Cotonou, the capital city of Benin, is a bustling hub of business and tourism, offering a welcoming environment with modern amenities. For Nigerians, a significant draw is the reliable electricity supply, making it an attractive location for business ventures. Beyond that, Cotonou provides a delightful vacation experience with numerous attractions and activities. Are you planning a road trip from Lagos to Cotonou soon? This guide provides all the essential information for a smooth and enjoyable journey.
Why Travel by Road?
Leisure travelers often prefer road trips for their unique appeal. Road trips offer a better view of the cities you pass through, and the chance to sample local delicacies from roadside vendors. Sometimes you see things that somehow don’t fit the place you’re in.
Road trips have a lot of enticements compared to air travels.
Accra, the capital city of Ghana, is a popular West Africa destination for tourists around the world. The city offers a perfect atmosphere for relaxation and yet maintains the bustling nature of a metropolitan West African city. There a couple of reasons you should travel from Lagos to Accra and make the journey by road. Accra is perfect for a family vacation or a couples getaway for those on a budget. Lagos, the former federal capital of Nigeria and Abuja, the present capital city of Nigeria are a long distance away from each other. Abuja is calculated to be 734 kilometers away from Lagos.
Bus Companies and Transportation Fares
There are two notable bus companies in Lagos that go to Cotonou. They are ABC transport and Chisco group. The transportation fare when you board a Chisco bus is lesser than that of ABC transport. Chisco transit charges N6,300 while ABC transport is higher by N2,350. Most people prefer traveling with ABC transport though because of excellent customer services and good buses. The distance between your current location to the park could affect your choice. You can board Chisco bus bound for Cotonou at Lagos Jibowu terminal--close to Yaba in Lagos mainland. Boarding ABC transport, on the other hand, you would have to be close to Lagos island as that's where Lagos Lekki terminal is located.
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Step-by-Step Guide: Lagos to Cotonou by Road
Here are three routes you can take to get from Lagos to Cotonou:
1. Lagos to Cotonou by Road
You can travel to the Republic of Benin by car, public bus, or taxi. You just need to be sure your vehicle is in great condition, and that you possess all the necessary travel documents, including your driver’s license, vehicle registration, and insurance.
As for me, I do it the cheaper way by commuting to Benin via public transport, using buses. I tend to spend less than ₦3,000 on this route.
For easier navigation, let’s use CMS as our take-off point in this guide.
From CMS, take a bus going to Mile 2, which should cost around ₦500 - ₦700. From Mile 2, get a bus going to Badagry right away or to Iyana Iba. The price of this trip will fall within the same price range as the CMS to Mile 2.
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If you are unable to get a Badary bus straight from Mile 2, you can get to Iyana-Iba to get a vehicle. You can get to Badagry or Seme straight but I find it cheaper to get to Badagry first and take a Seme cab from there which costs ₦500. The seat arrangement is usually two in the front seat and 4 passengers in the back seat.
When you get to the Seme border, walk straight to the border’s immigration office which is about a 300-500 metres walk. You will get a lot of calls from strangers who will try to swindle you by asking you if you want to cross the border and if they can help you, pay them no attention except if it’s an immigration officer.
Bikemen will also approach you so that they can help you cross for a certain price. You can take them if you do not have the necessary travel documents, but if you have an ID card, you can still cross through the immigration office at a lesser fee than you will pay to stamp your passport, sounds absurd right?
Anyway, when you get to the immigration office at the border, there are two immigration offices where you need to stamp your passport. You have to stamp out of Nigeria and stamp into Benin Republic. Unfortunately, they will demand you make payments before they can stamp your passport, and if it’s your first time stamping at the land border, they will demand more money from you.
To stamp your passport, they will demand between ₦1,000 and ₦3,000. The price they will demand depends if it’s your first time or if you have travelled the route before and stamped your passport.
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Officially, as a member of the ECOWAS country, it’s supposed to be free movement but the agreement is just ink on paper. In reality, they will demand you pay because the African land borders reek of bribery and corruption and it can be frustrating. If you have the patience and diplomacy, you can wiggle your way out and refuse to pay.
Once you get through with immigration, you will then proceed and walk into the country. Viola! Once you walk a few metres, you will find a lot of money exchangers. Whether it’s a bank transfer or cash exchange, both options are available at the border.
Well, that’s not all. You still want to get to Cotonou or Portnovo right? Take a bike from there to Portonovo junction. Once you get there, you will find buses going to Portonovo and Tokpa. So, whichever is your destination between both, you will get a bus going there. It costs about 300-500 CFA.
2. Lagos to Cotonou by Boat and Road
Get to CMS and locate the NIWA jetty. From the jetty, you will take a boat to Badagry which costs about ₦3,000 ( it used to be ₦1,000 or ₦1500 before fuel and naira scarcity). When you get to the Badagry jetty, take a bike to the Badagry roundabout. Be sure to tell the Bike man to drop you where they take Seme's car. When you get there, the car fare costs ₦500 and it will take you to the border. The rest of the process is the same as the first route.
