depend on your journey what you want or how you want to travel. When we were traveling in Africa most of the time we stayed in the tent and cooked ourself.
We did a lot of wild / bush camping or set up the tent in front of a hotel or at the car parking. Also, a lot of people invited us to their home to stay, drink coffee or for dinner. We are so much thankful to them we made good friends and they helped us to keep continue our journey. So, we didn’t pay total 211 days for accommodation we slept in people houses or bush/wild camping.
Africa visas cost was total 1.850 USD for per person, include customer service, motorcycle traffic insurance and tax.
Visas price could be more if we entered more countries. We skipped some countries because they are so small and we have to pay 100 USD per person. You can find all details for African visas and border crossing.
Fuel is cheaper than Europe, US, Australia….etc. Our motorcycles goes around 30 km on 1 liter petrol.
Each motorcycle took 1.554 USD fuel in road trip Africa.
Other biggest parts were food and still hotel/camping even if we stayed 38% free of Africa trip. We can say that we spent approx. 8 USD each person when we stayed in a motel/hotel/hostel/campsite and spent 5 USD per person for food. (not include alcohol or cigarette)
5.500 USD was per person motel/hostel and market/food cost travel in Africa.
How much left from cost we spent for road, parking, transfer, shopping for motorcycle, sim cards, healthy…etc. Would you like to read all details country by country to cost of travel Africa? You can look at : West Africa trip cost and Southern Africa trip cost and Eastern Africa trip cost.
Begin of the article I wrote that our plan is spend daily 25 USD per person in world trip by motorcycle. So, we suppose to spend 14.075 USD total but we did less. It means we save money in the trip as well. 🙂
14.075 (we have decided) – 11.975 (we spent) = 2.100 USD We saved money more on the West coast motorcycle trip. Of course we didn’t keep money in a save account. We climbed Kilimanjaro. We knew that we were going to save money in Kenya as well. Therefore we visited gorillas and climbed Nyrigango in Virunga Park, Congo.
So, end of the Africa road trip we did everything what we wanted and daily cost of travel was 25 USD all-inclusive per person per day.
How to get your motorcycle out of Sudan to Europe or Turkey, a lot of people riding the East coast of Africa and end in Sudan for multiple reasons.
In this article we will try to explain the options you have; shipping or airfreight from Sudan how easy or difficult, what are the costs, which country you can go or cannot go to ship or use airway for motorcycles, if you use airfreight to Ataturk Airport, Istanbul, Turkey what is the procedure in Turkish customer service and Turkish Cargo service. Also you can find phone numbers who you can contact for detail and help, the GPS coordinations for all places. 🙂
Let’s start with a little info about the countries around Sudan…
Egypt, for Egypt you need a Carnet de Passage (CdP). A lot of people travel without a CdP as it is to expensive or they bought the motorcycle in a different country as their nationality and could not find a country to support their CdP. If you don’t have a CdP you cannot cross through Egypt. Unfortunately for us it was another problem, she couldn’t get the Egypt visa as there is some political issue between Turkey and Egypt at the moment.
Saudi Arabia, it is nearly impossible to get a visa when you travel with a motorcycle also woman are still not allowed to ride a motorcycle in Saudi Arabia so this was not an option anyway. With a car you will be totally fine to go to Saudi Arabia as long as it is a Left hand drive (LHD), they do not except RHD vehicles. We learned from other overlanders you can get a Saudi Arabia visa in 2 or 3 days if you travel with a 4×4 car, truck or camper. For motorcycles they let you wait 30 days or more to response and then they still can refuse you for a 72 hours transit visa
Libya, this country is simple said not safe enough to travel through in our opinion.
Eritrea, this country is also not safe enough in our opinion to travel through.
Here our shipping adventure video. Before continue you read you can check if you like
What is the cheapest option to leave from Sudan by motorcycles?
Our trip ended in Sudan because we didn’t have any option to go another country. We didn’t want to ride all the way down again to Kenya and ship the motorcycles from Mombasa. The cost could be so much to apply visas, fuel, food…etc. So, We started to look for how we can ship our motorcycles from Port Sudan with RoRo / container or find a cargo to airfreight from Khartoum, Sudan.
We searched ship from Port Sudan to go Europe or Turkey but they didn’t have an option with RoRo, which is the cheapest way (around 400 USD) because you don’t need a container to rent or pack the motorcycle. We wrote some companies but couldn’t find any.
Some companies said that we can have a container and ship our motorcycle but the price was so high. Small container was around 1500 USD if you don’t have anybody to share container. Also you must pack your motorcycle and pay extra for it. On the other hand all ships go to Saudi Arabia first and than some stops. It means that we can have our motorcycles in Europe or Turkey more than a month later.
We had only one option more to fly with our motorcycles, means look for airfreight for it. Sudan doesn’t have a lot of option for direct fly or cargo to and from Europe.
For us the best and cheapest option was to fly the motorcycles to Istanbul (Turkey). From Istanbul it’s only 200 km to the Greece border or Bulgaria border. We contacted Turkish Cargo.
Going to talk Turkish Cargo in Sudan to airfreight Khartoum to Istanbul.
