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  >  Travel   >  Three days visiting Lilongwe

It’s the capital city of Malawi. That city is the point of access for who wants to visit the lake Malawi, or to go on safari around one of the reservations nearby, that’s where we got the plane to Tanzania.

We got surprised, because there wasn’t an infrastructure like that in the cities where we dropped by (we were wrong). There are a lot of options for trade and stores. We thought people were friendly and helpful, they greeted us and asked us if we needed help a lot of times.

Niko shopping center

You can find a lot of kinds of stores, banks, drugstores and food courts there. We recommend the market Chipiku, which has lots of variety and low price.
It’s also worthwhile to visit the store complex Sana, which has stores, a market and snack bars with delicious smoothies (all of the drinks are non-alcoholic, as selling alcoholic drinks is forbidden).

`Niko` Overview

Amazing Drinks

Kamuzu Procession RD

It’s the main street in the town, where we found a huge fair, next to Malawi river. There are a lot of products for sale there, usually imported from China, such as electronics and accessories.
In our route until there, we started to find great mosques in the cities, place used for Muslim cults, from the Islamic followers.

Main Avenue

Local Mosque

Safety of the city

We thought it’s very safe during the time we stayed there, we saw few cops in the city. We walked a lot through all over the city and it was very peaceful, the people are super friendly. They greeted us in the streets, wishing to speak English and asking us what country we were from.

Kind of Currency

The local currency of Lilongwe is Kwacha, and the exchange in dollar for March/2019 is $1.00 to 728.00 kwacha. We recommend to exchange the currency in a safe place such as an airport or at Exchange, a bank in the city. It’s always good to have the local currency, because they may accept dollar, but you lose in change or conversion. And it also assures that the coin is not counterfeit.

Kwacha Currency

Expenses in Lilongwe

Our expenses in currency (REAIS) in Lilongwe during 3 days for the couple were the following:

Feeding: R$195.00 (market, snacks and drinks)

Transportation: R$233.00 (chapa, bus, taxi)

Lodging: R$125.00 (airbnb)

Visa: R$386.00 ($50 dollars per person)

We visited Lilongwe for only 3 days, due to a flight connection, but it was enough to know a little more about the city and the local culture. We enjoyed it a lot, walking in the streets, seeing people walking and their daily