Packing for Africa
- Guide Packing
- Reviewed 28 July 2026
- Length 2 min read
Last reviewed 28 July 2026
This guide is about the bag. If you want to know what to put in it, Packing Lists covers that by trip type.
The two questions come apart on any itinerary with more than one flight, because what you are allowed to carry is decided by the aircraft rather than by you.
The smallest aircraft governs
The international flight that brings you in is the most generous leg of the trip. Regional carriers are tighter. Light aircraft — the ones that serve camps, parks and short hops — are tighter again, and some specify the shape of the bag as well as its weight.
So pack to the most restrictive leg in the itinerary, not the first one. Find that leg before you buy a bag.
The binding limit is the smallest aircraft in the route, and you will meet it on day four rather than day one.
Where the number actually lives
Baggage allowance is a rule of the operating carrier for that leg — not the airline you booked through, not your travel agent, and not this page. On a codeshare the operating carrier is frequently not the one on the ticket.
Check each leg separately, and check again if the schedule changes, because a re-routed leg can be a different aircraft with a different limit. Allowances also change; a figure printed in an article is a figure that has stopped being checked.
Choosing the bag
- Soft-sided if any leg is a light aircraft — some will not accept a rigid case at all, and a soft bag fits an irregular hold
- Weigh it empty; a heavy case can spend a fifth of your allowance on itself
- Wheels are worthless on sand, gravel and stairs — consider whether you will be carrying it in practice
- One bag you can lift unaided, because at some point you will have to
- A small daypack that fits under a seat, for the legs where the cabin is also weighed
What never goes in the hold
Delayed baggage is a normal event on a multi-leg route, not a disaster. It is only a disaster if the thing you needed was in the delayed bag.
- Medication, with its documentation
- Passport, visas, insurance details and any printed confirmations
- Valuables and anything irreplaceable
- Spare lithium batteries and power banks, which most carriers require in the cabin
- One change of clothes and a toothbrush — enough to survive a bag arriving a day late
Weight is the constraint, not volume
Bags are weighed. They are seldom measured, outside cabin allowances. That means the useful discipline is grams rather than cubic centimetres: one heavy pair of boots costs more of your allowance than a great deal of clothing.
And washing twice beats packing double — see Packing Lists for how that changes what you bring.
Buying there
Toiletries, basic clothing and most things you have forgotten are available and often cheaper locally, and buying them is a better use of an hour than carrying them for a fortnight. Prescription medication and specialist equipment are the exceptions — bring those.
This guide is general orientation, not legal, medical or governmental advice. Entry, health and safety requirements change frequently and depend on your nationality, your route and your dates. Always confirm with the official source for your destination and with your own government before you travel.