Money Talk for Kenya & Kigali

So I'm back from my mini mini mini break. There was a long weekend in Nigeria to celebrate our independence, a few people and I decided to visit Niarobi and Kigali. ( these cities are in Kenya and Rwanda respectively if your geography is dodgy- You are welcome).


A few things to note this trip, it was pretty budget not by design but it just so happened that there isn't a lot of buy from Kenya asides coffee ( In my opinion) and I also had economies of scale on my side.
Also Nairobi doesn't have a lot to do if you remain in the city. But this might be as a result of being resident in Lagos. And the fact that I arrived on a Wednesday night and left on Thursday evening.

Money talk:

My ticket cost N135,000 approx round trip for  Lagos- Nairobi- Kigali- Nairobi- Lagos.
Visa: $20 transit for Kenya and $30 for Rwanda both obtainable on arrival with a Nigerian passport.
My accomodation cost $87 for all the nights I spent with my group.
However I like to take some time out after travelling with people to recharge so I spent an extra night in Kigali and that cost me $30 and I also spent the night at the Aspire airport lounge at the Nairobi airport for $35.
Taxi rides and tourist attractions cost me approximately $50.
I spent approximately $10/meal
The exchange rate is 100KSH ( Kenyan shillings) to 1 USD.

Itineary:
My layover in Kenya was 21 hours long so I got to spend a night and go shopping the next day as well as visit the Giraffe center with the aim of kissing feeding the animals.

Rwanda
I had planned to arrive on thursday night go out, friday take a Yoga class - someone in my travel party was teaching said class, visit the Kigali Genocide center ( let this be the first/last thing you do if you decide to go, it was very emotionally stressful for me, I couldn't finish viewing because I'm a crier and I couldn't risk breaking down too badly), have lunch, visit the Belgian soldier center and friday night go out again. Saturday morning lie in and then take a 3 hour bus ride ( that really turned out being 5 but who is counting) to Gisenyi spend the night at an eco lodge and then come on sunday. Spend monday relaxing getting my life together at a spa and then heading to the airport to return to Lagos.


Top marks for whoever can guess how much of my itineary I stuck to and what I cancelled.

I think in total plus souvenirs I spent maybe $250 shopping inclusive in both countries plus incidentals.

Also like a learner I used my Gt bank Naira card to pay for a bra that was 2,000 KSH and when I got the alert in Naira I almost fainted.

So pro tip never use your Naira card to pay for anything except you want to almost have an aneurysm when your debit alert pops in.

Re group travel it's not so bad but I do not think it's something I am really a fan of because I like doing things on my own time and I really like to take my time.