Benin travel guide

Dirty. Rough. Full-on. Loathe it or love it, but Cotonou is as Africa's big cities are most. A place for business rather than comfort. Benin's de facto capital is somewhat of a West African Los Angeles. Too spread out and too trafficked; here's just no Venice Beach as the coast is dominated by a ginormous modern port. Cotonou is, however, also a great African melting pot and both peoples and businesses from all over the continent are thriving here. This show in the shopping and eating options and Cotonou offers plenty of good experiences in both. As for nightlife, it's hit n' miss. While there isn't too much to keep the casual visitor in Cotonou, the city is a good base for a number of nearby attractions, such as the stilt villages, Porto-Novo and as far as Ouidah.

People in Benin are really chilled. Actually, they're so easygoing that you can walk around the large crowded central market and the only confrontations will be a polite bonjour. The centre of the market is the concrete box near the waterfront. From there the market spreads out in every direction. Each kind of goods have their own section, though there are lanes where you can pretty much find everything. As this being voodoo land, there is a small fetish corner with monkey skulls and dried snakes north east between the box and the waterfront. Expect to pay for a photo of people, particularly at the fetish market.

The memorial arch of Door of No Return stands at the beach four kilometres from the old slave town of Ouidah. According to some sources, millions of people from other tribes were captured by the Ouidah troops and sold off to the Arabs and later Europeans. The slaves was marched from Ouidah town to the waiting slave ships anchored off the beach. Here the slaves first have to survive the horrendous sea journey before they reached their equal horrible destiny somewhere in the colonised New World. Today, there are several other monuments along the sandy road from Ouidah to the beach, but nothing as big as the Door of No Return.

The name might give some different associations, but anyone who wants to get away from the hustle and bustle of life, just let the hours – or days – tick by, while lounging in a hammock drink in hand could do a lot worse than heading to Grand-Popo. In the slave days, Grand-Popo was a major port for the export of everything valuable. As the sale of human beings concluded the town lost its importance. Today its big draw is the idyllic beach, so much that most visitors don't even pay attention to the traces of voodoo culture and colonial history less than a hundred metres in from the sand. To be fair, both are also experienced better elsewhere.

Similarly to the Tamberma people in neighbouring Togo, the Somba is famed for building tata house – small mud fortresses complete with wells, granaries and tall walls – there is even room for livestock inside. Essentially, these houses were built to escape slavers from the south raiding the countryside by barricading oneself. Local eco-tourism outfit Perle de l’Atakora can arrange visits inside these houses, overnight stays and a range of other cultural activities in the area, should you find yourself this far north in Benin. Supposedly, it is possible to visit the similar villages across the border in Togo without the usual formalities, such as a visa. However, our lawyers have advised against us making such a suggestion.

“Nati” is a sweet nickname, but Natitingou is nobody’s dream destination. It is hot, dusty and isolated as the only large-ish town in Northern Benin. For the same reason, you might very well have to pass through here. This is where you catch transport, stock up on supplies and find decent accommodation. More interestingly, the town is also the staging point for excursions to the lions, hippos and elephants in Parc National de la Pendjari. Nati is also the place from where to arrange trips to the Atakora Region and the Somba’s tutu houses. The town is the main centre for the Somba ethnic group, which ethnography dominates local Musée Régional de Natitingou. If it is getting all too hot and dusty though, at least you can cool off in the Kota Falls 15 km southeast of town.

Though the town of Ouidah has a grim colonial past as the second largest slave port, it's a surprisingly nice and laid-back place today. There are still dilapidated old colonial mansions in addition to a few quirky sights, like Python Temple, both a Cathedral and Basilica, and a short motorcycle ride away, Door of No Return. Due to the trickle of tourists, there are a few would-be guides here and there.

Parc National de la Pendjari is arguably the most magnificent national park in West Africa – it boasts the largest remaining intact ecosystem in the region. The rugged mountains and wooded savannah is a sight in its own right, but visitors are pretty much guaranteed to see elephants, buffalos, hippos and a vast number of antelopes here. Elusive West African lions and the critically endangered Northwest African cheetah also roam the park. However, to spot any of these predators, superhuman persistence and luck are needed. Only a couple of dozen lions are left in the park and when the cheetahs were last counted, back in 2008, only 5–13 individuals called Pendjari home. As with many of West Africa’s national parks infrastructure is limited and hiring a guide is highly recommended. It can be done at the entrance or at the better hotels in Natitingou. Pendjari National Park was added to the existing UNESCO World Heritage site of Parc National du W in 2017, which now constitutes the vast transnational W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) complex, spread across Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger.

A very pleasant surprise. Benin's capital city is low-key and relaxed. Life here moves as slow as the changes in African politics does. Porto-Novo, named as a "New Porto" by the Portuguese when their ships roamed these shores, is full of magnificent colonial architecture. Including a cathedral-turned-mosque and the old Institut Francais d’Afrique Noire. Here's also a restored traditional palace and Porto-Novo is West Africa's most exhilarating museum-city. A handful of excellent museums tells everything from local ethnography to the history of Brazilian diasporas in Benin. If you want to see all of Benin, but only have one day Porto-Novo got you covered. Here are even a few stilt houses down by the lake.

As part of the strong voodoo belief, there is a temple in Ouidah which is dedicated to pythons (yes, the snake). Believers - and tourists - come here to make sacrifice to the pythons in hope to have their wishes come true. The are ceremonies every third day at 2 pm, but you're also welcome to see the small temple at any other time. You will see some shrines, but the most interesting part is of course the pythons. The guide will probably show you one up close and let you hold it, in addition to a peek inside the snake pit. Though there is an entrance fee, along with a camera fee, the guide will most likely also ask you to make a donation to... eh, the snakes.