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Lonely Planet: On a Shoestring
Africa on a Shoestring
Covering the countries on the African continent, this text is designed for all budgets and provides a comprehensive guide to the region. It includes: cultural, political and historical notes; travel advice; information on border crossings and visas; and advice on health, safety and local transport.
928 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1977
2 people are currently reading
193 people want to read
About the author
Lonely Planet
3,671 books892 followersOUR STORY
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 19, 2017
My first edition - and bought to prepare myself for a long journey through the Sub Saharan by the west corridor.
It did not work out quite as planned back then though, but I mentally stored information and maps of a large part of Africa for later use.
It did not work out quite as planned back then though, but I mentally stored information and maps of a large part of Africa for later use.
November 19, 2017
Sometimes you just need a new edition, even something as hardy as this one gets worn and tired.
May 23, 2019
I'm assuming this is an updated version of Geoff Crowther's "Africa on a Shoestring," which I bought in 1987 before my first trip to Africa. If it is, I hope they've kept the "In the Footsteps of Jurgen Schultz" story, in which a hitchhiker, greeted joyously on the Gabon/Congo border, finds he's retracing the path of the only other tourist anyone in the area can remember. Best anecdote I've ever read in a guidebook.
May 8, 2020
Lonely Planet Africa on a Shoestring by Lonely Planet and others is a survey of African countries for tourists wishing to travel to this continent. The book covers North Africa e.g. Algeria, Egypt, Libya, and Morocco; West Africa e.g. Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone; Central Africa e.g. Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon; and East Africa e.g. Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and many more countries. This travel guide informs the visitor when to go, about tailored trips, costs, and conduct while on such a trip. What follows are guidelines visitors should bear in mind while in these countries:
• Do your research and learn about your African country’s native background - their husbands, wives, friends, and neighbors. Find out about their origins, customs, and languages.
• Be sure to visit the places of interest. Interact with Africans at festivals, bazaars, fairs, and in community groups.
• Engage Africans in conversation - remembering that communication is essential, by being sensitive to their verbal and nonverbal language.
• It’s necessary to treat Africans and their culture with respect, and try not to denigrate them. You’ve to learn more about their country.
• By exploring the nature of the African country’s educational system, meet with support groups, pay attention to similarities, and differences to that of your country.
• Be sensitive to African religious differences. Try to be open-minded about their faith traditions, e.g., Indigenous, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.
• Avoid condescending and derogatory remarks. Focus on your visit by emphasizing what’s important. Take the high road.
• Be accepting of the ways African natives view themselves, and don’t make judgments based on your own background.
• Respect an African culture’s festivities, ceremonies, and rights of passages by accepting its strengths, but not being hung up on weaknesses.
• Be cognizant of African foods and dress. Try understanding how they are part of the mainstream of their culture.
• With the images of natives portrayed in the foreign media, endeavor to know more about the geography of their country, or region. Separate sensationalism from reality.
• As opportunities arise while traveling learn firsthand what other African societies are like. It’s best to learn about their culture in its own environment.
• Do your research and learn about your African country’s native background - their husbands, wives, friends, and neighbors. Find out about their origins, customs, and languages.
• Be sure to visit the places of interest. Interact with Africans at festivals, bazaars, fairs, and in community groups.
• Engage Africans in conversation - remembering that communication is essential, by being sensitive to their verbal and nonverbal language.
• It’s necessary to treat Africans and their culture with respect, and try not to denigrate them. You’ve to learn more about their country.
• By exploring the nature of the African country’s educational system, meet with support groups, pay attention to similarities, and differences to that of your country.
• Be sensitive to African religious differences. Try to be open-minded about their faith traditions, e.g., Indigenous, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.
• Avoid condescending and derogatory remarks. Focus on your visit by emphasizing what’s important. Take the high road.
• Be accepting of the ways African natives view themselves, and don’t make judgments based on your own background.
• Respect an African culture’s festivities, ceremonies, and rights of passages by accepting its strengths, but not being hung up on weaknesses.
