5-Day Ancient Kingdoms of the Sahel Tour in Zinder
Highlights
Niamey, Zinder
cultural, historical, sightseeing
Group Tour
5 Days
Easy
English
Description
Sign up for this 5-day tour and visit the magnificent and unique Sultan's Palace. Get the city's best view, from atop the palace, overlooking the minarets and mud houses. Marvel at the intricately carved doors, the harem for his 400 wives, dungeons, glazed windows, and otherworldly architecture of Zinder Nigerien tradition. Conclude the tour with an experience of staying in a village, interact with natives and observe their daily routines.
Itinerary
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Day 1: Arrive Niamey
- Arrive in Niamey, pick up at the airport and transfer to a tourist hotel.
- Enjoy dinner at Maki 2000, the best restaurant in Niamey for a newcomer.
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Day 2: Depart Land Cruiser for Zinder, Stop at Villages
- Today after breakfast, start your long trek to the old capital, stopping at Maradi and vital trade towns along the way.
- See local villages with earthen materials used to construct all aspects of town design and structures of architecture. Pass through the mud mosques, adobe homes, huts with river-reed fronds, dug wells, and observe the pastoral life. The best onions in the world, sought after by Europe and a long haul to get, are grown here, along with peanuts. These are largely the 2 only main crops in Niger. Everything else is imported.
- Arrive in the evening in Zinder and enjoy dinner.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
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Day 3: Zinder Sightseeing
- After a quick breakfast and coffee, visit the magnificent and unique Sultan's Palace, still active and in use, and see his ministers presiding over affairs and trials in the kingdom of Zinder. See the dungeons where multiple levels of offences used to take place.
- Reach atop the palace, and get the panoramic views of the city overlooking the minarets and mud houses.
- In the afternoon, pay a visit to the Alternative Radio Station of the city.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
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Day 4: Village Stay
- Today you will visit a regional chief and chiefdom in the vicinity of Zinder Kingdom, learn the daily lives and issues of the people, how they build their houses, obtain water and food, and visit the mosques and living rooms of the people of the far landlocked Sahel, whose lives have remained largely unchanged for centuries, and in some ways millennia. This is the oldest remnant of ancient Africa, a great deal simpler and great deal behind modern life, in one of the planet's harshest realms of habitation. You'll find here humanity nevertheless thriving and vibrant.
Overnight in a local homestay, with ethnic cooking and outdoor toilets and shower.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
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Day 5: Return to Niamey
- Drive safe and slow on the long haul back to Niamey.
- Check in to your chosen hotel and end of the tour.
Transfer onward or to the airport for the next day can be arranged.
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
What's Included
What's Excluded
Meeting Point
Cancellation Policy
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For cancellations upto 2 days before the tour -
Refund of 80% of the tour price.