Niger Travel Guide

Sonef buscompany (just behind the stadium and the interior ministery) has a bus at 5.10 am to Birni-N'Konni (and in to Zinder), 6500 CFA, 5 to 6 hours, from the gare routiere, about 1 km from the Sonef terminal you have shared taxis to Sokoto, 2000 CFA or 600 Naira about 2 hours. At the border you can expect a lengthy interview (it was not...

No one is sure how many people live in Niamey. A figure of around one million is probably about right. Many people from the bush come into town during the dry season to try to make some money before they head back to their villages for the planting season. There are many squatter villages and shanytowns both on the outskirts and right in the center...

All along the banks of the Niger, you will see people doing laundry, especially in Niamey. The River is also used for bathing, not so much within the city, but in the country it is common to see.

On Friday afternoon I eventually persuaded myself to visit the Regional museum. But it was the buvette on its premises that really took my attention... Long before I entered the nicely Hausa style decorated building that was called the Regional Museum, I felt I had to drink a cold beer first in the adjacent bar. It was still extremely hot at 4pm,...

But the Grand Marché is especially charming because of the large numbers of local craftspeople that come to trade their decorated metal boxes, carved calabash bowls, clay jars, tanned leather works, woven baskets and whatsoever. You see huge piles of almost garbage that people make useful things of on the spot. In small rooms youngsters repair...

Thursday is the big market day, one of the largest in Niger and a must see because of its interesting mix of people and products.You will find millet, (imported) rice and a reasonable selection of other durable farm products, and some oranges, but the main business in Zinder seems to be the imported manufactured goods and local crafts products,...

Hotel Agreboun is the only budget option in town that hence attracts most backpackers, but besides the chance of meeting other travellers, it’s rather bad value.Most rooms only contain a bed, are not especially clean and the fans are rarely working at full speed. At night it gets exceptionally hot inside the mud brick rooms and it’s hard to choose...

The 450 km journey from Zinder to Agadez was not one to forget easily. Not that the road was too bad. On the contrary, it has improved a lot in recent years and is now tarred for 2/3 of the distance. But the car…Instead of planning a bit, I just went to the Agadez car park, waited there 24 hours and was lucky enough to have a front seat in an...

The on the main road signposted tourist office in the Old Quarter is a private initiative. Its best quality is the rooftop with superb views over Agadez.I went their to inform about independent travel in the region, but the friendly young man, educated and all but not well informed about the region, couldn’t give me any advice other than offering...

After dinner Ahmed suggested to invite some men for a traditional Tuareg music session. A great idea! Two days before, in the truck, I had heard some tapes of the Tuareg “war” songs and the tunes were still echoing in my head. A young guitar player arrived and after tea the private concert started. Busee sang and Conan made the rhythm using...

Around 4.30 PM the caretaker returned to close the Fort again, but unfortunately he broke his key in the front door. What a pity…he had to renew the lock, that first had to be ordered from the Agadez truck on its next arrival. I decided the young man deserved a good tip…I just wandered around the gardens and the village until darkness. The end of...

Continued from "Must See"-TipsDuring the morning of my third day in Timia, again no vehicles passed by. Even the truck that was expected yesterday, hadn’t arrived yet. I had given up hope to be I time for the Cure Salee festival and spent another couple of extremely lazy and enjoyable silent hours at the cascade when suddenly, around 11am, Moussa...

edited> Hi Bonobo, > If you ask and look for informations it seems as there is THE cure salee> festival (gerewol) in THAT place during THAT period. But I've always> thought that it's impossibile they all meet in one determined place. there should be many places in that area, where the different tribes> meet in a spontaneous...

A very important part of the Festival are the beauty contests, consisting of several stages. While for the Tuaregs it are the women who adorn themselves and present them to the men, for the Fulani it are the men who dress up and compete for being the most beautiful. The climax of all comes on the last festival night, when the winners are announced....

The Cure Salee Festival is attended by a mix of people in numbers that you unlikely will encounter anywhere else on earth! Just being there was to me the biggest attraction! Most of them are of Tuareg and Fulani tribes, all dressed up at their finest, carrying swords, and wearing exuberant clothes and make up; women carrying an enormous bunch of...

I was told Vittorio’s hotel also has a restaurant, but I didn’t try it.We used our host’s kitchen, in the courtyard, and I had my opportunity to cook.In the pic you can see a wonderful looking (and tasting) “frittata con patate” resulted from the cooperation between an Italian cook, me, and a French one, Roger. They say: “too many cooks spoil the...

Bring some batteries you can give your host. People there really need batteries. The only kind they can get their hands on is from Nigeria and go flat in a while.Some pens can bring a smile to children’s faces, but it’s really hard to understand whether it is a good thing or not to go around giving out pens…

What I enjoyed most was sitting in the small patio, beside a tiny fire, sipping the strong tuareg tea, gazing at the star-full sky and chatting with lovely people in a language I didn’t know and realizing we could understand each other. Wonderful desert stories….