Libreville Flights

Getting to Libreville is fairly tough - most major airlines do not fly there directly. For my route, I had to fly to Casablanca and take Royal Air Maroc. Even then my flight was only a scheduled stop over in Libreville where a handful of people just got out on the runway before it continued on to its main destination of Malabo in Equatorial Guinea.

Apparently the airport is suppose to have a currency exchange, but it is only open during the day. Since my flight arrived after midnight it was closed, so that made it a pain to exchange... I had to go to one of the big hotels in town and exchange there so that I would have money to check into the actual hotel I was staying at. (Sidenote: I saw Daniel Cousin checking into this hotel while I was waiting for the exchange!)

Leaving the country was even worse - two different employees tried to get me to pay a bribe to them. One from the checked luggage stand and the other was a security guard who checked bags. Both times I told them that I had no cash (even though I did) and only travelers checks, and eventually they let me go on without payment.

My flight was to Johannesburg on South African Airlines and while most airlines allow two carry-ons, they apparently only allow one (not sure if that is the airline's policy, or this airport's), so I had to check one of mine. When I picked it up at my destination I found that the handle of my checked bag had been broken. Not sure if it was done intentionally by the guy I refused to pay or just negligence. Pretty crappy either way... although I guess it could have been broken in South Africa too, I'll never know I guess.

Overall this has been the shadiest airport I've ever been to. Unfortunately, it's the only major one in the country so if you are flying to Gabon you pretty much have to use it - but I'd still suggest to avoid it if you can.