Tag: Mozambique

4 Days in Mozambique Recap

Yes, I know it is February and it has taken me forever to post things from my jaunt across the African continent. But, there is just so much stuff.

Figured I would start with the shortest trip during the three weeks I was traveling and work my way backwards.

Here is how my time in Vilanculos, Mozambique went.

If you’re interested in how much any part of this cost, click here.

Sunday, December 24th

On Christmas Eve, we flew from Johannesburg to Vilanculos.

The flight was with LAM Mozambique Airlines and only took about an hour and a half. Couldn’t tell you the last time I was on a propeller plane? Pretty fun.

Also, for it being such a quick flight, they still gave us a whole box of snacks. Probably one of the best granola bars I’ve ever tasted was inside the box too.

We arrived at around 1pm and got through security pretty fast. FYI – we had read everywhere that the cost of the visa-on-arrival for Mozambique was $50.00 USD, but it ended up only being $11.00 USD per person.

We had arranged pick up with our hotel prior to beginning the trip and I wanted to draw your attention to a message we received from them when we confirmed the pick up.

Mastercard was NOT WORKING in the entire country of Mozambique. Thankfully, I don’t use MC, but imagine if I did? Imagine if I was already there and went to pay my hotel tab and couldn’t use my card because it was blocked or something in the entire country. Madness.

The pick up went well though, and we made our way to the beautiful Bahia Mar Boutique Hotel.

The pictures won’t even do this hotel justice because the grounds were so clean, so beautiful and lush.

After check-in we were escorted to our room – the Seaview Bedroom.

Our room had two beds (it was me and my bestie, Jummy), and this HUGE patio overlooking the water under us. Beautiful room, the place looked brand new.

Heads up – uhm, the toilet area is not particularly private. Yes, there is a door to where it is, but it doesn’t lock or fully close. You can pretty much hear everything and if you’re someone who might get belly issues while you travel, eh, might make things a little uncomfortable with the other person traveling with you. Also, the shower is completely glass. I can see this being cutesy if you’re on a honeymoon….. but I was there with my friend.

So yeah, nudity and not much privacy for either bathroom activities.

Jummy and I immediately took a walk down to the water. Prepare yourself, there is A LOT of stairs. I wouldn’t classify this hotel as somewhere particularly accessible. If you plan on going to the beach at all here, just wanted to give the heads up.

Unfortunately at the the time we went down, it was low tide and there was a lot of seaweed. But, it didn’t matter, we were just so damn happy to be there.

We decided to spend our afternoon by the pool. Listen, I am NOT a pool-person when I travel to beach destinations but this pool? I mean, look at the content.

Also, being able to order food and cocktails to where we were sitting poolside was nice. Got a good shawarma and fries!

Spent the whole afternoon/early evening just hanging out by the pool and then we got changed and went to dinner at the hotels main dining area.

The food was great, there is a big selection on their menu and I got the crab ravioli. Yum.

Our server was named Rui and if anyone reads this and meets Rui – he is the BEST. Every day we hoped we would run into him at the food service area. He was probably one of the best parts of staying at Bahia Mar. Impeccable customer service, kind and fun to talk to.

When we went back to our room to turn in for the night we also had a pleasant surprise there. I had never been to a hotel that does turndown service? They had put down the mosquito nets, our pillows were changes and they even left us a Christmas ornament and card. This was soooo lovely.

Great end to a great Christmas Eve.

Monday, December 25th

I WAS SO EXCITED FOR THIS DAY!!!

(Merry Christmas)

Today we had an awesome excursion booked, and I had been watching random YouTube and TikTok videos about it this destination for months.

First, breakfast, which was included in the cost of our stay at Bahia Mar.

What we really liked about the breakfast there was the huge spread of fruit and pastries alongside a whole menu of dishes you could order like eggs benedict etc. Make sure you also try the parfait, I don’t even like those usually, but theirs? 10/10

Off to the excursion we went with our full bellies.

Another day of low tide was pretty cool. I couldn’t believe how HIGH and LOW this thing gets. I travel a lot, but I don’t think I have ever seen a tide so low, that we damn near walked a kilometer into the water to get onto our boat for the day. Cool.

First we went to Bazaruto Island.

This is something out of National Geographic. You get to a little island that is uninhabited and has this gorgeous water. I have seen sandbanks, but this is like SAND DUNES. There is even foliage growing on it. Remarkable.