Most cargo companies don’t work directly with a customer, they work with companies. Turkish cargo works with Maks Aviation Services. We went to Khartoum airport and found the cargo service. We meet with Adil who help us for all procedures. (If you need help to airfreight your motorcycle you can contact Adil : +249 91 234 90 73 he speaks English very well)
Unfortunately, Turkish Cargo doesn’t fly directly to Istanbul, Turkey. They have big cargo flight every Monday. It leaves from Khartoum around 1:30 pm to Nairobi and leaves from Nairobi around 8:30 pm. It arrives Ataturk Airport at 2:30 am on Tuesday (so you have a full day to pick up your motorcycle at the airport).
Mister Adil from Maks Aviation Services
The price for airfreight motorcycles? To be honest it was a surprise for us!
If you ask how much cost for a motorcycle to airfreight? It is depend on your pack size. We had two different prices for the same motorcycle because of the package size. I want to give an exam; my motorcycle pallet was 190*90*106 and it was 206 kilos after packed. Cargo weight came 302 kg.(DC) Rate was 28.5. So one motorcycle airfreight price was 302*28.5 = 8607 SDG (Sudanese pound)
And some extra cost for the fly, which was 1.350 SDG. Turkish Cargo air way price was 9957 SDG for 1 motorcycle.
You can quick check your cargo weight and calculate your cost easily: http://www.turkishcargo.com.tr/en/e-cargo/applications/volume-weight-convertor
Checking all documents together with Adil
We need another agency as well to custom service in Sudan.
Mister Adil told us we need to worked with another agency who can do all custom service and dangerous goods paperwork. Actually, we didn’t go anywhere when we were inside the Maks Aviation Services office he came there. When you bring your motorcycles to customs you are not allowed to enter somebody official has to do all paperwork.
He got a price for custom service 1200 SDG and 1500 SDG for dangerous good to each motorcycles. But we paid extra 500 SDG extra to each motorcycles because custom service wanted to we paid something more. They started 2000 SDG but after negotiating the price came 500 SDG. We saw the note from the custom service who wrote on the paper we have to pay.
So we paid total 13.157 SDG to Maks Aviation Services, Turkish Cargo Agency to carry our motorcycle to Istanbul, Turkey.
If you ask how much USD it depends on the black market rate in Sudan. We exchange 1 USD=37.50 SDG. It means 350 USD.
Note : If you enter Sudan with your Carnet de Passage make sure that you have an exit stamp as well. When you give your CdP to the agency you should tell them to don’t forget exit stamp.
Time to make pallet for motorcycle with Asim
We need to find a place to pack out motorcycle the cheapest way!
If you want to go to an agency and ask them to make a pallet and pack motorcycle for you the costs will be really so high. Already, mister Adil said that if we can do it with our self it could be so cheap. We knew a Turkish person (Asim) who has a little furniture company who help us a lot when we were in Khartoum. We called Asim and told him what we need it. If we gave the size to him he said that he could make a pallet for us in a half day because he wasn’t so busy when we were asking. 🙂
Asim is working hard to get ready pallets 🙂
He had some wooden in his place he made it from them so, we didn’t pay anything for it. But to make a pallet like this could cost around 2.500-4.000 SDG depend on the how much big and strong the pallet needs to be.
We paid 700 SDG for two clamping straps to stabile the motorcycle on the pallet. Also we paid 1.000 SDG for the truck to carry our motorcycles from Asim’s place to customs at Khartoum airport.
They are ready to go to the airport
Asim couldn’t speak English but if you need to help you can contact with him with text message. You can write you took his number from ‘Gulcin and Ferry’. He has a worker who can speak French and when you meet him he can find a person who can speak English to help you. Asim phone number : +249 91 050 6295.
So, Airfreight cost, packing and transfer motorcycle to the airport price were for one motorcycle total 387 USD in Sudan.
It was a little scary to see our motorcycle was flying 🙂
Note:You should check your Airway bill (AWB) well. If anything wrong or missing on the AWB it can cost a lot to you in Ataturk Airport to wait and pay storage.
Check AWB number on it,
Shipping name is correct, which is your bill name
Consignee name must be writing because Cargo companies make documents with the name. They forgot to write on our bill and we spend a few extra hours for it.
Consignee phone number is correct because they will contact you in Turkey
By the way, we transferred our motorcycle our self. So the agency help us to enter the export cargo area with them. Therefore, we could check all our documents in there if anything was missing. Also, we told with Adil after finish custom service pack our motorcycle with plastic.
we said bye them in Khartoum airport, Sudan
Get motorcycle from Turkish Cargo/Custom Service in Ataturk Airport, Turkey
If you use air way the procedure is same for any flight or cargo companies in Ataturk Airport. The custom service procedure is the same for Turkish people and other nationalities. I am from Turkey and he is from Holland but we had the same procedure. If your motorcycles register write your name everything is easier and you can take your motorcycle yourself. Otherwise, maybe it is nice to look for a fixer.
You should have three copies of your passport, motorcycle register, driver license and also the original documents with you. You must have a green card traffic insurance. I don’t know the insurance cover which countries when you have it in your own country. He is from Holland and his insurance covers Turkey as well. You should have a copy of that as well.
First of all, you must check your air waybill number (AWB Number) to tracking. The statue must be RCF – Shipment Received from flight. http://www.turkishcargo.com.tr/en/e-cargo/cargo-tracking. After that you can call customer management to learn your AWB – Ordino is ready or not http://www.turkishcargo.com.tr/en/about-us/contact-us
Second, you need to go Turkish Cargo office in Ataturk Airport and take your AWB – ordino. It will be cost 250 TL.
Third, you must go to Custom Service building (Turkish: Gümrük Binası) with your AWB – Ordino paper and with a letter. You need a Turkish letter, which can be hand write.
You need find director or assistant director (Turkish: Müdür Yardımcısı) room in the Custom Service building. (The room is second floor on the right) He will read your letter and check your original documents. He will signature your letter and writes a custom officer number on the letter.
Fourth, go to ground floor to the Paperwork office (Turkish : Evrak Kayıt Bürosu) because they must enter your letter in the system. They want to have a copy of your AWB – Ordino and letter. You can find the copy machine outside next door in a coffee place.
We are inside to the store. They brought our motorcycles
Fifth, Turn back to Turkish Cargo office and go to Turkish Cargo store and find guard officer, I don’t know exactly English name. 🙁 Anyway on the door writes Turkish “ Muhafaza Memuru”. You need to give an id card (drivers license) to them and have a card to enter the storage. You don’t give your passport because you need it inside the store.
Then, you will enter from the store door where your motorcycle is. They will ask your AWB number. They look in the system where the motorcycle is. And then they will carry it to you. If your motorcycle is inside a box or closed you need to open it so the custom officer can see plate and VIN number (Vehicle Information Number, chassis number).
Sixth, After that you need to go custom office on the 1st floor. It is inside where you are. 🙂
He will come next to the motorcycle and will check plate and VIN number. After that you will with him to the office. He wants to see your original documents passport, motorcycle register and green card (Traffic insurance)
He will enter everything to the system and write on your passport custom service info. They want all documents copies there. Depend; they will open a file there or not.
The motorcycle are ready for custom service officer to check plate and number from it
Seventh, You need to turn back to the custom service building and find director or assistant director again because he needs to see all documents again and they will signature again. They want to have you documents copies there or sent you back paper work office again to give copies to them.
Eighth, Turn back to Turkish Cargo store area and find a office where you can give your ordino paper, letter…etc. You will have door number there. (Turkish:Kapi numarası) The office is next to the guard office, which you went on the fifth step. 🙂 They will take your copies there for passport and motorcycle register.
Ninth, You will go back Turkish cargo main office, where you get a ordino and pay. Time to pay your store cost. The price changes every 24 hours. So, if you cannot finish all paperwork and take out your motorcycle in 24 hours you will pay again for another 24 hours. Note, they work until 5 pm.
Short explain; the motorcycle-tracking RCF (Shipment Received from flight code) time is 8 am in the morning. You will pay until next day 8 am for 24 hours. But if you can’t take your motorcycle the same day until 5 pm the work time starts next day at 8 am. So, you never finish paperwork in 24 hours and have to pay again. Therefore, Khartoum to Istanbul fly was good because it arrives 2:30 am and you can get Turkish Cargo Ordino AWB around 8-9 am. You have all day to finish the paper work and get your motorcycle out. 🙂
We paid 565 TL to Turkish Airlines Storage.
Tenth, after take your bill to payment you will turn back the store area and show you paper to somebody who standing in front of the door. They will carry your motorcycle to the door and they will ask you where they will put it.
We are working on the motorcycles to make them one piece again to ride in front of the turkish cargo store
Finally, You should enjoy ride motorcycle in Istanbul, Turkey a while or ride around two hours to Ipsala border for Greece or Kapikule border to Bulgaria. 🙂
So we paid total 815 TRL to Turkish Cargo in Istanbul. 1 USD= 4.5 TRL therefore we paid 181 USD.
I will try to write all detail step by step if you want to do it with yourself. It took 3 hours for us all steps. Maybe speak Turkish was easy way. If you think so many things to do you should look a fixer. Maybe it can be nice to know all steps when you negotiate with them. 🙂
Khartoum, Sudan to Istanbul Turkey airfreight cost was total 567 USD for one motorcycle.
He is enjoying to ride in Istanbul
If you have any question feel free to ask. You can send e-mail or write a comment under the article.
Note1:Turkish Custom Service does not take any money! You will pay only Turkish airlines for the AWB – Ordino paper and storage.
Note2: Some cargo companies don’t charge a storage price for first 12 hours. If you have plan to use airway for your motorcycle to send Turkey you should ask the company about it. We took our motorcycles in 12 hours but Turkish Cargo is charging. It doesn’t matter for them 5 minutes, 12 hours or 24 hours, all is the same price. But ask for a discount at the office.
We were in Africa trip by motorcycle and we didn’t want to miss silverback gorillas but when we saw the price how much does it cost to see silverback gorillas, we surprised. Visit Gorillas is so expensive, especially in Rwanda and Uganda because, they just changed the permit costs to see the Gorillas for 2018.
Do you know there is another option to see the gorillas? In Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), next to the Rwanda border. We did silveback gorilla trekking there. Also we hiked the Nyiragongo volcano which is world’s one of most dangerous active volcano also largest lava lake.
But let’s start with gorilla trekking costs in Virunga Park, Congo. 🙂
How much does it cost : Silverback gorilla permit and trekking
The biggest problem is “see gorillas permit”. The permit is 1500 USD in Rwanda, 600 USD in Uganda and 400 USD in DRC. The permit is allows you to spend one hour with gorillas in the park.
When we searched about gorillas trekking in Rwanda and Uganda we found more tour companies and of course the price was more high.
Some countries gorilla permit fee can change in the rain season because it is low season. Virunga park changes the gorilla permits from 400 USD to 200 USD. You can check low season dates on virunga park website (https://visitvirunga.org/). It was starting 13 of march on 2018.
You need visa a as well to enter Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); It is 100 USD. If you book directly from Virunga park website they apply visa for you. Their website writes that it takes 2 weeks to approve the visa. We didn’t have so much. We wrote them Friday afternoon and we entered DRC on Tuesday morning. ☺ You must remember; if you travel with East African visa you can not enter again with the same visa to Rwanda. You should check more info on EATV visa detail.
A short video from our gorilla experience :
They don’t allow enter the park with your own vehicle so you need transport to go and see gorillas. Therefore we parked our motorcycle in Rwanda and paid daily 5 USD for two motorcycles in Discover Rwanda campsite. If you want to have transport inside the Virunga park it is a little expensive but you can go by taxi. Taxi cost changes where you want to go. For example, you can go to Nyiragongo volcano hiking from Goma and turn back Goma. After that go to Burkima to see gorillas and turn back Goma border again cost around 180 USD. It is taxi price, not per person. If you are four persons in the taxi 45 USD per person. You can find companies on internet also you can check http://www.ubuntuvoyages.com/contact it. If you are good negotiator you can book everything from there maybe more cheap then park website 🙂
Rwanda-DRC border opens early but Virunga park office (in the border) opens 8 am in the morning. Therefore, they write on their page that ”You can not visit gorillas same day of border crossing because the gorilla trek starts at 8:30 am and Goma border to Burkima around 1,5 – 2 hours. The office gives your permit paper on the border when you arrive Burkima or Nyiragongo, you show these papers. If you want to do it the same day you should write Virunga park. I am sure they will do their best for you.
So, if you can’t go to the gorilla trek same day of border crossing you can find some hotels on the border. For example, Rusina hotel in Goma was 40 USD for a double room with private shower. (You can find cheaper options if you search, but depends on the quality and safety you are looking for.)
So, see gorillas cost can be around 365 USD (+ 30 USD Rwanda visa) if you are more than one person to go Virunga Park, DRC.
How much does it cost : Nyiragongo Volcano trekking
When we were going to see the gorillas we decided to hike the Nyiragongo volcano as well. And we booked everything from Virunga park website.
Unfortunately, climb Nyirangongo volcano price doesn’t change because they don’t have low season for it. The price is 300 USD. You climb to the top and stay on the top in a hut (summit shelter) a night and next day you turn back.
If you want you can hire a porter there to carry your backpack also you can order a food package on the Virunga park website. We didn’t have porter or didn’t book food. We carried our stuff. Because the porter is 24 USD to round and meal is 75 USD (snacks on the hike, dinner and breakfast) per person.
We carried total 10 liters water, chapatis ( traditional bread name in East Africa like a wrap), tuna cans, some fruits, cookies and boiled eggs for breakfast. Also, a bottle of wine because it was our anniversary and we wanted to celebrate there. 😉
You can watch short video from our hike of Nyiragongo :
So, If you want to visit gorillas and Nyiragongo lava lake together in the low season the cost can be;
300 USD Nyiragongo volcano hike
200 USD Gorillas permit and trek
100 USD DRC visa
Transporter and hotel price which way you want to do. If you travel like what we did it can be 65 USD.
We entered Rwanda from Tanzania and paid 30 USD visa for Rwanda. When we were turning back DRC we used our EATV because we were going to Uganda and Kenya.
Total price: 695 USD
!!!!IMPORTANT NOTE!!! Your security is most important thing for Virunga park. Before book your journey to there you should get contact with them and learn the security detail. Even if after book if anything can happen they can cancel the tour and pay back money.
When we were going to Omo valley Ethiopia, of course we had a lot of questions in our mind; Is the Omo Valley dangerous? Can you travel without a tour company? Is there any cheap way to visit Omo valley? How can I find a guide? How are the road conditions in the Omo valley? Is it safe to ride motorcycle? Does is possible and easy to travel Low Omo Valley by public transporter?
After spending 10 days in the Omo region we wanted to write an article and try to answer all questions what we had in our mind. You can find info about Omo valley roads, how to travel between villages, where to stay in Omo valley also where can you eat, how much to visit tribes of Ethiopia…. So,
How is Omo Valley roads? What about fuel? Can you find petrol easy?
When you leave from Konso and turn to the Omo Valley road the region says hello to you with an amazing landscape and nice mountain roads.
Key Afar road from Konso
Key Afar is 112 km from Konso and all the way is tar road; you just need to be careful for potholes and the local busses.
Jinka is 40 km far from Key Afar. It is a tar road with some potholes.
Turmi is 83 km far from Key Afar. Dimeka is the first village on the road, which is 56 km far and than Turmi is only 27 km from Dimeka. Road is still under constriction therefore it is a gravel road with some corrugation. Still the road to Dimeka and Turmi has some problems in the rain season. 🙁
Karo Tirbes, Gorcho village road
Gorcho (One of the Karo ethic groups village) is 50 km far from Turmi. First 30 km is gravel road with some corrugation after that hard sand road, sometimes soft sand. But it is impossible to reach the Gorcho on the rain season. Dus is 19 km far from Gorcho and most of the road is soft sand.
Omorate is 71 km far from Turmi and it is a brand new tar road (2018).
Where to find fuel in Omo Valley? It was one of the big question in our mind when we were going there. We bought petrol in Konso, it is look like only one petrol station sells petrol which was 22 birr. Another option Jinka to find petrol. One petrol station is so much busy because they have petrol, which was 19 birr. We didn’t see petrol station Key Afar, Turmi or Omorate but they have many motorcycles there. So, if you ask one of them they can help to find petrol but price will be more high between 30 to 50 birr. When we were leaving Jinka we calculate how many kilometers we ride and took extra petrol with us.
Where to stay Jinka, Key Afar, Dimeka, Turmi and Omorate in the Omo Valley? Safe, cheap, clean hotel, motel, pension…
We can highly recommend staying in Jinka and Turmi because you can find a lot of option to stay.
Key Afar has two-three pensions. We didn’t stay in Key Afar because we know that people complain about cleanliness and security. Dimeka has the same problem. You can visit Key Afar and Dimeka at the market day. Easy to go with public transport and turn back. We went to Omorate for a day and we couldn’t see nice place to stay around, only some basic pension.
Normally, we have been staying in tent in our journey but we skipped to do it in Ethiopia. We have many reasons for it; it is rain season now. Each day, we have rain maybe half an hour but everywhere getting mud and roads can be like a river. Also, we have a lot of electronic with us. We don’t want to leave them in the tent when we go to visit Ethic groups. In Omo Valley, people like to touch everything a lot. It is not maybe because of they want to steal something; maybe they are only curious. But we don’t feel comfortable to stay with all our bags on the motorcycle. Other reason was price; some camping sites are more expensive than basic rooms. Also, they can be far from the city center. We don’t want to walk 3-4 km under the sun everyday to find food in the city center.
You can find a hotel for yourself, which you like. We wanted to share with you what we know.
Orit Hotel, Jinka (basic room site)
Jinka Pension & Hotels
Who went to Jinka before us they recommend three different hotel/pension to us. Nardos Pension , Goh Hotel and Orit Hotel & Pension. Three of them are clean and close to each other in city center. Nardos and Orit have Wi-Fi (some times good sometimes slow, depend how many people use at the same time.) You should remember that you can always negotiate the prices especially if they are not crowded.
Nardos Pension has a room with private shower and toilet but don’t have many rooms so can be full fast. The rooms with share bathroom are more available. We went there but they didn’t have a room with private bathroom. The room price is 300 birr. They asked 250 birr for a room with shared bathroom room.
Goh Hotel has many rooms and the price starts 350 birr. It was look like ok. We went there only for lunch and we didn’t like the food.
Orit Hotel and Pension has many room because they are famous place for tour operators. They made new building with high quality room (when you compare to Ethiopian standards). We asked the room price and they said 740 birr. We stayed in the cheaper rooms, this is an old building with simple rooms but including shower and toilet and it was clean. They said that they have water problem therefore only bucket shower. (We are not sure that the water ever works J) They said 300 birr but we paid 250 birr. They have bar and restaurant. Food was ok.
Turmi Pension & Hotels
Turmi has many options to stay but its not like Jinka. The prices are higher and the quality is less compared to Jinka.
We stayed in the Green Hotel. They were thinking two guys on the motorcycle and said that 700 birr a room. After they learned that we are couple the price was 500 birr. After negotiated we paid 400 birr for the room, which has a double bed, clean and has running water. It is in the center of the village. (We went to Gosho and Omorate from Turmi and turn back the same day.) Green hotel is so much noisy place. L Because they have TV and local bar, therefore people drink and watch TV almost until midnight.
Tourist Hotel is next door of Green Hotel. We asked the price to them when we were staying in Green hotel, which said that directly 400 birr to double room with private bathroom. They have share bathroom room as well, 100 birr. I suppose it’s similar to the Green Hotel.
We asked price to Kizo Lodge. They wanted 35 USD For the room. It was looking good but it was too expensive for us. They allow camping there. They want 10 USD but you can get 5 USD per night. When we were there they didn’t have internet but local people said that we can use WIFI there. It is in center of the village.
Another option is Mango (Kaske Campsite). Their price for camping 150 birr and basic room is 300 birr but if it is not busy easily you can get price to camping 100 birr and to room 200 birr. It is 4 km far from the center. So, if you want to go shopping or restaurant to eat you must walk.
If you want to go Omo Valley to really discover you can stay in the ethic groups villages as well. This is possible with the Hammer tribes. Of course you need to pay for this. 🙂 When we asked the price they said that 300 birr, per person, for village camping. Also, you can stay Dassenech (Dashnech) village as well but you need to organize with guide where you can find them.
What can you eat or find in Jinka, Turmi or Omorate? What is the price for a meal? Restaurants and markets in Omo Valley…
They have a lot of restaurants in Jinka. We ate sometimes in Orit Hotel. Food price starts 50 birr. Small coffee 5 birr, soft drinks 12 birr and beer 16 birr. We can also recommend Besha Gojo Restaurant. Prices are almost the same as Orit hotel. They have a lot of options in the menu but the quality is better. They have different prices for local and tourist, which is almost double for tourists. For example, our guide ate FirFir 40 birr and we ate 70 birr. He drunk beer 14 birr we paid 23 birr. 🙂 (Some market prices; an avocado 5 birr, local orange 1 birr, a banana 2 birr, a tomato 2 birr and 2 liters water is 15 birr, a sandwich bread is 3 birr)
You can find small markets around to buy drinks, cookies, fruits etc. If you plan to see the Jinka market on Saturday you should wait to buy fruits and vegetables there because it’s so cheap.
Jinka Market
Unfortunately, we cannot say the same thing for Turmi. They have some local restaurants to eat local food. Or hotels have food but they don’t have many options. In Green hotel, local food prices were around 50-70 birr for tourist. We ate only one time there and than we cooked our self most of the time.
You can find easily small markets to buy water and soft drinks. But you can’t find a lot of fruit or vegetables around. Tomato, cabbage, onion, bread and eggs are easy to find. Market day, we found avocado and banana as well. (Some market prices; a small avocado 5 birr, 3 eggs are 10 birr, small cabbage is 5 birr and 2 liters water is 15 birr, soft drinks 500 ml is 20 birr, a sandwich bread is 3 birr).
Two nights we went to Evangadi Lodge to dinner. Local food was 35-40 birr, pizza was 80 birr (you need to order in the day time to dinner) and meat was around 100 birr.
You can try local food; Injera is some kind of bread. You will like or not, nothing between. Shiro is the sauce; you make it with garlic, ginger, tomato and spices. Tips fir-fir is injera with mince meet.
In front: Tips firfir. Behind: Injera with shiro
How much to hire a guide, village enter fee, rent a car, national park enter fee…? Do you need a guide in Omo Valley to explore?
Around Jinka
They don’t have any fix price for hire a guide in Jinka. But most of them want to 500 birr to go to the Mursi Villages. To visit the Ari Village is around 200-300 birr. If you want to visit the Jinka market with a guide (which is not necessary) you can find them on the road when you walk. They can say 150-200 birr you can pay less after negotiate. J Villages enter fee is 200 birr per person. If you want you can hire a guide in a day to visit the Mursi and Ari village also to market. Just you need to negotiate for the price. 🙂
How much did we pay to visit a Mursi village?
500 birr for the guide
270 birr is Mago National Park enter fee per person
54 birr is Mago National Park enter fee per car
200 birr village enter fee per person
150 birr is the ranger price. They don’t allow to you to go the village without ranger. When we were entering the park they didn’t have any scout there. We were in the park at 7 am and looked like they were sleeping. When we were turning back they ask how we enter without anybody. Our guide said that you didn’t there. Answer was “It doesn’t matter you must pay 150 birr” Yes, they didn’t come or do nothing but took the money. So this did not feel good for us!
2000 birr is rent a car. Our guide booked it from “Travel to Tribe”
Mursi Village
You can go to Key Afer alone by local bus we can recommend to have a guide there because life is more easy to take a photo, shopping, info etc. When you walk to the market they will come for a guide to you. You can negotiate for it. Price can be 100 birr. Or you can have a guide from Jinka who is your guide to visit the villages you can ask in the beginning when barging for the price. Don’t forget, most likely they want to charge you full price.
Around Turmi
I suppose that Turmi has only fix price to hire a guide. They have a Evangati Youth Association in the village and they fix the price; village enter fee is 200 birr, guide is 300 birr, bull jumping is 600 birr, dance performance 400 birr and village camping is also 300 birr. You can walk around the market by yourself. When we were there the market day and bull jumping was at the same day. Therefore, we went to the Hammer market with our guide and ask a lot of questions to him (without extra costs).:)
We went to Omorate to visit Dashnech (Daasanach) tribes. Sometimes we really think about where the money goes because it is look like some people do some kind of business 🙁 If you don’t have any vehicle you can rent a motorcycle or hire one. I suppose the price can be around 300 birr.
How much did we pay to visit Daasanach (Dashnech) tribes?
150 birr each person to the village enter fee
400 birr to guide (for group or a person same price)
100 birr for photos. We gave it when we were in the village. You are free how much you want to take photo after pay.
150 birr per person for canoe. They are next to the bridge and easily you can walk to the village. They told us we can walk and pass bridge but we still have to pay for the canoe. Which kind of business it is we are really curios like Mago national park security. You just have to pay!
Daasanach (Dashnech) tribes, Omorate
Visiting Karo village this is a bit far away from Turmi, you can rent a local motorcycle for 400 birr to make the trip. First village Gorcho is about 50 km single way. They wanted 600 birr each person to enter the village. 3-4 guys were sitting in front of the village and drinking beer. It was before 11 am. We didn’t like their behavior and we didn’t sure to our money is going where. Therefore, we didn’t enter the village and turned back. We were enough upset and a little angry about all cost, it felt that we were paying money for somebody get rich or drunk! (To be honest, we were so much disappointed each village about money. Because we are not sure all money going village or somebody making money from their lifestyle.)
Gorcho Karo Village entry
Don’t forget! If you want to take a photo from a person they will charge you. One photo is 5 birr. Sometimes, they can calculate the clicks, so every click is 5 birr. Only in Key Afer market one girl did it. Other times we just paid 5 birr. And most of the time old people want 10 birr for the photo. If you take a general photo from the village or market it is fine, nobody says something for it. When you go to a village you pay enter fee but this doesn’t mean that you don’t need to pay for the photos. Still you must pay for the photo if you want to take it from a person.
When we were visiting the Ari village we took photos how much we wanted. Nobody ask for the money because it is free after pay for the village.
