Porto-Novo
Porto-Novo is the capital and second-largest city of Benin.
Porto-Novo is the capital and second-largest city of Benin. The commune covers an area of 52 square kilometres (20 sq mi) and as of 2013 had a population of 264,320 people.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What Wikivoyage says to see
The unique and perhaps most colorful building in West Africa is the 19th century Brazilian style church now converted into a mosque. A must-see.
- 01Ethnographical Museum of Porto Novo
This is an interesting museum that takes an intensive look into the past of Porto Novo’s kings.
- 02Honmé Museum
- 03Museé da Silva
Celebrating Afro-Brazilian influence on the city, this fairly new museum offers a lot of variety.
- 04Great Mosque of Porto-Novo
The mosque was established in 1925 with chapel architectural style.
From Wikivoyage: Porto-Novo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Things to do
Centre Songhai. Project Songhai has an interesting story and is a good example of a self-sustaining learning community. They attract students from all over West Africa for agriculture studies and they are pioneers in waste management and resourcefulness.
From Wikivoyage: Porto-Novo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Where to eat
Loving Hut, vegetarian or probably even vegan. +229 61 39 29 91 AfricanFoodseum, 3ème Arrondissement. Kind of a novelty showcasing local fare. +229 62 74 76
From Wikivoyage: Porto-Novo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Getting to Porto-Novo
- Airports
- Cotonou Cadjehoun (COO), 29 km · Murtala Muhammed (LOS), 80 km · Lomé–Tokoin (LFW), 154 km
- Lagos → Porto-Novo88 km · quickest by road, 2h 4m · ₦6,150–8,200
- Lomé → Porto-Novo158 km · quickest by road, 3h 34m · $15–21
- Ilorin/Ogbomosho → Porto-Novo263 km · quickest by road, 5h 9m · ₦19,350–25,800
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Porto-Novo
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Porto-Novo. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get inMinibuses and taxis go to Cotonou regularly and are cheap for the 45-minute trip).
- Get inThere are pirogues leaving from Porto arriving less-visited lake villages nearby.
From Wikivoyage: Porto-Novo, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2025-10.
- 01761 km
- 022,821 km
- 033,124 km
- 043,238 km
- 053,289 km
If you know how people move in Porto-Novo – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Porto-Novo
Porto-Novo is 25 km from Cotonou, the nearest large city, whose note carries the wider picture.