• Be cognizant of African foods and dress. Try understanding how they are part of the mainstream of their culture.
• With the images of natives portrayed in the foreign media, endeavor to know more about the geography of their country, or region. Separate sensationalism from reality.
• As opportunities arise while traveling learn firsthand what other African societies are like. It’s best to learn about their culture in its own environment.
March 2, 2020
About eight years ago, I was living in employee housing at a Colorado ski area. A few co-workers who were working their way around the world quit their ski area jobs after a few months to go teach at a surf school in Nicaragua, and abandoned a lot of stuff in their apartment. As we picked through their abandoned stuff, one of my roommates found the local library’s copy of this book. And what a find it was.
I have never traveled to Africa, so I cannot tell you if any of the advice contained in this book is accurate. All I can tell you is that if you are the kind of person who looks at maps of far off places and imagines going on adventurers, you will love this guide. No country is left out (seriously, what guide book tells you about hotels in the Central African Republic?), and the potential for adventures is astounding. One paragraph, which ended with a suggestion that anyone up for a real adventure could consider traveling from Lake Chad across the desert by camel, sums up the fuel that this guide is for your imagination.
If you are planning on traveling to a particular part of Africa and want in-depth information about the country or countries you will visit, maybe this isn’t your book. But if you are the kind of person who dreams of adventures in far-flung parts of the world that you will likely never actually visit, you will love this guide.
We held on to the guide all winter (sorry to anyone who had it on hold, and Justin, if you ever get back to the Summit County Public Library and find yourself with a huge overdue fine, that’s on me), but I ran it back to the library on my way out of town at the end of the season. One of these days I will buy my own copy. Seriously, it might be better than any of the “Tales from the Explorers Club” collections.
I have never traveled to Africa, so I cannot tell you if any of the advice contained in this book is accurate. All I can tell you is that if you are the kind of person who looks at maps of far off places and imagines going on adventurers, you will love this guide. No country is left out (seriously, what guide book tells you about hotels in the Central African Republic?), and the potential for adventures is astounding. One paragraph, which ended with a suggestion that anyone up for a real adventure could consider traveling from Lake Chad across the desert by camel, sums up the fuel that this guide is for your imagination.
If you are planning on traveling to a particular part of Africa and want in-depth information about the country or countries you will visit, maybe this isn’t your book. But if you are the kind of person who dreams of adventures in far-flung parts of the world that you will likely never actually visit, you will love this guide.
We held on to the guide all winter (sorry to anyone who had it on hold, and Justin, if you ever get back to the Summit County Public Library and find yourself with a huge overdue fine, that’s on me), but I ran it back to the library on my way out of town at the end of the season. One of these days I will buy my own copy. Seriously, it might be better than any of the “Tales from the Explorers Club” collections.
September 1, 2007
this book provided much fodder for dreams while on the early-morning, lonely commute to work for hours every day. provides an excellent historical overview in a short space for each country, but barely mentions the large variety of african cultures. also, i suppose it would be impossible to write an africa travel guide which was completely current upon press date, but some friends from west africa who read sections of this book shortly after it came out told me that the prices and travel route information was very off the mark.
still, i will buy a new edition of this book as well as consult others when i finally emark on the much-discussed, long-awaited west and central (well, as much of it as possible) africa tour!
still, i will buy a new edition of this book as well as consult others when i finally emark on the much-discussed, long-awaited west and central (well, as much of it as possible) africa tour!
July 9, 2015
I used to read this every day on the bus going to work in Chicago, soon after the book came out. I planned a (in retrospect impossible due to border closures, poor streets, and violence I knew nothing about then) trip from Nigeria looping up and back to Egypt. I canceled my plans and sold my guitar and all my books, packing two duffel bags for what I thought would be the rest of my life, when my boyfriend at the time beckoned me to return to Egypt earlier. Should have done the trip! In the next five years I vow to do a realistic version, taking planes if necessary to cross certain areas in order to keep moving.
July 6, 2014
I used this book for my Cape to Cairo trip. A lot of the history in this book is inaccurate. As a guide-book it was okay.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews