hello there!
My name is Afoma. Welcome to my travel diary. Here you’ll find detailed information about the trips I’ve taken, those I’m planning to take and some that I’m simply hoping to take.
I’m a freelance writer and editor with a few deeply loved hobbies: reading, cooking, and traveling. I’ve been doing all three since I was a kid — the earliest being reading. (I have an entire blog about books for kids and adults called Reading Middle Grade.)
My travel history
My first international trip was in 2011, when I moved to study medicine in Donetsk, Ukraine. I was 16!
Then in 2013, my parents took my brother and me to England.
After some civil unrest in Donetsk, I moved to the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2014 to continue studying medicine.
Living on an island for five years inspired my creativity and opened my eyes to a whole new world and way of living.
While I was in the Caribbean, I visited two other islands outside of St. Vincent: Barbados and Jamaica. I would have loved to see more, but I was a poor medical student (money-poor and time-poor).
After graduation, I started freelance writing and in 2019, I took a six-week Eastern United States tour (visiting Orlando, Raleigh, New Orleans, and New York), and then I moved back home to Nigeria. Of course, you know what happened in 2020 and 2021 (the great pandemic of our lives).
I spent most of 2022 getting engaged and getting married to the love of my life, and one of our goals was always to see more of the world — starting with our continent.
Our travel philosophy
Traveling with a Nigerian passport can be challenging because we have visa-free access to very few countries, but we’re determined to make the most of our opportunities.
A few things you should know about the way we travel:
- We don’t try to do or see everything: Our goal is to experience a new place, eat well, explore moderately, and rest. We hate returning from trips exhausted, so we always make room for rest days when we travel.
- Where we stay is important: Typically, we book one boutique hotel and one larger chain/resort. Occasionally, we’ll do an AirBnB if we don’t like any of the hotels in the area. We like to be comfortable because we do spend time at our accommodation when we travel. When possible, we favor hotels with sustainability practices.
- We consider ourselves mid-range travelers in terms of comfort: Occasionally, we’ll splurge on luxury resorts and experiences, but generally, we stick to more mid-range experiences. We practice budget travel when we travel to more expensive destinations.
We’ve started with a honeymoon in Accra, Ghana and in February 2023, we went to Senegal. We have more trips around the continent planned for the rest of 2023, and I’m excited to share them all here. Next up, we’re headed to Rwanda and Kenya (for our first full African safari experience).
I hope you’ll join me on the journey!
