TBA Travel to Africa 2026

TBA’s annual travel adventure in 2026 will be to Africa. We will spend time in Kenya and Uganda, embedding within local/indigenous Jewish communities there for the two שבתות/shabbatot that we will experience on the trip. In between, we will do local touring/exploring, including an extended wildlife safari excursion.

Dates

The trip will be from January 11^th to January 26^th, 2026. What that means specifically is that we imagine people departing Los Angeles on Sunday, January 11^th to arrive in Nairobi, Kenya on Monday, January 12^th.  The trip will end the night of Sunday, January 25^th in Entebbe, Uganda with flights back leaving as early as Monday morning, January 26^th.

Price

Note: this trip will be more expensive than any previous trip TBA has run.  While some accommodations in Africa are less expensive than comparable ones in Europe, operating wildlife safaris is very expensive. Having said that, we are proud that, by using local tour operators, this price is still several thousands of dollars less, per person, then comparable/shorter trips organized by LA-based shuls in the last few years. These are a lot of absolute dollars, but we believe we are delivering high value for the cost. Note: we are quoting the price in Euros, which means the actual dollar amount is slightly in flux until such time as we pay our operator. The reason is that the rate changes, and in previous years we quoted in dollars, but had to pay the operator in Euros. By the time payment was due the dollar had weakened and TBA lost money as a result. We chose not to pass that on to previous participants. This time we will quote in Euros.

• The price is 6475 Euro per person. Today that computes to $7450. The final amount you will pay, in dollars, may be a little less, and it may be a little more. It will depend on the rate.
• The single supplement is 1350 Euro ($1600 today)
• If you choose to pay in full when registering, you can lock in the rates above, in dollars ($7450, plus $1600 for single supplement). And then you will not be charged more later based on Euro fluctuations (unless it fluctuates wildly, which would cost TBA meaningful funds), nor based on minor changes to itinerary.  Others may choose to register with a $1K downpayment, and thus final amount they owe will depend on Euro rate and minor changes to itinerary.
• Price excludes
  
  • Airfare to/from Africa
  • Cost of vaccines, which are highly recommended, if not required, before traveling to parts of Africa. Estimate between $300-$1K, just to be safe.
  • Cost of visas to enter Kenya and Uganda. Estimate 135 Euros total
  • Tips and gratuities to drivers/guides/porters/lodge and hotel staff. Estimate $15 pp, per day.
  • Other sundry details, as indicated in itinerary. See below.

Itinerary

Scroll down to see working itinerary, which includes the prices mentioned above. 

Shabbat

Those who have traveled with me/TBA in the past know that we do a traditional Shabbat. What that means is that regardless of the individual observance standard of each participant, the group experience is shomer shabbat, and does not involve travel by bus/vehicle. I have learned that this is simply impossible, on a large scale, when visiting the Jewish communities in Kenya and Uganda. There are simply insufficient accommodations within walking distance of each synagogue/community. For each shabbat there will be up to 8-10 beds (in different configurations) that we can use that are local to each community. Some will be home hospitality. Some will be in a dorm-room/bunk-bed style setting. Some will be a spartan guest house. All will be very spartan and simple. When you register, you will have an opportunity to indicate whether you require/prefer to stay in those walking-distance accommodations. When those slots are full, they are full. All others will be transported to/from Shabbat services/meals by our vehicles.

Fundraising

We are going on this trip as a learning adventure. And to have a wonderful vacation. And…we are visiting some fascinating and exceedingly under-resourced Jewish communities. The Abayudaya community in Uganda, and their sibling community in Kenya, are barely at subsistence level. Both viz. individual families, and the community itself.  Therefore, we are using this wonderful trip we will experience as an opportunity to raise funds for this community. We will ask every participant to agree to fundraise a minimum of $1800 towards our effort, every dollar of which will go to these communities to help them sustain themselves, and grow. The exact mechanism of this fundraising effort is still TBD. But it will be akin to ones you may have been involved in before, say, for a fundraising bike ride, etc…Asking friends/family to make gifts of $36, $100, $180, $360, etc…to get you to/past your fundraising goal.

All registrations will be on a first-come, first-served basis. We have a limit of 32 spots for this trip, given the limitations of travel in the wildlife parks we will be visiting. Those who attempt to register after we have reached 32 registrants will be put on a waiting list, ranked by date of expressing interest.

Please read thoroughly and carefully if you are interested in the trip. We are well on our way to bringing this to fruition, and are excited to open it up for registration, soon.