3. Lagos to Benin Republic by Boat
Now, here’s the easiest but could belongest route to Cotonue. However, if Portonovo is where you are headed, then it’s the shortest route for you/This route is very straightforward as all you need to do is get yourself to the NIWA jetty at CMS. The boat fare is about ₦6,000 but it used to be ₦3,000. The boat takes about 20 passengers and the journey is about 3 hours to Maria Tokpa jetty in Portonovo.
Once you land at Maria Tokpa, a lot of bike men will approach you, and be ready to take you to your destination but first, you have to go into a room where your luggage will be checked.
Advisably, put your laptop and gadgets at the bottom of your luggage or find a way to make them not visible to the Benin immigration officers because they will find a way to extort you for it. Travelling with laptops or gadgets is not illegal, so you have to find a way to defend yourself from being forced to part with your money for your own stuff.
Once you are out of the space, you can walk or take a bike to the junction where you take a bus to Portonovo junction for 200-300 CFA. You alight Portonovo junction, which is the last bus station. At that same bus station, you will find a bus going to Tokpa which is the Bus that goes to Cotonue. It costs about 300-500 CFA. When you get to Tokpa, you are already in Cotonue.
Border Crossing Experience
Crossing the Seme Border can be an adventure in itself. One traveler recounted their experience:
"Again, this border is a disaster! Crossing it was a bit easier for me though as this was my third time. But for my sister, who had a brand new passport, it was a mess. By now, you should already know that there is no such thing as ‘visa-free’ across West Africa’s land borders. I have never seen so much bull in one place! Even my first border crossing was not this bad! I could go on and on about all the crap we had to deal with - from the port health officials telling us that a yellow card had to be renewed 10 days after it was gotten (cost of which was N1,500) to having a standard price for “first-time border crossings”. My goodness! We were also stopped and asked for our work ID cards and receipts for my DSLR & Laptop. When we couldn’t provide the receipts, we were asked to either pay N2,000 at the border or go to the ‘customs office and pay a 20K Naira fine and have my laptop impounded."
As I said, I could go on and on, but I would bore you with the details in another post :). This was our first stop and home for 2days of our West African tour. We took a ride from Cotonou to Grand Popo where our hotel was located. The next day was also quite lazy for us. We had breakfast and spent most of the day on the beach.
Essential Travel Tips
- Travel Documents: Ensure you have a valid passport, (either international or ECOWAS passport, your yellow card and be sure to have the necessary vaccinations on it like meningitis and yellow fever.
- Border Formalities: Be prepared for potential delays and requests for payment at the border. Patience and diplomacy can be helpful.
- Currency Exchange: Exchange your currency at the border for convenience. Both cash and bank transfers are available.
- Transportation within Cotonou: Use bikes or buses to get to your final destination from the border.
- Night Travel: It is never advisable to travel to a place you've never been to at night; especially traveling to another country, especially from Lagos to Cotonou by Road. The customs officers at the borders would conduct a search and that would be unpleasant without daylight.
Must-See Attractions in Cotonou
Cotonou offers a variety of attractions that are worth exploring. Here are a few highlights:
- Place de l’Amazone: A striking monument built by a Chinese company, as cool as the one in Dakar.
- Cotonou’s Eastside Gallery: A wall along the main street filled with murals.
- Aire de Jeux Mikeland: An airplane wreck on the beach where you can take photos and even sit in the cockpit.
- Ganvié: Known as the "Venice of Africa", is a village within Lake Nakoué.
- Ouidah: Ouidah used to be the center of the slave trade in Benin, as the only port in the country was located there.
- Temple of Pythons: You can hang them around their neck and take a photo with them.
I spent the first afternoon in Cotonou and checked out the few attractions of the city. My first stop was the Place de l’Amazone. For me, such over-the-top sights are always a highlight. The Monument Amazone is not as high as the Monument de la Renaissance in Senegal’s capital Dakar (50 meters high) and it was not built by a North Korean company either but by a Chinese one. Nevertheless, the monument in Cotonou is just as cool as the one in Dakar. I walked around Cotonou for about two hours and was left alone by the locals. And I mean that in a positive sense. In some African countries, you are often harassed on the street. Here in Cotonou, nobody seemed to care about me and I appreciated that. I was even able to take photos of the presidential palace without any problems. In most African countries, taking photos of government buildings can get you in serious trouble.
