>Scott: where would you recommend doing a hiking trip in >Africa? Kenya, Tanz, Zimbabwe, Botswana? Specific >parks?
If you don't like crowds, you will probably want to avoid Kilimanjaro, and to a lesser extent Mt. Kenya. If you want peaks that are fairly easy to get to and not too crowded, try Mt. Elgon or maybe Mt. Meru. I posted a page on Mt. Elgon, but our film was lost on this trip, so if anyone has photos, please post them. Check the page out. The Simien Mountains in Ethiopia are also great. One of the best mountain areas in East Africa is the Mulanje in Malawi. The Rwenzori and Virunga are also great if the area is politically stable. The Rwenzori was closed when we were there in Dec 1997.
For technical difficulty, the only difficult peaks you will find are Mt. Kenya and the Rwenzori.
I have guidebook information on a few peaks in Zimbabwe and Tanzania that I have not climbed. Botwana dosn't seem to have any real mountains, but there are facinating game parks.
As long as you don't book your trip through a US travel agent, expect to pay $1500-$2200 on a 3 week trip to Africa depending on where you live in the US. This should be enough to cover round-trip airfare, a 5-7 day climb, a 3-4 day safari, all hotels, food, transport, misc travel, etc.