Trip Benin 12 days

Best period to travel: November, December

Short description:
Benin is the size of Portugal; therefore it is quite a small African country. This fact allows the traveller to visit all the country comfortably in a period of 3 weeks. The most outstanding aspects of Benin and what makes this African country unique is religion and its history. Voodoo is one of the official religions together with Christianity and Islamist is the only country in the world where a traditional Animistic religion is recognized by the government. 

Day 1: EUROPE – COTONOU                                                                                                                   Flight from Europe to Benin. Arrival in Cotonou and transfer to the hotel. Martial will have arrived 1 week before your arrival to check all the hotels and special sites of the tour so that everything is perfect. Accommodation in: Hotel Benin Horizon 

Day 2: COTONOU – NOKUE LAKE – SOTHCHANKUE – GANVIE PORTO-NOVO
Breakfast. Comment the tour with the guide. Introduction to the Beninese life through its major market: Dantokpa. You will see the Voodoo area in the old part of the market. After the visit you will pick a public ‘river bus’ –big canoe and visit the remote lake-village of Sotchankue. Tourism does not reach this place (they go directly to famous Ganvié). In this Animistic village you will meet the Voodoo priest and will explain some aspects of the religious life. The village’s protecting fetish is quite stunning. Visit the village and meet the Tofi people. Continue to Ganvie, the African Venice, short visit and go to Porto Novo. Accommodation in: Centre Songhay Hotel. BB

Day 3: PORTO NOVO (45min)
Breakfast. Benin’s historical capital: Porto Novo, founded by the Portuguese in the XVth Century. Visit the city center with great examples of Afro-Brazilian architecture. This city seems stopped in time…it’s just great walking around the streets of the city center., the Ethnographique Museum, the Local Market. Accommodation in: Centre Songhay Hotel. BB

Day 4: PORTO NOVO – ONIGBOLO – KETOU (1h30)
Breakfast. Drive to Onigboló, capital of the Yoruba Holi ethnic group. This people where cannibals until the 1970s and still practice old rituals that have disappeared in most of Africa. We will take motorbikes to visit the small Holi communities hiding inside the jungle (forested savannah). The Holi older women have beautiful body and facial tattoos…a disappearing world. Meet the local guide and discover many aspects of this community. Visit villages behind the cement factory –really impressive raphia architecture, unique in Africa! Accommodation in: New Hotel BB

Day 5: KETOU- ABOMEY (2h30)
Breakfast. Visit the oldest Yoruba town in Benin and seat of the Yoruba monarchy in Benin. Introduction to the world of Fa (divination and future-seeing). There is a ancient school regarding these practices. Meet His Majesty, visit the town and continue for Abomey, a colonial town in the middle of the Agonlin Mountains. Accommodation in: Hotel TG. BB

Day 6: ABOMEY- PARAKOU (2h)
Breakfast. Visit the underground system defense use during the French colinisation. Today we leave behind the humid and Animistic Benin to enter into the Islamic savannah type territory. The villages built by the Bariba-Dendi peoples are different from those from the south. Elongated houses with a special place for the horses: these peoples respect the horses as members of their families. Stop in Dassa Zoumé for lunch time and may be visit the sacred rock where the local Yoruba tribe hid during the slave raids. Arrive in Parakou and transfer to the Hotel –swimming pool! Accommodation in: Hotel le Grillardín. BB

Day 7: PARAKOU – NATITINGOU (5h)
Breakfast. Drive to the Natitingou, capital of Benin’s Northwest. Leave the luggage at the hotel and after lunch walk around the twon center and possible visit to the ethnographic museum. Accommodation in: Hôtel Bourgogne. BB

Day 8: NATITINGOU-BOUKOUMBE
Breakfast.you decide the level of adventure you want- you will penetrate the Somba territory and meet this complex way of life and the amazing architecture (Unesco site in Togo). Explore the region and enter the houses (pay a little before). Night under the stars in a traditional Somba house prepared for visitors…Great experience! Accommodation in: Tata Somba Guesthouse BB

Day 9: BOUKOUMBE-DJOUGOU
Breakfast. And last visits around the Somba country. Drive to Natitingou and from there to the mountain area of Taneka Coco. Here a small tribe survives hidden on the slopes and on top of some hills. Walk to the old mountain villages and after the visit and meeting the locals we continue to Djougou, capital of the Donga Province for a nice meal –the owner is Algerian and prepares really nice food! Accommodation in: Motel du Lac BB

Day 10: DJOUGOU – BOHICON – (6h)
Early breakfast and long way to Bohicon, in the Center of Benin, arrive and Accommodation in Hotel BB

Day 11: BOHICON-OUIDAH
After breakfast drive to Ouidah, capital of Voodoo and main slave port in Africa. Visit the No-Return door and the Python Temple and the old quarters around the colonial cathedral. Ouidah has a profound smell of history…. Accommodation in: Hotel Diaspora BB

Day 12: OUIDAH – COTONOU (3h.)
Breakfast. Morning walk to the Monument to ‘those ones who left and did not come back’ the ‘door of no-return facing the Atlantic Ocean. After the visit drive to Cotonou. Lunch at the artisan market- maybe some purchases- and relax at the hotel. Day-use in Hotel Benin Horizon. Farewell dinner and transfer to the airport.