Useful tips for traveling home to Burundi

Have I said what a great time our family had in our beloved country? 😁 It now feels like ages ago, but we will forever be grateful that we were able to go. I observed some things that I want to share with those of you planning a trip in the near future. Since we took small children, a few of these are relevant only to parents taking their babies with them.

First off, find your vacation home base before you go. Will you stay with relatives, in a hotel, or a rental home? If you are traveling in a group, I would recommend renting a place of your own. This way, you can come and go as you please and people can visit you at your convenience. Also, try not to limit yourself to Bujumbura, especially if you have no family obligations. Burundi has a lot of beautiful places to stay - Gitega and Ngozi are among the top. If you head towards the south, Nyanza Lac and Rumonge have gorgeous beaches and accommodations waiting for you. Definitely consider a rental or hotel outside of Buja for at least a few days of your trip.

Speaking of rentals, did you know that you could rent a nice car - with a driver - for a two weeks for under $200? I can’t recommend it enough to improve the quality of your trip.

You should already know that the majority of your time will be filled with visiting relatives all across the country. If you don’t plan on doing this, you will at least welcome a few visitors in the city. Put this into consideration when planning how much money you want to take with you. While most people are happy to feed you when you visit them, there is an unspoken expectation that you will leave some cash behind or at the very least buy drinks for the gathering. It is not by any means an obligation, but you shouldn’t fool yourself into believing that people are not expecting it. All of this adds up to a good amount of spending money, especially if you have a family with you.

Among the things I really appreciated on our visit was the ability to hire help at our rental home for almost anything. Chances are, if you are visiting from a western country, you don’t normally have a maid and a cook. Be sure to hire one or both for your stay - and for goodness sakes, pay her or him more than your local relatives seem to think is reasonable. It goes without saying that you should treat this person with the respect she or he deserves. I still can’t get over how terribly home workers are largely treated. If you can’t handle being kind to the person whose job is to make your life easier, do it yourself.

Do yourself a favor and plan at least part of each day of your time in Burundi before you travel. Your time there will go by so quickly. If you leave every day open ended, you might miss out on some things. For instance, decide whether any part of your trip will be spent doing tourist activities or helping people in need. I am not one to plan every minute of every day, but it helped to have a list of nonnegotiable things we wanted to do. This way, when others suggest activities, we already knew whether or not we’d be able to join.

Last but not least, use a credit card that gives you miles when buying your ticket and pay it off right away. This is even more of a win if you are traveling with a lot of people. The more tickets you buy, the more miles you get. This way, the thousands of dollars you are spending on your homegoing will buy you another trip somewhere.