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[arizonajourney]

Hello travelpod!
I'd like to go to Africa to do a safari (4-14 days ideally), see an African metropolitan city for a day (airport landing will likely be in this package), and I'd like to see the Indian ocean. I have a decent salary, but i'm not loaded, so luxury trips are going to be out of my budget. Not including flight, I'm hoping to spend $100/day for a longer trip, or $200 if that is all I can afford for a shorter trip. And this does not include whatever I need to pay for local payment, souveniers, etc. So far, the overlanding option seems to apply best to me (particularly in Kenya and South Africa). Although travelling with 20 people is not ideal, pitching my own tent, cooking, and clean up sound like a nice adventure.
What are some of my options? What has everyone's experience been?

Thanks! :-)

[starlagurl]

I know there are a bunch of people who have done the overlanding thing around here and they should chime in soon...

But until then, read some of the blogs about it:
http://www.travelpod.com/s/overland+%40in+Africa?st=user

[purplebuggy]

Hello travelpod!
I'd like to go to Africa to do a safari (4-14 days ideally), see an African metropolitan city for a day (airport landing will likely be in this package), and I'd like to see the Indian ocean. I have a decent salary, but i'm not loaded, so luxury trips are going to be out of my budget. Not including flight, I'm hoping to spend $100/day for a longer trip, or $200 if that is all I can afford for a shorter trip. And this does not include whatever I need to pay for local payment, souveniers, etc. So far, the overlanding option seems to apply best to me (particularly in Kenya and South Africa). Although travelling with 20 people is not ideal, pitching my own tent, cooking, and clean up sound like a nice adventure.
What are some of my options? What has everyone's experience been?

Thanks! :-)

I've done a trip to South Africa (about 2 weeks) and also a (much) longer overland trip from Cape Town to Nairobi [my blog is below]. From the sounds of it, you might be happy to do a South Africa trip that encompasses the East Coast (where you can do Kruger and a few other game parks, of which Addo is my personal favourite) and you can also see some cities too and there are a couple of beach stops. Intrepid Travel, Gap Adventures and Acacia offer trip trips with with a maximum of around 12 for some of these trips and because you're around western civilization, you'll not have too many nights in tents. (perhaps 2 or 3 depending on which company you go with) .
If you want more adventure, I'd suggest going further north into Tanzania. The Serengeti is AMAZING! If you do a trip that heads down to Dar es Salaam you can head over to Zanzibar for some amazing beach time too (as well as Stone Town which has great shoping and the food at the night market - yum!). These trips will have more people from what I noticed but you'll camp a lot more (though not in Zanzibar) and have an amazing adventure too. You'll get to see cities, towns and villages as you go through this beautiful country. Many of these trips also have a start/end/ both in Nairobi so you might like to spend some time around the Masaii Mara which I've heard is pretty good too if you have time. Again, the same three companies all offer trips through this region.

Hope it helps,

[raniroo]

Kumuka also offer overlanding trips and I would suggest Kenya/Tanzania, for the game parks, camping, wild adventures. For me, this was the only way to see the real Africa (apart from 4WDing myself). We got to meet local tribes (particularly when we were free camping (out in the bush) as we usually needed permission from the chief to camp there. It truly is the way to go...

We had 18 on our trip, but that was a little to full, but mostly was OK.