How can I find a local bus (public transporter) to reach the cities?
You can find local busses to travel between the cities easily especially around the market days in the Omo valley. We have been traveling by motorcycle but we used the bus in the Omo valley as well to visit small cities.
Go to Jinka from Addis Adaba:
You can get a bus from Addis AdabatoArba Minch. They have a daily bus between the two cities. It’s about a 10 hours journey and the price is around 250 birr. You can find ticket office next to the stadium (National Museum) for “Selam bus”. If you look more cheap bus you can take public bus from Merkato but we can recommend to use private bus for safety and comfort.
From Arba Minch (in Sikella bus station, everyday) to Jinka is about 6 hours and costs 120 birr. Generally, buses leave when they are full so there is no schedule and they will stop many times that’s why it’s so hard to say how long it will take.
Also, they have a lot of busses from Konso to Jinka every day.
Go to Key Afar from Jinka:
You can find a lot of mini busses that will go from Key AfartoJinka. They leave when they are full. It cost 40 birr and takes about 45 minutes. Especially on Thursday day have many buses to Key Afar from Jinka as its market day in Key Afar. Other days, you can wait long to bus get full.
Key Afar to Jinka
Go to Turmi from Jinka:
It is easy to find a bus on Tuesday and Saturday from Jinka to Turmi. It takes around 3 hours and costs 100 birr.
Go to Dimeka:
You can reach Dimeka from Jinka, Key Afar or Turmi on Tuesday and Saturday. The price is between 30-80 birr.
Go to Omorate:
It is not so easy to find public transport to go to Omorate. A bus is leaving from Jinka on Tuesday and Saturday to Omorate from via Turmi. It is 110 birr and takes around 4 hours. The bus turns back from Omorate the next day. You can get the bus from Turmi as well it takes about one hour and costs 40 birr.
Note:Other days you can find trucks to travel, which local people always take. But we don’t know about the price or safety part. It’s easy to get to Jinka. Therefore when you are making a plan to visit the Omo Valley you should get all bus details in Jinka. Just remember that you can find a bus to go Key Afar, Dimeka, Turmi and Omorate when they have market.
Welcome to most popular and touristic part of Africa, East African Countries. Zambia and Malawi are still ok for price but when passed to Tanzania we started to feel that we are just US dollars walking on the street, walking dollar machine. We are tired to barging for everything. Also, everything is so expensive for tourist like national parks enter fee, climb mountains…etc. It is look like if you rich welcome East Africa to stay in hotel, visit wildlife (Serengeti or Masai Mara National Park) and climb Kilimanjaro.
Anyway, it is look like we stayed inour daily budget limitin Eastern Africa as well because a lot of people invite us their house to stay or food and some people sent money to said that “we have been living in their dream and wanted to sent money to help a little for our dream.” Therefore, We could climb Kilimanjaro.
We spent 168 days in Eastern Africa and spent daily 47.25 USD, everything include for two people and motorcycles. We were planning to finish our ‘travel around Africa by motorcycle’ trip in Egypt but Turkey passport had problem to get visa that moment. That’s why we stopped our journey in Sudan and paid for air cargo (Airfreight)also fly ticket Sudan to Turkey. Take motorcycles from the cargo in Turkey was an other cost of course. All cost is inside Sudan cost, so nice to see we are still in the budget for us. 🙂
I suppose our Western, Southern or Eastern Africa countries calculate is a little different what internet says about it. 🙂 Our Southern Africa journey by motorcycles has started from Namibia and finished in Zimbabwe. Therefore, you can find only 8 countries detail in here which are Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.
Our cost is so much high than West Africa cost. First of all camping sites are expensive; we were going wild camp in west of Africa. Second, we went to Madagascar which means out of budget. Last, we invited her father to join our life a little and see wildlife.
The South of Africa cost is more than West part but almostclosed to our daily budgetstill. 🙂 Now look like we spent 50.27bUSD daily.
We are so appreciate who gave money us to buy Madagascar fly ticket, rent a car and all enter fees. It is almost 2.000 USD I don’t think so we could pay and travel Madagascar also keep our budget. We would like to say again thank you from here. Don’t worry we don’t write your name. 🙂
This is all details where we spent money. 🙂 If you need any question please just ask.
Our Madagascar trip was for 14 days. It was so hard to find all info about how much hotel, where we can eat also rent a car… We searched a lot of things but not a lot of detail to find. Therefore we booked a car last minute and flight Madagascar…. You can read our Madagascar journey.
How much did we spend in Madagascar? Is it cheap to travel?
For Food
If you want to go more touristic restaurants you can have more option. We ate most of time in local restaurants. Main dishes rice which comes with crabs, shrimps, zebu (cow meat), pork or fish… possible to order vegetables as well. It depends on the area what you can order…
We paid between 2500 AR and 6000 AR for one person. Also beer is 3000 AR(local beer 660 ml) , soft drinks 1500 AR (330) ml) and water 2000AR(1.5 liter) in local restaurants. We went to a lot of bazars to buy fruits they are selling banana (2000 AR per kilo) Oranges (4000 AR per kilo) and Pineapple (3000 AR each).
So, we spent 600.000AR for all food and drinks in our two weeks trip.
