I recently went on a 21-day mini world tour to Europe and Africa. As a recent law school grad and post-bar examinee, I had to make sure my bar trip was EPIC. I knew I wanted to go to Africa, it was just a matter of finding the most effective way to get there. Full disclosure, I planned this trip a week after taking the bar. I spent countless hours (and sometimes pulled all-nighters) planning and researching, so if you don’t have that kind of time, I highly recommend you start planning early!
STEP 1: DETERMINE YOUR BUDGET
I tell people all the time, travel can be as expensive, or cheap, as you make it. It all depends on the kind of traveler you are. And that could range from being a backpacker to a luxury traveler. I like to believe I’m a mid-range traveler, though I dabble in luxury when necessary. It all depends on the kind of vacation I’m planning and the duration of the trip.
For a 21-day trip, I stuck to mid-range but splurged in a few places. Make a budget but also know you may exceed it once abroad. Also determine what is worth splurging on. For me, I knew I would return to Europe fairly quickly, so it wasn’t worth splurging on accommodations in London or Paris, however, staying at 5-star hotels in Kenya and Egypt was worth it since we were spending more time there and figured we wouldn’t return to those countries for quite some time.
STEP 2: DECIDE ON THE DESTINATIONS
Before you dive into planning the trip, you must decide where you want to go. Decide which countries are non-negotiable and work backwards from there. For me, that was Egypt and doing a safari in either Kenya or Tanzania. Once I decided my top two destinations, I started researching countries that were nearby. For example, I knew if I was traveling to Kenya, I had to visit Zanzibar since it was only a 2-hour flight. While in Egypt, it would’ve made sense to hop over to Jordan and visit Petra since that was also only a 2-hour flight. It really boils down to picking a country and staying on that side of the region, especially when in Africa.
Taking my budget into consideration, and the costs of a safari (which was a splurge), I decided on Egypt, Kenya, and Zanzibar for the African countries. The next step was figuring out the most effective way to get there.
STEP 3: START BOOKING FLIGHTS
When country hopping, flights will be the most expensive part. It makes the most sense to book flights separately from lodging. You can’t get package deals since those often require a return flight. Because I started planning our trip at the last minute (3 weeks before departure), I had to be very strategic with booking flights since prices were high and outright disrespectful. Given the circumstances, it made the most sense to book a round trip into London and use Europe as a springboard to other countries. It is generally cheaper to fly into Europe then head to Africa, many layovers to African countries stop in Europe anyways.
After determining London was the starting point, the next question was which European country was closest to London and an easy flight to Zanzibar. I chose Zanzibar as the first country to visit in Africa because it was the furthest and made most sense to work my way up to Egypt, and eventually London.
STEP 4: RESEARCH EVERY COUNTRY YOU WISH TO TRAVEL TO
Step 4 is the most consuming of it all, RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH! This is when you want to figure out which parts of the country you want to visit, what are the tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants, etc. See my blog post on the 7 questions to research before traveling here.
I use three modes of research: Google, Instagram, and TikTok. When Googling, it’s important to visit the country’s tourism page. It’s a great starting point to ground your research in. Next, I hop on IG or TikTok to see what people have posted about their locations. I look for users that leave detailed reviews of their experiences, like my IG highlights, spots worthy of pictures (I don’t play about photography), and hashtags like #NairobiRestaurants. I also rely a lot on Trip Advisor, the reviews have never led me astray! It’s almost important to also research things like “best restaurants in Cairo,” “best luxury hotels in Zanzibar,” “must do when visiting Kenya,” etc. This should all be kept in an Excel Sheet or Word Document so that you stay organized.
STEP 5: BOOK YOUR ACCOMODATIONS & PLAN THE ITINERARY
Once you have a landscape of the best tourist attractions, restaurants, and hotels, you can start booking hotels! As I mentioned, my trusted booking sites are TripAdvisor, Booking, Hotels, Expedia, and my Chase credit card rewards portal.
When planning the itinerary, I seldomly list activities on a day-to-day basis because I like to leave plenty space to explore and go off vibes while in the country. However, with this trip, somethings needed to be planned strategically due to either the activity or the number of days I was spending at each location, for example 48 Hours in Paris called for a detailed itinerary.
After all this extensive research, all that’s left to do is pack your luggage and enjoy your trip!
Other helpful travel tips:
Must Pack List for a 21-Day Trip
What You Should Know Before Traveling to Africa
7 Questions to Research Before Traveling to a Destination
