official travel blog of Trips by Greg
The Mother Continent is leading the global struggle to get rid of single-use plastic bags, but does this affect you, the visitor to Africa? Oh yes, it does. If you’re planning a visit to Africa anytime soon, it’s perfectly okay to pack your plastic. Just not your plastic bags. Tanzania just became the 34th African […]
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Any year is a great time to visit this warm and welcoming West African nation. But for African-Americans in particular, 2019 will be special. An easy non-stop flight from the eastern United States. A nation known for its food, its music and its friendly people. And a government that has made a point of saying […]
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The crash of a brand-new Boeing 737 off an Indonesian island revives doubts about regional air safety in that part of the world. For the traveler, there’s a different question: How to tell which airlines are safer? When it comes to international travel, Indonesia is an uneasy contradiction. It’s one of the most beautiful and […]
Read MoreA Ghanaian government requirement to include bank statements with your visa application is turning off a lot of travelers, especially Black Americans. Late last year, I got an inquiry from a young African-American woman who was applying for a tourist visa to Ghana. She was not happy. According to the application, she had to include […]
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The history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade creates some unexpected links between West Africa and Europe. One of those joins Ghana and the Netherlands. If someone mentions the Netherlands to you today, what comes to your mind? Amsterdam, a great European capital, laced with canals and full of traditional charm? Friendly people with a reputation […]
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A Canadian university professor has discovered that the ancient practice of carving Christian churches from solid rock, a skill thought lost for half a millennium, is still alive in Ethiopia…but only just. While in Ethiopia for the first time last summer, I saw four of the 11 famed rock-hewn churches of Lalibela. It’s perhaps the […]
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The Nubians were the most ancient of African civilizations and among its most successful. They conquered Egypt, stymied Rome, and grew rich as merchants and mercenaries. Their men built cities. Their women led battles. And their descendants survive today. Remember when your grade-school teachers taught you all about the Black Africans who ruled Egypt for […]
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For the third time since gaining independence in 1957, Ghana is moving to create its own airline. There are major implications for West Africa if it succeeds. Ghana is taking a third shot at establishing a national airline. A member of the government’s aviation ministry went public with that word last week at Kotoka International […]
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For a first visit to The Mother Continent, this English-speaking nation of proud and friendly West Africans, with its link to America’s slavery past and its comfort level with Black American expats, makes a sensible choice. You’ve made up your mind: You’re finally going to Africa. But where? That’s no small question, because Africa is […]
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With a huge impetus from the African Union, an epic journey covering the length of the Mother Continent is going to become a practical reality in 2018. Back in the 1600s, when Europeans were busily “discovering” lands already populated by peoples of color, well-to-do families would send their kids on on a journey through Europe […]
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