Travel costs and information for Burundi - Bujumbura

Note that all information in here was valid at the time (June 2009) - it may well have changed since.  It's also possible that I was ripped off, that I did some exceptional haggling, or that I accepted a price that I should have haggled over :-)  Currency indicators are £ (British pound), $ (US dollar), and BIF (Burundi franc).  At the time, the official exchange rates were roughly BIF1,220=$1 and BIF2,000=£1.

Burundi

• Little in the way of hassle at all.
• Once a Belgian colony so more people speak French than English.  When I was there, I needed to use French to get by.
• No ATMs will accept foreign cards, however you can get cash advances on a Visa credit card (didn't try Mastercard) in some banks, e.g. Banque de Credit de Bujumbura in Bujumbura - go to the Western Union section on the left.  I think the bank's commission was included in the FX rate, as the only separate entry on my bank statement was a fixed £2.50 charge (plus obviously the interest on the cash advance).
• Note that, like Rwanda, Burundi is relatively expensive (except for transport) so you will need much more cash per day than, say, Uganda.

18th June 2009 $20 3 day transit visa for a British passport-holder at the border (no other kind of visa available).  The FX rates are good here so you may as well change any remaining Rwandan Francs.


Bujumbura

• If you're on the Belvedere minibus from Kigali (via Butare/Huye) then their terminal is just north of the city centre on Chaussee de Peuple - head south and you'll soon see the Face a Face Internet cafe, hence you can orientate yourself via the Lonely Planet map.
• While searching for a room when I first arrived in Bujumbura, I was told that Hotel Le Doyen (mentioned often in guidebooks and the web) was closed.  There's a place next to Patisserie Trianon on Avenue du Commerce (go through the arch above which is written Ceprodilic) with rooms apparently starting from BIF8,000 - they were completely full.  You could also try the Pacific Hotel (on Avenue de Euphorbes, I think), charging BIF25,000 - they were also completely full.
• Couldn't find any FX place that could give me Tanzanian Shillings - I was told they were available in the market but I didn't try. 
• Tourist Information is now on Boulevard de l'Uprona, a couple of hundred metres from the junction with Chaussee du Peuple.

18th June 2009 $25 Nightly rate for a private ensuite room (cold water only - fine, as the climate is tropical) at Saga (pronounced sagger) Residence - other options were $35 for a fan/hot water/breakfast, and $40 for aircon/hot water/breakfast.  Nice room with mossie net, TV (1 channel ...), towel, bog roll, and good water pressure in the shower, but no fan or aircon.  Free internet but there's only 1 machine so you'll be lucky to get on it.  Can't pay by credit card.  Several of the staff speak English and French, and the manager Jean-Claude is very helpful.  The restaurant is good but pricey and the service is very slow (at least an hour).
19th June 2009 $10 5 day visa extension (though see below!) Visit the immigration place in the morning.  You'll need a photocopy of your passport's information page, a photocopy of the page with your Burundi entry stamp, and a passport photo, plus the forms that you'll be given.  You have the option of a 5 or 10 day extension.  You can then pick it up in the afternoon after 2PM.  My application seemed to get stuck in limbo, as I wasn't able to pick it up until about 4:15PM after repeated reminders (which may actually have slowed things down ...), even though other foreigners who'd applied after me received theirs back before me.  The payment booth also refused a slightly scruffy $5 bill of mine.
A better solution is to not bother getting the extension at all.  Assuming you overstay your original transit visa by no more than 15 days, you can simply pay an overstay fine of BIF15,000 at the border when you leave, which - when you consider the amount of time you'll waste in getting the extension - is well worth it.  The extension is also worth avoiding because it takes up an entire page of your passport.
19th June 2009 BIF5,000 Taxi from Saga Beach back to the centre of town.
22nd June 2009 BIF730 Stamp for postcard to Europe
22nd June 2009 BIF810 Stamp for postcard to USA
23rd June 2009 BIF8,000 Minibus (Buragane) from Bujumbura to the border with Tanzania, leaving at 7AM, taking 3 hours 30 minutes to Burundi immigration, half an hour there (not busy, and no hassle), then a further hour to Tanzania immigration (i.e. 5 hours in total).  The Buragane office is on Rue Science, just west of the junction with Boulevard Lumumba.
There were no money-changers at the border, but one of the other passengers warned me about this when we stopped in a town near the border so I was able to change money there instead.