The (almost) coolest place I found was Cotonou’s answer to Berlin’s Eastside Gallery. Right after the Plaza de l’Amazone, a wall starts that runs along the main street and shows one mural after the other. I walked the entire wall as my hotel was in that direction anyway. I kept stopping to look at the murals. Before, I wrote that this is almost the coolest place. Why almost? Because the coolest was yet to come. Many tourists don’t even know about this attraction, but there is an airplane wreck on the beach in Cotonou. A Lockheed L-1011 TriStar to be precise. Why is this plane there? The gentleman who sells the tickets there (you actually get a real ticket and the entrance fee is CFA 1,000, i.e. about €1.50) explained to me that the plane was no longer airworthy, but instead of getting rid of it, it was brought from the airport to the beach. The airport is only a few hundred meters away from this stretch of beach anyway. I’ve also read other stories online, for example that the plane crashed during take-off and was then dumped on the beach. By the way, for whatever reason, filming is not allowed inside the aircraft. At least you can take photos and even sit in the cockpit. The fact that the plane is about to collapse is part of the experience. As many people don’t know where the plane is and you can’t see it on the drive from the airport to the city, I would like to share the location with you. You can find this place on GoogleMaps under the name “Aire de Jeux Mikeland”.
The next day, I organized a driver and guide to take me to Ganvié and Ouidah. As I said, Benin is a very compact country and the journey from Cotonou to Ganvié took less than an hour. Ganvié is without doubt the biggest tourist attraction in Benin. It is a village within Lake Nakoué. Over 20,000 people live here in houses built on stilts in the lake and both locals and tourists navigate between the houses on gondolas. Sometimes Ganvié is also called the “Venice of Africa”. With a little wink, of course. A boat trip through Ganvié takes about an hour and you travel on the pirogue between the houses of the colorful village. The guide will explain what each building is.
I have already visited such villages on water in other countries, but I have to say that Ganvié was the best and most interesting so far. Ganvié is full of life, it’s loud, it’s cheerful, you can hear music and pirogues with children come by calling “yovo” (it means “white”) after you. I would say that no trip to Benin is complete without a visit to Ganvié.
From Ganvié we then drove to Ouidah, the voodoo capital of the world, so to speak. Ouidah used to be the center of the slave trade in Benin, as the only port in the country was located there. For many tourists, however, another attraction is the reason why they come to Ouidah: the Temple of Pythons. Around fifty pythons are kept here, and visitors can hang them around their neck and take a photo with them. Unlike some tourist hotspots where you can do the same, the snakes here are not drugged. I didn’t really feel like hanging the snake around my neck, but I did touch a snake for the first time in my life.
On the way back to Cotonou, we drove past the grounds where a big voodoo festival was taking place a few days later. Voodoo is a religion in this part of West Africa and has little to do with what people in the West think of as voodoo (dolls with needles stuck in them…). Many travelers come to Benin especially when this festival happens. When I booked this trip, I had no idea that I was going to be in Benin just four days before the festival took place. However, I saw pictures afterwards and somehow it seemed a bit silly, like a European music festival that simply had voodoo as its theme. By the way, my day-trip to Ganvié and Ouidah can also easily be done as a DIY trip with a little research to save money. In the end, you only have to pay for transportation between the places. There are enough boat drivers in Ganvié to take you around and you don’t need a guide for the Python Temple in Ouidah.
The next day, it was already time to leave Benin. A guide who also worked for my hotel convinced me to use the morning to drive to the capital city Porto Novo. It only takes an hour from Cotonou to Porto Novo (the standard time in Benin to get from A to B). But I could have done without the journey, because Porto Novo wasn’t particularly exciting. I liked the Great Mosque, which looks more like a Catholic church. Apart from that, I didn’t find the city interesting. My guide had actually promised me a boat trip on the Black River Adjarra. We suddenly didn’t have time for that, although my guide always said that we would manage everything. But seriously… so what. I had the Ganvié boat tour the day before. I had also been on a boat trip in Cameroon three days earlier. Is Porto Novo worth a visit? Without the Black River, I would say not really. I mean, if you have plenty of time, then why not.
A little later I left Benin, and what can I say? The country thrilled me! I assumed that Benin would be similar to Togo. In other words, a country that’s okay, but nothing more. I was wrong. What I appreciated most was how modern Benin was compared to other African countries. I also thought Cotonou was a really cool city with three awesome attractions: the Monument Amazone, the wall full of murals and the airplane on the beach. Would I visit Benin a second time? Yes, why not. Not because I feel that I missed out on something the first time, but I simply liked the country. After the Central African Republic and Cameroon, two countries I didn’t enjoy that much, Benin was the best country on this trip so far. And it would probably stay that way. My journey took me to the last country on this trip. To the country I dreaded the most of all.
I hope you will enjoy the journey, and have fun!
Here’s a table summarizing the key routes and costs:| Route | Transportation | Estimated Cost (₦) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lagos (CMS) to Mile 2 | Bus | 500 - 700 | First leg of the journey |
| Mile 2 to Badagry/Iyana Iba | Bus | 500 - 700 | Connect to Badagry for Seme border |
| Badagry to Seme Border | Taxi | 500 | Final stretch to the border |
| CMS to Badagry | Boat | 3,000 | Alternative route to Badagry |
| CMS to Porto Novo | Boat | 6,000 | Direct route to Porto Novo |
Crossing the Nigeria-Benin Border | Road Trip to Cotonou 🇧🇯, Cost Breakdown & Tips
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