From Accra to Lome is very easy. A 3hr taxi ride in a comfortable sharing taxi. There's also an option of smaller private car taxis. The roads through Ghana are fantastic. There are a lot of speed humps on your drive. The fare to Lome is 25GHc. You will also pay 5GHc for your luggage. Nothing eventful ever happens, the police officials don't care much about passengers and if you are stopped they focus on the driver.
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| A bus ride that test the tenacity of your butt. |
The taxi takes you to the border. You will walk less than 100m to the border then get stamped out of Ghana then into Togo within a 5m distance. You may pay for your visa at the border as it's cheaper than at the embassy in Accra. 25k CFA in Accra and 15k at the border, the lady who gives you the visa will ask you to give money for her too for doing her job, just say no.
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| An okada (motorbike taxi) driver. |
Walk out of the border and you are literally in the capital city of Togo.
Within 500m of the border is a taxi station. These are private sedans that seat 4pax. I took one from here to Lagos Is i was now rushing for the Akwaaba Tourism Expo. It only costs 18k CFA or 12k Naira for the taxi. You can pay in either currency. You don't pay for luggage here.
The borders between the countries are open 24hours a day.
Sundays are definitely the best time to travel through these countries as there is no traffic. The taxi to Lagos after lunchtime does struggle to get full but if you speak to other passengers, you can all club in and pay the extra fare and get your 6hr journey started.
You can change money at the border. From Cedi to Naira or CFA. I'm convinced every second person in this border area works with changing money. They are literally everywhere and chase every moving car looking for someone to exchange some currency.
An hour drive you will have gone through the whole of Togo, this hour will also include the time you will spend in traffic, which isn't so bad on Sundays as everyone is beach bumming. The Ghana/Togo border the officials speak English, as you exit Togo and continue your journey into Benin, the officials here do not speak English it's all French. Benin doesn't do visas so your yellow fever and passport and you good to go. The roads are really good. Well maintained too.
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| Cotonou, Benin. |
The trip through Benin is about 4hours. you want to see the drive through Cotonou, the capital city of Benin. You will never in your life see this many motorbikes but this is also the craziest streets because everyone just seems to drive super recklessly around her. Once you have gone through Benin the border will start to look dodgy. Going between Benin and Nigeria, when they drive you through here your heart might skip a bit. You might think you are being taken too deep into the village and getting abducted. The structures you will be taken too will look nothing like an official border structure, but fear not, that is exactly where you will get your visa stamped. This is one of the notorious borders with officials that always need a bribe. They will demand it, they will not ask for it. On both sides, you will be told that your yellow fever needs to get stamped and at that point, you need to advise how you will phone your country or their country ambassador in your country. When they hear those words they will back off.
*** If I am giving you advice on how to curb corruption at the different borders and you choose to continue paying bribes, I will be super mad at you cos you messing this system up for all of us.
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| Lome, Togo. |
The drive from the border into Lagos is about 2 hours. Usually, an hour but will take 2 hours depending on traffic and how many police stops you will have on that day. on my day I had 7 stops which I never dealt with because Nigerian corruption is so real, our taxi driver dropped his car at the border and let us jump into an army officials car who took us into Lagos and they don't stop us when they see him in his uniform.
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| Border between Nigeria and Benin. |
The last stop in Lagos is the Mile2 station. It is downtown. I hope to never see the place at day cos I can only imagine how insane it looks.
Welcome to Lagos. The City is insane. You will fall in love within 2 minutes of the madness. Good luck.