Travel with B&B

My first venture to Asia With only 3 1/2 weeks until we were due to fly, Ben took me out to lunch and broke the news we would be heading to Borneo. I'd never been to Asia before, and here I was, about to go and see the Orangutans. I couldn't believe my luck! It was the quickest travel vaccination booking of my life and off I trotted to a vaccination centre. I also had to buy walking boots, a backpack and a lot of Deet!  Kota Kinnabalu We started off in Kota Kinnabalu, the main city and stayed in The Palace Hotel. It was cute and fairly small, but had a lovely pool and its own jungle. You could sit in the pool and listen to the circadias chirping behind you! Ben took me to a market where I had my first taste of Mango lassi (delicious) and a view into what a true southeast asian market looked like!  The wetlands centre is also well worth the visit if you have a few spare hours. Poring Hot Springs On the way across the island to our next destination we stopped off at Poring Hot S...

Will we ever find a car to hire? So as it turns out, hiring a car in Rwanda is a minefield. There are so many companies that boast car hire, but fake reviews and random one-man bands mean that you're never truly sure what you're getting.  We have had the whole holiday booked for over a week, but we still aren't quite sure how we are getting from place to place.  We should also add in that you're not allowed to drive after dark in Rwanda! The general concesus is, that the main roads are tarmac and you can drive most cars on them. However, any time you want to go into a national park, up a mountain, or remotely off of the main road, you will need a 4x4. I asked Akegera if a Toyota Rav4 would do, and they stated in the dry season it should be fine, but many of the companies wouldn't let us have a Rav4 knowing we were going into Akagera, and instead a Toyota Prado (Landcruiser) or Nissan Pathfinder were suggested. This would all be well and good if you could actually fi...

Journey around Rwanda Trying to finalise a 10 day trip around a country the size of Wales is no mean feat, especially when booking a rental car is more challenging than the Mensa IQ test (another post on that later).  Here I will put a vague itinerary of what we are planning, and as I write them, link to each of the daily blogs. Each daily blog will include a review of activities and prices, plus a review of the accommodation.  I have added a little bit below about what would could have done (and chose not to) too!  When you do book things, generally the National Parks and bigger hotels are very helpful with answering questions, and Akagera even gave us this helpful list of recommended companies (that aren't likely to rip you off!) -  Member List | RTTA Proposed Itinerary We are flying with BA, from Heathrow to Kigali. The time difference is only 1 hour as it is almost directly below the UK, so the flights are both night time flights so that you can (hopefully) sleep...

So why Rwanda? After a long time with no real long haul travel (thanks Covid) we decided it was time. Trawling through Skyscanner for good flights, and booking to check that accommodation was affordable, we went around in a lot of circles. It was nearly Mexico, Costa Rica, USA or Tanzania too but then Ben stumbled upon these little flights to Rwanda.  After a quick (very quick) google, we discovered that Rwanda is meant to be the safest and cleanest place in Africa. Cue me getting extremely excited (Africa has always been the dream for an animal person like me) and us clicking 'book' on the flights without really knowing much more.  I then went to Waterstones to order a faithful Lonely Planet, but alas! No Lonely Planet has ever been written specifically for Rwanda, and for a country the size of Wales, 6 pages in the Africa book and 10 pages in the East Africa book, it wasn't really going to cut it! We were on our own!  Ultimately, that is why this blog was born, so that ...