Make sure you bring water shoes for this excursion. Not because of any rocks in the water, no no, that is perfect white sand. Bring them if you want to climb the sand dunes. I burned the FUCK out of my feet climbing up there. The sand is very hot and it hurts. Don’t be like me, be prepared.

We made a next stop at Banguerra Island, which was close by.

This place looks like a postcard. It was especially cool watching the tide starting to rise gradually and parts that were just sand, be covered by water.

Epic photo opportunities here.

We returned to Bazaruto for a bit and had lunch, burned our feet some more walking on wood planks that were in the sun all day. Fantastic. Never a bad time for an adventure.

Make sure you do this excursion if you get to Vilanculos. It was absolutely the highlight. We booked ours directly with Bahia Mar, but there are lots of tourism companies you can book with as well.

During the boat ride, Jummy and I made friends with the captain of our boat – Nelson. Shout out to Nelson because he was like ‘you guys wanna go to a party tonight?‘ and were like ‘hell yeah‘. Because what is the point of going somewhere and staying on just the hotel grounds or excursions? Having fun with the locals is waaaaaaay better, so we did that.

At about 10pm, Nelson came to get us and we walked over to a street party that was about 15 minutes from our hotel. VIBES. They love some Pop Smoke (rip) here and they even played some Drake. I was happy to be drinking a rum and coke out of glass, at a street party? YES.

We also took a tuktuk at some point to check a next party, but eventually just went back to the street because it was way more fun. I loved this experience, the locals are super friendly and down for a good party. I’m not sure if this is weekly or because it was Christmas? I don’t know. But Jummy and I had a BLAST.

Tuesday, December 26th

I don’t have much for you today.

Just woke up hungover from the night before, had breakfast and then spent the whole day lounging by the pool.

It was slightly overcast this day and we were just happy to relax. We tried the REAL peri peri chicken at the hotel and it was way better than whatever this garbage is they give us in Toronto. Make sure you try that specific dish while in Mozambique.

The only other thing of note today was when I went to pay for the second half of our stay and my food bill – my Visa card did not work. Remember, I said Mastercard was not working? Well apparently my Visa card would not as well. I was lucky because my Visa Debit bank card did work. I have to tell you, to ensure no headaches in Mozambique, please come with cash. Just bring the damn cash. My heart sunk to my ass when my Visa card wouldn’t work because how the hell am I supposed to pay??? Yeah, bring cash here, save yourself the headaches with cards.

If you can – please visit Vilanculos.

This was such a chill and beautiful place, with really nice locals and amazing food.

Bazaruto and Banguerra are necessary for all of you to visit, if you’re in the area. I know Bahia Mar is a bit on the expensive side, but it was worth the money to stay there. I would return in a heartbeat if Mozambique wasn’t so damn far from Toronto.

Hopefully, I will be adding my Johannesburg and Lagos recap to this…… soon.

  • Mirna

3 Weeks in Africa Budget Breakdown

Hold on to your calculators, this one is lengthy.

I had been planning this trip to Lagos, Johannesburg and Vilanculos for the majority of 2023. There are so many twists and turns in this budget that…. yeah, your head might spin. If I didn’t keep track of all of this on an Excel spreadsheet? Listen.

This is my most expensive trip I have ever taken. It isn’t even close to anything else I have done, this is almost double the amount of my previously most-expensive-one.

Below is a photo of the budget breakdown I keep on my Excel spreadsheet:

That is a WHOLE lot of items. I know.

The Flights

Let me begin with the most important thing – the flight to Lagos, Nigeria.

The initial plan was JUST Lagos, to be with my best friend Jummy and her family.

I booked SUPER early with EgyptAir (on February 8th, 2023) and the total cost of that roundtrip flight was $1427.46. It goes Toronto to Cairo and then Cairo to Lagos, both ways – December 14th to January 4th.

Now, is this a crazy early date to book a flight? Sure is. However, please ask your Nigerian friends some of the abhorrent amounts they have paid to fly home from Toronto to Lagos in December. When they tell you that number, mine will look incredible. I told my best friend that the moment it was under $1500, I was booking it. I know folks who booked their flights to Lagos well into the high $2000s and even some $3000s. I’m not rich. That is not for me.

Next, we obviously needed somewhere else to go to as well, no way we were spending the entire weeks in ONE country. Never that.