For Hotel and Camping in Madagascar
It is possible to sleep in the tent Tsingy Berahama National Park which we paid 5000 AR to village tax and 5000 AR for the tent for one night with two persons. Camping inside the Isalo National Park costs 25000 AR. We skipped the Ranomafana National Park because we were going to Andasibe Park which ha
s similar rainforest and you can see the biggest Lemur there. They told us it’s not possible to camping Ranomafana. Andasibe National park entrees has a camping side also which is next to the picnic area and free but no facilities.
We were looking for a simple hotel, what needed to be clean, have a hot shower and Wi-Fi in Madagascar. The price for it is around 40.000-45.000 AR. Some places you can find 30.000-35.000 AR room as well but they don’t have good Wi-Fi or hot water. Just, we can tell you that don’t try a hotel room which is 20.000 AR.
We carried our tent to camping but we could sleep only one time because Ferry had some stomach problem, so he preferred to sleep in a room 🙂
We spent total 500.000 AR to stay.
Have a sim card or need a pharmacy
When we arrived to the airport we bought phone card from TELMA. 1 GB internet and sim card was 25600 AR.
You should carry with you some pills for stomach problem, dearie or get cold. Weather can change every region hot to cold. Also it doesn’t matter where you want to eat, possible to have some stomach problem. Ferry did it and we searched to find big pharmacy to find some medicine. And we spent 26200 AR to Ferry feel better J
Madagascar National Parks and Reserves enter fees, guide price…
Madagascar is one of the touristic destinations in Africa continent. They made special tourist prices as they do more around Africa. In Madagascar they bring this to a second level, locals will pay 2.000 AR enter fee and tourist 55.000 AR also you need to pay for a guide.
Tsingy Berhama National Park’ s enter fee is 55.000AR per person and a guide is 135.000AR up to 4 people. You need to pay every day. To get to Tsingy you need 2 ferries as well to cross the river, they cost totally 90.000 AR.
Isalo National Park’ s enter fee is 65.000AR per person and guide is 120.000AR up to ten people. Pay daily.
Anja Reserve to see famous Lemurs. We went there and take a 1,5 hour tour. Enter fee is 10.000 AR per per person and guide is 48000AR (prices change how long your tour is).
Andasibe National park. They have a lot of option to do. Daily enter fee is 45.000 AR per person. We did the Indri2 tour (50.000AR) and Sacred Waterfall(40.000AR). Every tour is a different price and each guide can take up to 4 persons. We also paid 2.000 AR for the car to enter the park for trekking. J
So, we paid all enter fees and guide 777.000 AR.
About Madagascar road and rent a car
When we were searching about car rental we couldn’t find a lot of info about it. If you want to rent a car and drive yourself the price is more expensive compare to a car with a driver. Looks like, the better option is to rent a car with driver. Daily rent car price is between 40 USD and 70 USD including a driver, excluding petrol. It depends which kind of car you want or where you want to go.
Madagascar main road is tar road with a lot of potholes and crazy drivers are on the road. So, it’s not an option to go fast. For example, Antsirabe to Morondava is 480 km but takes minimum 8 hour to go. Or Antsirabe to Andasibe is 290 km but takes 6-7 hours drive on the tar road. We would like to give a little info about road plan to understand how many days you have to discover to Madagascar and what you can do :
Antsirabe is like a center. If you want to go Tsingy and than Isalo National park like us you go to Tsingy, turn back Antsirabe than go to Isalo. This is what we did, we arrived in TANA (Antananarivo the capital). Our first stop was Tsingy. this means that you go to Antsirabe(First day), Morondava (second day), Bekopa (third day), (fourth day in Tsingy), turn back Morondava (fifth day), Antsirabe (sixth day). If you spent only one day in Tsingy Berhama Park you need 6 days to go and come back Tsingy again.
For Isalo you can go in 1 day from Antsirabe to Isalo, spent there a day and the next day go back to Antsirabe. But this are very long days in the car and is not very comfortable so I would recommend to spent at least 1 night in Fiana which is half way.
Which kind of car do you need to rent in Madagascar?
If you want to go west of Madagascar to Tsingy de Berhama you must have good 4×4 car because road is really bad, the park is closed in rainy season because cars can’t go. I think that you don’t need so expensive car to go south of Madagascar to visit Ranomafana and Isalo National Park also Toliara and Ifaty are all on tar road. If you go East of Madagascar; Andasibe National Park road is also tar road as well but after that to Sainte Marie road is bad again and you will need a 4×4. Go to Anstiranana (north of Madagascar) is also easy tar road.
We paid for our car 2.250.000 AR for 14 days. When you book a car with driver general driver accommodation and food is include the price. But not include petrol and costs for the ferry. We made approx. 3500 km in Madagascar, which cost 1.285.000 AR for fuel. The car was using diesel and 100 km 13 liters. 1-liter diesel was 3000 AR.
And of the trip we spent total 5.390.000 AR. When we were there 1 USD was 3.000 AR.
NOTE: You can contact with Tahina : 4x4raidtour@gmail.com (just write his name on subject)
About Madagascar visa
You can get a visa on arrived at the airport. 30 days visa 25 Euro or 28 USD. So nice to you have small notes with you 🙂
We started our Western Africa journey from Morocco. We passed 17 countries until Namibia in 7 months. We spent most money for visas. And sometimes we had to change our route because of visa hunting. 🙂
Daily, we have been writing how much we are spending with all detail. Therefore, so easy for us to see country by country our spent and discuss what we spent for nothing to be careful.
