Where to go
Lagos
Twenty million people, the centre of African music, film and fashion, and a nightlife with no equal on the continent. Lekki and Victoria Island, the Nike Art Gallery, the beaches at Tarkwa Bay reached by boat, and the Lekki conservation centre with its long canopy walkway. Four days, and you will not have seen it.
Abuja and the centre
The planned capital: Aso Rock, the national mosque and cathedral facing one another, and Zuma Rock on the approach. Calmer and greener than Lagos, and the base for the central region. Two days.
Calabar and Cross River
The cleanest major city in the country, a famous December carnival, and the Afi mountain drill ranch and Cross River national park — rainforest with drills, gorillas and chimpanzees. The best nature in Nigeria.
Osun-Osogbo sacred grove
A World Heritage site: forest along the Osun river filled with shrines and monumental sculpture, the last intact sacred grove of its kind in Yorubaland. The annual festival in August draws pilgrims from across the diaspora.
Benin City
The historical capital of the Benin kingdom, whose bronzes are in museums across Europe and whose restitution is an active question. The National Museum and the royal palace, a World Heritage site.
Obudu and the plateau
A mountain resort at sixteen hundred metres with a cable car, cool air and walking — the closest thing Nigeria has to a hill station, and a genuine surprise.
Plan around the advisories
Several states, particularly in the north-east and parts of the north-west and the Delta, are subject to advice against all travel. These are not precautionary warnings. Verify the position for each state before including it, and accept that some of the country's heritage — including in the north — is not currently visitable.
Building the itinerary
- Three stops a week, no more. Every move costs half a day at minimum, often a whole one, and you see nothing of a place where you sleep one night.
- Alternate the pace. A dense city, then two quiet days: that is what makes travelling as a couple sustainable, especially if one of you lives there and works.
- Keep a buffer day before the flight home, in the departure city. Domestic transport delays are the leading cause of missed flights.
- Ask the person who lives there what they want to show you. Guidebook itineraries and the places that matter to them rarely overlap — and the second list is the better one.
Two reflexes that change a trip
Distances deceive. On a map two points look close; on the ground, road conditions, checkpoints and terrain double or triple the time. Plan fewer stops and more time at each.
Ask before photographing anyone, and never insist. Official buildings, soldiers, airports and bridges are best avoided almost everywhere — the most banal and most avoidable source of trouble.