The second flight we ended up booking was from Lagos to Johannesburg, South Africa. We booked this one on June 29th and the total cost was $679.00 roundtrip, per person with Kenya Airways. This flight went from Lagos to Nairobi and then Nairobi to Johannesburg – December 18th to December 28th. I did see some direct flights from Lagos to Joburg, but they were like $1200? Absolutely not.

Now this is where the breakdown becomes super random.

How the fuck did we end up in Vilanculos? You guys won’t even believe how this came about.

I want people to think I’m some well-versed traveler who knows all these cool locations because I do research, meow meow meow. That is not how we ended up in Vilanculos.

Early in 2023 a documentary had come out on Netflix called MH370: The Plane That Disappeared. We all know the story about how that Malaysian Airlines flight disappeared and now there was a doc about it. So I was watching this documentary and some old, rich man in it was taking it upon himself to search for missing pieces. He was flying all over the world to look for any remnants of this missing flight. Well, one of his stops was in Vilanculos, Mozambique. The SECOND I saw those beaches, I immediately thought…… ‘I need to make it there ASAP!‘

We had that flight to Joburg booked and would you believe it? Joburg just so happens to have one of the direct flights that goes to Vilanculos. I showed Jummy pictures of this magical place and she was down – so we booked Vilanculos off me seeing it in a plane-disappearance-documentary. I am a very strange girl.

The cost of flying from Johannesburg to Vilanculos was $456.00 roundtrip, per person and that was with LAM Mozambique Airlines. The flight was just under 2hrs each way, no stops – December 24th to December 27th.

Total cost of all flights: $2562.46

I know that looks like a huge number, but given that we were traveling during Christmas / NYE and that I know people who paid more than that JUST to get to Lagos? Not so bad. Not so bad at all.

The Stays

You thought the flight portion had a lot going on? Ha. Those were literally the least complicated breakdowns for this post.

I had a combined SIX stays during this trip. Technically there was a seventh, but that time was spent at Jummy’s moms house in Lagos, I didn’t have to pay for that. Shout out to her!

Also, it was supposed to be only four stays, but, shit happens. You will see below.

The first stay was not booked until a week or so before the trip. Realizing that traveling from Lagos-proper to Victoria Island / Lekki for clubbing and stuff would be a pain with the traffic and transport, we decided to book a stay on the island for my birthday.

Birthday booking was Riviera Suites – December 16th to December 17th.

We booked a suite with two beds, breakfast included. We chose this hotel because of the great price, great reviews and also a good location. Total cost was $161.00 for the night, so $80.50 per person.

Moving on to when we got to Johannesburg…..

The next booking was at the Premier Hotel Quatermain – December 19th to December 24th.

We booked a standard twin room at this hotel and it had breakfast included in the rate. The reason we chose this hotel was because it had great reviews and the location was this area called Sandton, which we heard was one of the safer areas in Joburg. Not going to lie, the price was kind of nice too. For the five nights we paid $469.00, which was $234.50 per person.

This is where one of those ‘shit happens‘ explanations comes in.

We really were just planning to stay at the above hotel for our entire time in Joburg. However, during one sleepless night at the Quatermain, I came across a random TikTok that showed me another place. It looked magical. I was influenced!!

I showed it to Jummy and we agreed that one night in this place would be perfect.

We ended up booking a one-night stay at MINT Resorts The Blyde – December 22nd to December 23rd.

I mean, once you see the photos and the cost? I feel like you’ll understand why this all transpired.

We booked the superior queen room and breakfast was included in the rate. Total cost for the one night was $116.00, so $58.00 per person.

Yes, we booked a hotel while staying in another hotel. The shenanigans are never ending here.

Up to this point I feel like the price of stuff was pretty good? We made out well with the costs of hotels.

Well, that was about to change as we move on to Mozambique.

The specific place we were going, Vilanculos, didn’t have many options for stays. Once we put our eyes on the hotel we eventually booked, that HAD to be our hotel.

We booked our stay at the Bahia Mar Boutique Hotel – December 24th to December 27th.

This place only has 22 rooms, a gorgeous pool, wonderful reviews and breakfast was included in the rate. We chose to go with the sea view bedroom and the cost for three nights was $1526.00, so $763.00 per person. I realize that is a lot of money, but, I will let you know in the recap that it was totally worth it.

When we returned from Vilanculos to Johannesburg, we just needed a one night stay in a hotel before our flight back to Lagos.

