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.

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.

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.

If your livelihood is fishing, why bother to live on the shore? It's a lot easier to build your settlement out in the lake. This seems to be the logic a number of fishing communities have follow around Lac Nokoué. As the lake is very shallow in many places, people have simply built their houses, markets and shops on stilts mid-lake. African versions of Venice, where dug-out canoes have replaced the gondolas. The biggest village, Ganvié, is home to no less than 30.000 persons. It's also the closest of the villages to Cotonou and a favourite excursion for both locals, expats and tourists. As a result, don't expect a warm welcome once you arrive at the village, where the villagers most of all seem annoyed that their everyday life is enclosed upon. For a friendlier welcome opt for the smaller communities further afield.