Africa & Middle East travel guides
26 cities in Africa & Middle East: where to stay, rough daily budgets, getting around and when to go, plus how to meet the people who live there.
- Abu DhabiUnited Arab EmiratesThe UAE's capital is calmer and greener than its neighbour Dubai, spread across islands with mangroves, beaches and a long Corniche.
- AccraGhanaGhana's coastal capital mixes colonial forts, lively markets and a growing arts and music scene.
- Addis AbabaEthiopiaOne of the world's highest capitals, cool and green at well over 2,000 metres.
- AmmanJordanA city of white stone spread over steep hills, with a Roman theatre downtown and a citadel above it.
- ArushaTanzaniaA busy, green market town at the foot of Mount Meru and the usual starting point for safaris in northern Tanzania.
- CairoEgyptA vast, loud city on the Nile where medieval mosques, belle-époque apartment blocks and the Pyramids of Giza share one skyline.
- Cape TownSouth AfricaA mountain in the middle of the city, two oceans and the winelands an hour away.
- ChefchaouenMoroccoA small mountain town in the Rif whose medina is washed in shades of blue.
- DahabEgyptA laid-back Red Sea town on the Sinai coast, where coral reefs start a few steps from the promenade.
- DakarSenegalA city on a peninsula at the westernmost point of mainland Africa, with Atlantic surf, a strong music scene and colourful painted fishing boats.
- DohaQatarA fast-growing Gulf capital curved around a long seafront, with a restored old souq beneath glass towers.
- DubaiUnited Arab EmiratesA city of glass towers that grew from a trading creek, where old souks and wind-tower houses sit across the water from the modern skyline.
- EssaouiraMoroccoA walled Atlantic port with a whitewashed medina, a working fishing harbour and a strong, steady wind.
- FezMoroccoOne of Morocco's four imperial cities and long its spiritual centre, home to one of the largest car-free medinas in the world.
- JohannesburgSouth AfricaA gold-rush city on the Highveld that tells South Africa's modern story better than anywhere else.
- KampalaUgandaA sprawling, energetic capital spread across green hills near the shore of Lake Victoria.
- KigaliRwandaA tidy, hilly capital where plastic bags have been banned for years and the streets are notably clean.
- LuxorEgyptAncient Thebes, split by the Nile into a city of temples on the east bank and a city of tombs on the west.
- MarrakechMoroccoRed walls, riad courtyards and souks that reward getting lost.
- MuscatOmanA low-rise capital strung along the coast between rocky mountains and the Gulf of Oman.
- NairobiKenyaKenya's capital, a major East African hub with a national park inside the city limits where giraffes graze against the skyline.
- SwakopmundNamibiaA tidy seaside town where the Namib dunes meet the cold Atlantic, with German colonial buildings, sea fog and wide, quiet streets.
- TunisTunisiaA UNESCO-listed medina, French-era boulevards and the ruins of Carthage all within one city.
- Victoria FallsZimbabweA small town built around one of the largest waterfalls on Earth, where the Zambezi drops into a narrow gorge.
- WindhoekNamibiaNamibia's small, high-altitude capital, ringed by hills and dotted with German colonial buildings.
- ZanzibarTanzaniaAn island of spice farms and white-sand coast, with Stone Town at its heart: a maze of carved wooden doors, coral-stone houses and Swahili, Arab and Indian history.