For this we booked Radisson Hotel & Convention Centre Johannesburg, O.R. Tambo – December 27th to December 28th.

Proximity to the airport and it looked nice in the photos was a good enough reason to choose this place. We booked the executive room at this hotel and the cost for our one night there was $130.00, so $65.00 per person.

Our final stay was us returning to Riviera Suites – December 30th to January 2nd.

Thankfully, it was a great stay for my birthday so I am glad we chose to stay there again.

We booked the same room (a suite), but this time for three nights over the New Years long weekend. The total cost for that was $400.00, so $200.00 each.

Total cost of all stays: $1401.00

I mean, could it have been less? Yeah, probably. But, YOLO.

Health Stuff

Let me tell you about some of the medications and preparations that this trip needed, and how much that cost.

First, I am required to have a yellow fever vaccine to even apply for a Nigerian Visa. That is the most important thing that HAD to be done.

I went to TravelMed Vaccine Centre to get this done.

Scheduled myself for the yellow fever vaccine as well as getting an updated dose of the Typhoid oral vaccine. I had done the Typhoid vaccine (in the arm) back in 2016 for my trip to Bali, but it was now expired, so, needed to get it again. This time I got the oral one which apparently lasts two years longer than the one I got in my arm. Sure.

The total cost for the Typhoid oral vaccine and the yellow fever vaccine was $355.00, as you will see in my receipt below. Luckily, my boyfriend wanted to give me a nice, EARLY, birthday gift so he gave me $300 to use towards all of this. So thankful. Therefore MY total cost was only $55.00 for both of these vaccines.

I also received some prescription items from the doctor to take closer to the trip.

  1. Dukoral – taking two doses of this oral vaccine, six weeks before the trip to help prevent any tummy issues I may have.
  2. Atovaquone Proguanil – 29 tablets of this medication to lessen the chances of me getting really sick if I were to catch malaria. I had to take one the day before I left for my trip, daily while on the trip and then take it for seven days after I return from the trip.
  3. Zithromax – six tablets of this was just in case the Dukoral didn’t completely work, if I were to get severe tummy issues while traveling.

I was expecting quite a large bill once I went to pick up these prescriptions. Previously, I was not covered by work for any travel-related medications, I had to pay out of pocket.

To my PLEASANT SURPRISE, this time it was ALL covered.

  1. The cost for the Dukoral was supposed to be $120.35.
  2. The cost for the Atovaquone was supposed to be $138.27.
  3. The cost for the Zithromax was supposed to be $12.71.

With my insurance though? I paid a total of $16.47!!! Fucking. Thrilled.

Total cost of all medical stuff supposed to be: $626.33

Total cost of all medical stuff for me after boyfriend and insurance: $71.47

That is a steeeeeeeep amount less than what I was supposed to spend. Grateful I didn’t end up having to.

Visas

Ah, the most complicated part of this post has arrived.

Let me discuss this goddamn multi-entry-tourist-visa I had to get to enter Nigeria.

This was by far the most anxiety and stress inducing part of this whole trip.

Best way to explain this is probably listing how much each part cost and going from there……

  1. Cost of Photos for Visa Application = $30.00 CAD
  2. Nigeria Immigration Services Fee = $170.00 USD / turned into $236.14 CAD
  3. First Payment to Visa Connection/CIBT = $297.19 CAD (for consular feed + FedEx)
  4. Second Payment to Visa Connection/CIBT = $225.40 CAD

The photos I feel is pretty straightforward, you need to send photos to apply for a visa. Duh. That cost me $30.00 CAD.

For EVERYONE applying to enter Nigeria (that require a visa), you will have to go through the Nigeria Immigration Services portal, found here. The cost of that will be the $170 USD ($236.14 CAD)

Also, anyone applying for a visa to Nigeria will have to go through VFS Global, as they are the ones now solely responsible for all Nigerian visa inquiries in Canada. The embassy has nothing to do with the process anymore, they just deal with actual Nigerian citizens, so yeah, don’t contact them for anything. Just VFS.

As you see below, the charge by VFS (Nigeria Consular Application Center Fee) is $180.20 CAD and you will have to pay the FedEx fee regardless, so that is $45.20 CAD.

Now, I bet you’re wondering wtf the other charges are right? What did I list above? Well, I did not want to take any chances with this visa application. I opted to pay for a company to help me, and that company was Visa Connection.

