Tag: Premier Hotel Quatermain

6 Days in Johannesburg Recap

Hi, hello.

Back with another recap that should have been written three months ago.

I already posted my 4 Days in Mozambique Recap, which you can find here. As well as the budget breakdown for this entire trip, found here. So technically I am not completely failing at this blogging my trips stuff, I am just super duper late on it.

Going to Johannesburg, South Africa was the second leg of the three weeks I spend in Africa. Eventually, I will finish writing about the first leg in Lagos, Nigeria – but two out of three legs written isn’t too bad. Lots of photos, lots of information and lots of shenanigans to get to.

Enjoy.

Tuesday, December 19th

Today we were flying from Lagos to Nairobi to Johannesburg. Well, actually we flew late at night on the 18th, but arrived on 19th.

I wish I could tell you anything about the airport in Nairobi, but we literally walked from one gate to the other. That was the extent of our experience in the airport. Quick quick layover.

Just wanted to say that Kenya Airways fed us during both legs of the flights (they have the best apple juice I have ever tried) and also have the most-reclined-economy-seats-ever!! On the second flight, I had a child sitting behind me and I damn near almost reclined into a fully laying down position? I never ever recline. But listen, I was really happy to be able to on this specific flight.

On arrival, be prepared, if there are many other international flights arriving, the line for customs will be lengthy. We didn’t need any visas and they didn’t even ask for our yellow fever vaccine certificates (since we were coming from Nigeria) at Joburg airport, they had asked that prior to departing Lagos. This, I think, speeds it up a little?

We picked up our bags and went to find our pre-booked driver to take us to the hotel.

We arrived at the Premier Hotel Quatermain in the early afternoon. Didn’t feel like it was a super long drive from the airport to Sandton, where the hotel was located.

The hotel was very nice, quaint and quiet. There is a pool in the courtyard, the customer service is great and our room also had a heated towel rail we could turn on and off. FANCY SHMANCY!!!

Got into our room, ordered some South African KFC, showered, went to sleep. I know this sounds like a complete waste of a day, but we were exhausted from the traveling from Lagos to here. We needed the sleep before we could get into any shenanigans. I believe we fell asleep at about 2-3pm and both woke up at damn near midnight. That was a long and necessary sleep.

Only other thing to add for this day (kind of this day, since early AM next day?) – at about 2am, after the long sleep, we saw a TikTok of a hotel that looked really nice over in Pretoria and on a whim, decided to book that for one night. I see now why those damn TV shopping networks make so much money in the wee hours of the night, definitely impressionable then. But, YOLO.

More on the impulsively booked hotel later.

Wednesday, December 20th

Today, we were ready to take on the world. Being well rested and nicely fed from the hotel breakfast, it was time to go gallivant.

First stop for us was Nelson Mandela Square.

I was under the impression that this was ‘just‘ a square for Nelson Mandela, I didn’t know it was a mall and other things too.

One thing that was especially clutch for Nelson Mandela square was the free Wi-Fi. Wanted to make sure I mentioned this here, because the phone signals in Johannesburg (for us) were really wonky. My friend and I had both purchased e-sims for South Africa, barely worked. I even tried to use my Rogers Roam Like Home, barely worked. Not sure what the deal was at all. We weren’t in some remote part of South Africa, but whether we were in Pretoria, Soweto, Joburg or out in the safari? On and off. Sometimes the internet signal would work, but MOST times it was not functioning on our phones at all.

Nelson Mandela Square also had a really cool NBA Store inside. Make sure if you’re a basketball fan you stop by. We were delighted seeing old Vince Carter Raptor’s jerseys on sale! Sick.

On this little field trip, we did have a food spot in mind that we really wanted to try. The place is called Shazmin’s Luxe Patisserie, also at Nelson Mandela Square. Really convenient.

If you LOVE sweets and LOVE chocolate, like I do? You have to stop by this place.

I ordered the Matilda Cake and yaaaaaaaaaaaaaah it was so good. Usually chocolate cakes can be kind of stiff and boring. Not this cake. This is by far the best chocolate cake I had ever eaten, it was so moist and the portion of the damn slice was crazy. Spending time here and enjoying the cutesy ambiance and delicious sweets was pretty awesome. The lights at the mall did cut out for a couple of seconds, but after being in Nigeria with their power outages, what was a few seconds? Nothing. Load shedding inside a mall with a strong generator? Non issue.

Now, I was really debating if I should write this in my blog post, but since I write about everything, here it is.

My best friend Jummy, that was traveling with me, is Nigerian. I am the palest of white on the planet, from Bosnia. We felt very uncomfortable walking through Nelson Mandela Square due to the stares we received from people. I don’t know what it was about, I really do try NOT to assume things – but it was palpable that people were constantly staring at us. Jummy isn’t a hothead like I am, and even she began staring right back at people and asking what their problem was after a while.

