Firsthand Accounts of Travel in Africa

When I'm writing an article about Gorilla Safaris for example, I often go to sites like Virtualtourist.com and Igougo.com just to make sure the information is current. These sites depend on travelers to write in about their experiences and it's usually based around practical information. It's a useful resource given that some African countries are economically and/or politically unstable and situations can change overnight. Tracking gorillas in the Democratic republic of Congo depends not so much on park opening times as to whether there is guerilla activity or a sudden influx of refugees in need of bush meat. While safari companies naturally keep abreast of these situations, it is good to be able to read what a person actually experienced last week on the ground (or in the dense foliage) as it were.

These sites are also useful if you want to find out what it's really like traveling alone as a woman in Egypt or Morocco (from women who have done it), what the 'tourist traps" might be at various destinations, what a taxi ride from A to B should cost you and everything in between. The downside is that not every post is informative so you have to filter out a lot of it and it doesn't work well as a destination overview.