They charged me $297.19 CAD to do the visa process with/for me, as you see where it says Nigeria Tourist Standard.

From the above correspondence, you will see I was emailing with them for a while.

I would have to give up my passport for SIX WEEKS for the process (during which I had two trips booked, but luckily I could use my Nexus for those).

My full application package was 37-pages long. I was especially worried that I would not be approved for a multi-entry visa, because I needed to be able to leave and come back. My application package even had a whole table of contents, made by me, so it would be super organized.

My application package consisted of; a letter of invitation from my friends mom, all of my flight dates, the slip from the Nigerian Immigration Services, a copy of my yellow fever vaccine certificate, proof of sufficient funds, letters from both of my jobs stating how long I have worked there and them acknowledging I’m going on vacation and intend on returning, my photos, my physical passport and the order form for Visa Connection.

When I say this was a hefty package I submitted? HEFTY.

If I didn’t use Visa Connection to help me with the application the total cost of the Nigerian Tourist Visa would have been $491.54.

But, because I used the concierge service, the total cost was $788.73 CAD.

Personally, the $491.54 already had me pissed off. That is an INSANE amount to pay, just to be able to visit a country as a tourist for a total of ten days. I have never ever done a visa process like this in my life, and I will likely avoid ever doing it again. The Canadian passport gives me access to many countries that I don’t need to do this for. This is way too much stress. My flight was paid for like seven months before I can even apply for this. So if I got denied? I’m fucked. My heart can’t handle these kinds of shenanigans.

This is why paying the extra money for the concierge service was necessary, for me. It helped me ease up, just a little. Giving all my items to be looked over by professionals, before submitting. The last thing I wanted was to have something wrong and for everything to go down the drain and I end up denied.

A lot of money, just for a damn tourist visa.

I realize I am super duper privileged because I do have a Canadian passport, and this is not my constant reality. Nigeria apparently did have a visa-on-arrival for tourists, but now it is just for business travelers.

I’ve developed much more empathy now for those who have passports from countries that pretty much require them to do this 8/10 times when they want to travel anywhere. It is costly, it is a nuisance, it is tedious and it induces a lot of anxiety.

But – I got my visa.

Paying all that money was worth it in the end, I got what I wanted. Not everyone can be so lucky, and those people might have more important reasons to travel than swimming and drinking, like I do.

I just wanted all of you to have a detailed idea of what the process was to getting a Nigerian Tourist Visa, as a Canadian. Because….. I couldn’t find ANY damn information about the process on someone else’s blog, forum etc. Literally, nothing. Maybe it was because the stopping of the visa-on-arrival recently? My friend couldn’t be of any help either, because as a Nigerian she has their passport so she doesn’t need to go through this process.

In conclusion, I hope this portion of the blog post helps someone else for their future travels to Nigeria, because you ABSOLUTELY should go visit.

Tours

Naturally, we had some tours booked for this trip!

We absolutely, I repeat, ABSOLUTELY had to go on safari while in South Africa. No way was that something we would miss.

The tour we ended up choosing was the Full Day Ultimate Pilanesberg National Park Safari from Johannesburg. I know Kruger National Park is the big one in the country, but that was a tad bit far for us.

This one included the transport from Joburg to the park, tour, lunch and transport back.

Total cost was $209.05 per person.

If you are interested in booking this excursion, click here. When we return I will let you know if it was worth it.

The second excursion we had booked WAY AHEAD of time with our hotel in Vilanculos. This was a boat trip to go see the famous Bazaruto Archipelago. We really wanted to do this on Christmas Day and knew it would probably be at capacity.

Total cost for that was $120 USD and that came to $160.00 CAD per person.

I don’t have a link for this one as we booked it directly with our hotel, Bahia Mar.

Spending Money

I had no idea how much my shenanigans between the three countries would cost me – so I picked $2500.00 CAD as my spending money amount.

Between going out drinking, eating, Ubers and WHO KNOWS what else I’d get into…. seems like a good amount. Maybe I’ll spend more, maybe less. Rather be well prepared.

The total budget for this trip is $7753.24 Canadian.

I’m kind of interested to see if the feedback will be that I spent too much, or that this was a good amount. To me, I think this is pretty damn good for three weeks, between three different countries – and during Christmas and NYE? Yeah. I think it is DAMN good.

See you when I get back……

  • Mirna