All races of people were just ALWAYS staring at us. It was strange, because I had just come from Lagos where I did/we did not get any stares like this. In Mozambique, same thing. No one paid us any attention at all. At some point I was thinking maybe they thought we were a same-sex couple and that was a problem?

I spoke to some people we met in Vilanculos that were from Durban and the explanation we got was (verbatim) ‘well, apartheid only ended in 1994, so you two walking together is still something to stare at in South Africa.’

I know we live in our little enclave in Toronto, but this was so damn unusual for me and her. We had been to MANY MANY countries together and yeah, this was absolutely a first.

Not sure if this would be the case in a place like Cape Town? But, in Johannesburg it happened non-stop.

After our fill of stares and cake, we went back to our hotel for a quick nap before dinner.

We took an Uber over to Saint Restaurant.

Now this place? Wow. Just wow. Whoever designed it, kudos. It was such a beautiful restaurant and the service was a 10/10.

As soon as we were seated, a sommelier came to talk to us. I don’t drink wine, but Jummy does and ordered some nice white South African wine. The glass was only $6.00? Hello? Awesome.

The portions here were huge. My dish was with prawns and when they brought me the food I thought it was lobster. That is how huge the damn prawns are there. Holy moly.

We ate a lot of food and had some drinks, the total MAY have come to $60-$70 for both of us. Going to a fancy place, with such good food for this low of an amount? Amazing. Great experience.

Thursday, December 21st

This is a day that Jummy and I had been especially looking forward to for MONTHS. I mean, MONTHS ON MONTHS.

Today we were going on safari to Pilanesberg National Park.

The pick up was at 615am and listen, eat breakfast before you go on this. The drive to this park was almost two hours. It is lengthy!!

On arrival we transferred from the van into an open-air Jeep. Able to see everything from all angles.

I suggest you bring a hat and lots of sunscreen for this excursion, the sun was hot hot hot.

We saw lots of elephants, zebras, impalas, a hippo, a rhinoceros and even a giraffe! There was also a lunch included in the middle of the day. Had a wonderful time, saw so much.

The experience of being in a vehicle that has no protection from the animals makes you feel so vulnerable. I kept thinking to myself that if a jaguar or lion wanted to run up on us, we are done. There are no windows to close or lock, these things can maul us at any point. Thankfully, they did not.

After the long day at the safari, we had the long drive back to Sandton. This felt like an eternity because you’re sweaty and tired. Be prepared for a long day.

If any of you are interested in this tour, click here.

Of course, we took another little nap after the safari.

Then we took an Uber over to Soweto to eat at 1947 on Vilakazi Street.

Jummy and I both ordered soup at this restaurant. Both were VERY good. Then we finished off the meal with some cake, also good. I wish we hadn’t been so damn tired, because this area on Vilakazi street had so much going on. Looks like a party area, we would have loved to participate. But the safari and sun got us good. Took an Uber right back to Joburg.

Friday, December 22nd

Today was going to be another awesome day.

We woke up and headed over to Aronia Day Spa.

I had made our appointments for this spa waaay ahead of time and sent the deposit for the day.

The spa is beautiful and just hanging out by their pool would have been a perfect day. But of course, we had some body work to get done. My booking was for a full body scrub and a 60-minute Indian Head Massage. I love head massages. I have terrible back problems and STILL, if someone offered me 90 minutes of a back massage or a head massage? I’d take the latter. It is so relaxing and they took very good care of us at Aronia Day Spa.

If we didn’t have plans afterwards, we could have easily spent the whole day here just relaxing by the pool and ordering some food.

My fully body scrub + 60-min head massage and Jummy’s full body wrap and 60-min lymphatic drainage massage came to $170.00 Canadian. INSANE PRICE. I realize this may be costly for South African prices, but us, as Toronto people? HA.

Usually just a 60-min massage in Toronto is $150.00. Being able to spend two hours at a spa and have four different things done for damn near same price is incredible. If you’re in Joburg, definitely go visit here.

Remember that impulsive hotel booking from the first day we were in Joburg? Time to head there.

We took a one hour Uber over to Pretoria for this stay.

The name of the hotel was MINT Resorts the Blyde.

When you see the photos of this place, you will fully understand why we made the booking we did – especially it being only $130.00 CAD for the night.

Very chic resort/hotel, the grounds are clean and they have their own manmade beach. This place would be a dream to stay at …… if it wasn’t for the fucking security measures.

