I'm planning to visit DRC. The more I look at it though, the impression I get is that they want me to have an actual booked reason for my visit for the visa application. Normally I like to be pretty free and don't like to book to much in advance, especially since the actual accepted reasons for going all seem to be $100s tours of parks for a couple days, and also I would want to be unrestricted in my movements. Does anyone have any experience travelling in DRC? I'm planning to visit north and south Kivu and Ituri sort of area and I want to be able to travel around the local villages and stuff. If I book one of these trips to mt. Nyiragongo or whatever, will I be able to do the tour, then be free to travel around in congo for the duration of my visa? And I notice it asks about your accomadation, do I actually need specific places booked in advance, and how important is it? Or can I just book one night somewhere and then after that I'm free. What even are accomadation options like there, from a quick look around I couldn't see much in the way of options for less than £100 a night. Are crappier hotels just not listed on google maps so much there?And would getting a press card and pretending to be a journalist help here and with tourism in general? Can't quite figure out whether it would give you a diplomatic immunity sort of perk, or whether it would put a target on your back and bar your access to lots of places.Also even more unrelated but does anyone have experience signing up to charity work there or anywhere else? Was thinking it would help me attend refugee camps and the like and be a good excuse for the visa, and I could really do with it on my CV, but a brief glanse and you seem to have to pay hundreds of pounds for the priveledge of working for free kek.
Sabbatical recently did a trip there if you want to see the bullshit he went through. Needlessly to say you need a local connection and will always look like walking money bag to get hit up for a bribe
I paid a visa company a fair amount of money to get the visa. Perhaps unnecessarily. I don't know. Idk about Kivu. Someone shook me down for a small bribe in Kisangani. I travelled solo though. I listed out all the places I was supposed to stay, but had to stay longer due to a plane snafu and no one seemed to care. I didn't stay 5 star. The one time I did, I didn't like it - felt like I was getting shook down. Stayed in places that were I think African businessperson tier. >>2684464I will say that I didn't have to pay almost anything in bribes. I think having local drivers suggested by the hotels helped. If I had French I could probably have managed a lot more. People really don't tend to speak English, but you can converse through Google translate a bit. And French is basically English with only the pretentious words used for everyday things, plus a French accent. You can actually do quite a lot.
>>2684480Thanks anon.How did you book the accomodation? Was it online before hand or were there plenty of grimy-looking local hotels you could just roll up to on the day?Did you have some tour booked to declare on the visa, or did you not really need to give any reason for your visit?
>>2684464This, Sabbatical's video made DRC look like basically the worst place on Earth to travel, jhe was just constantly getting hassled. Go to Zimbabwe or Zanzibar instead, those places actually look cool
>i’m planning to visit the most dangerous, violent, and corrupt place on earth>is this a good idea?
>>2686802Sir, this isn't America
>>2686677I'm white, I'm used to coloureds trying to get something for free from me.>>2686802Keep going to your tourist resort and then making threads on /trv/ complaining about everywhere being too touristy now.
>>2687101well anon I can't help you aside from noting that to visit Russia you also need to pay money to a tour company (and we booked a tour for day 1 and then did whatever we wanted for the rest of the visa period), but be sure to post a thread with your experienced when you finally make it also,> even DRC has stricter visa policy than the UK or Canada
I get you want to go off the beaten path but the DRC doesn’t have much to offer you. Just go somewhere else worth your time.
The other Congo (Brazzaville side) is supposed to be less awful in every way and easier to get into.
I kind of want to go to the DRC to see catch fatiche wrestling, as stupid and insane as that sounds.
Ask in the FB groups West Africa Travellers (the one with 2 L’s) and Overlanding West Africa. Those guys can give you tips on visa hacking for the DRC
>>2684459did a 4 week tour up the Congo River last yearhad a local travel agency organize everythingtheir visa questionnaire is stupendously long but at least in Germany you get your Visa approved quite easily once you actually filled it out>What even are accomadation options like therewestern style hotels? Rare.You have some typical African business hotelsbut outside of Kinshasa it gets even rarerthere are of course more "hotels"but you REALLY don't want to stay in themWe camped most of the time and brought all our stuff by ourselvesbut you (or an agency) have to organize thisand we had some stuff prepared for us flow in by helicopterthere are also some airfields scattered around the DRC where you can relatively easy fly in with a chartered planedon't underestimate how long traveling takes on roads where you drive <50km/halso again, food shortages are very prevalentyou NEED to pack your own stuff or let it be flow in by helicopter>Kivu and Iturinorthern Kivu and Ituri still have "Etat de Siège" so martial lawthat's an active war zone anonI don't think you can even travel there currentlymost of the Congo basin is fine, just not this area
>>2687991>Congo (Brazzaville side) is supposed to be less awful in every way and easier to get into.yeah but that's in the westOP wants to go to eastern Congoeven soBrazzaville is generally a way more enjoyable city compared to Kinshasabut honestly the rainforest / nature on the DRC side is far superioralso regulations are way more lax / less enforced in the DRC so you can actually travel like you wantso no one will bothering you when you camp somewhere
