Africa or Indonesia?

[SweetChilliGirl]

My DH and I are lucky enough to have about 5 weeks during the next summer school holidays to spend travelling.

We did a lot of travelling pre-children so are fairly experienced backpackers but having to go in July/August has eliminated many of the places on our list such as the 'stans, Oman, Mongolia Central America.

We've narrowed it down but have hit a bit of a snag. DH wants to go (back) to Indonesia. We spent a month there twenty years ago but only explored Bali and Java. He wants to go to Flores, other islands in Nusa Tenggara and Sulawesi.

I want to go somewhere we've never been. DH has been to South Africa but I've never visited any of sub-Saharan Africa and would like to do a self-drive around SA, Botswana and Namibia, or explore Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda.

Any thoughts?

I'd do Africa. Namibia is incredible and the wildlife in SA/Botswana/etc would be fab.
It depends what you're into though.

If you check out the ferry and ship companies in Indonesia like DLU and Pelni you can see the routes that connect Kalimantan,Sulawesi,Java and NusaTenggera and they cost very little to travel on in economy.I enjoyed cruising about without planes for once.Sulawesi has a lot of neolithic sites that are connected to ancient migrations into Australia and beyond which I found fascinating.Its very quiet in tourist terms and has the new railway to Pare Pare from Makassar which is near to Tana Toraja.The Togian islands are kind of like the Maldives.And the central lakes and Bada valley have many prehistoric sites(see below).In Kalimantan timue you can travel for a pittance on river boats up the Barito river to the central Highlands staying at river ports.No other tourists as a rule.The Dayak sites are quite interesting and the Karaningan sites which are Bornean Hindus.Tambora is a hige remote volcanic site on Nusa Tenggara that gets about 50 foreigners a year as visitors but it's had a 4km-ish diameter caldera and you d have it all to yourself.Its a damn fine view.Its not too poor and I always find that a bit sad in Africa.

It depends on your budge. SE Asia is one of the cheapest areas in the world, but you will find it hard to do Africa cheaply but safely

SA is amazing but no way for self drive

went to Johannesburg fantastic experience but dangerous

I'd look very closely at the foreign office's advice on the safety of any intended countries since you're planning on taking kids with you. Don't assume places that were typically safe 10-15 years ago are still fine now. Personally I wouldn't go near sub saharan Africa with my young kids for a variety of reasons, but you don't say how old yours are.

No kids - they're old enough to stay at home now. One will be working and the other has several weeks worth of residential trips strung together.

Bada valley,Sulawesi

I'll look into it...

Botswana

I haven't been to Indonesia, but Southern Africa is amazing. I would probably recommend flying between countries rather than road trip though, the airport borders are a lot easier to navigate than the road ones.

Would recommend flying from Johannesburg to Cape Town or Port Elizabeth, that side of SA is stunning.

East Africa. Some of the most beautiful places in the world. I don’t know about the safety of self-drive though.

We did self drive in Namibia and it was very easy and safe (although some roads are more sandy/track type) but we had a big 4x4 vehicle. I’m fairly sure the company we used cover Botswana too. We loved Namibia. We’ve self driven in South Africa too (albeit what feels like a billion years ago - well 25 years).