Listen, I understand that South Africa is not the safest country. But, I travel to unsafe countries all the time. Yes, we felt unwelcome with the stares by people, but we never felt unsafe in Joburg, Soweto or Pretoria. That is not to say there ISN’T danger, and I mean we stayed in some fancy pants places. But, we never felt that danger that is evidently present.

Our hotel in Joburg did have a security gate and someone standing there to open said gate to enter in and out. No big deal. But THIS PLACE? This was someone American-Embassy-On-Foreign-Land-Compound shit.

Prior to even coming to this hotel, I had to upload all of our information, which included our passport photos and info. They had a whole app to do this with and I literally had said to Jummy the day before, ‘watch, all these things won’t even work when we get there.’ I understand people want to streamline hotel check ins and security protocol, but I never ever have a good experience with it.

I was right.

We pull up to the entry to this resort compound and the security person not only doesn’t have our information, the pin code the hotel gave us is also not working. Our names were not on their list. The pin didn’t work. They took photos of our Uber driver, scanned something on his car, and tried to enter our pin over and over, nothing. We had to call the front desk to get them to communicate with security so we could finally enter.

Such a goddamn headache. And what was even worse? To enter AND exit, you had to do this process. Even with departing, they needed all that information. That’s too much damn security for me. We had to tell our Ubers to pick us up outside the gates, because getting them to be able to come get us at the actual hotel was too much work. I am so happy we booked only ONE night at this place. As beautiful s it is, I do not have the patience for these kinds of protocols and I like to come and go as I please.

We hung out at the beach for a little bit – oh, you also need your bags checked entering the beach area. Figure I’d mention that.

Our dinner reservations in Pretoria were at this place named Kream Restaurant Brooklyn.

So, I am not a big sushi fan. I don’t consider it real food as I am Eastern European and my good needs to include meat, potatoes and bread at some point. Also, we didn’t come to no damn South Africa to eat sushi. However, for an appetizer they had this one type and listen, bomb dot com. It was delicious. If you go here you must order the CHARRED SALMON & CREAM CHEESE ROLL. This is the one. Outstanding. We also had alligator as an appetizer, this was good too.

For my main I got the roasted bone marrow and then some cake for dessert. Everything was great at Kream Restaurant. Our server, the food and the place is so pretty.

Saturday, December 23rd

We paid an extra $30.00 Canadian for late check out at Mint The Blyde. We wanted to still spend some more time on the beach before heading back to Joburg.

When we did get back to Joburg, we dropped out stuff at Quatermain, took a shower and got ready for a nice night out.

Tonight we had reservations at the highest, urban bar in Africa – Alto 234.

For this I also had to pay for our reservation months ahead. The deposit for the two of us was $53.60 Canadian.

When you come here, it is very luxurious. Definitely try to make a reservation around sunset like we did. The views are incredible and when you arrive you are greeted with a glass of Moët.

There was groups of people there, people on dates and people also taking their engagement photos. A lot going on.

Have some drinks there, for sure. The food was just OK, some tapas. Definitely should have eaten a real dinner before we began drinking. Ah well.

Totally worth going up there though. This was the most perfect way to spend our evening before flying on to Mozambique in the morning tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 27th

This was the day we returned from Vilanculos. We just needed a stay for the night because on the 28th, we were heading back to Lagos.

We took an Uber over to Radisson Hotel & Convention Centre, Johannesburg, O.R. Tambo.

Do not let this name fool you though. You see how the name of the airport in Johannesburg is in the name of this hotel? It is a lie. There are hotels literally next to the airport that you can walk to. This hotel ended up being a 15-20 minute drive away. It is a very nice hotel, do not get me wrong, but we were expecting that this would be much closer to the airport because of the name.

Our mistake.

The staff was nice, the room was very nice and we were able to get a good night sleep before our flights.

As you can tell, Joburg wasn’t exactly my favourite place I’ve traveled to. I know I shouldn’t compare cities with other cities, but I do. Coming from Lagos, Nigeria where everyone was super friendly and warm, without being stared at and then going to Johannesburg where it was totally opposite, not awesome.

Aside from the amazing customer service in restaurants and hotels, people just were not welcoming or warm to us. Our Uber drivers barely even said hello, people on the street didn’t engage, nothing. I just don’t feel like I’d want to come back here. However, I am 10000% down to return and visit Cape Town hoping for a different experience.

The positives are pretty strong here as well.
The weather was immaculate, there was no traffic (unlike Lagos, 24/7), the fancy restaurants were affordable for us and tasty, the spa was affordable and even all the Ubers we took were very affordable. I would say that Johannesburg is still somewhere YOU should visit, not avoid. As two girls traveling together, we also never felt unsafe.

Happy travels….

  • 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