Calabar
Calabar (also referred to as Callabar, Calabari, Calbari, Cali and Kalabar) is the capital city of Cross River State, Nigeria.

Calabar (also referred to as Callabar, Calabari, Calbari, Cali and Kalabar) is the capital city of Cross River State, Nigeria. It was originally named Akwa Akpa, in the Efik language, as the Efik people dominate this area. The city is adjacent to the Calabar and Great Kwa rivers, and the creeks of the Cross River.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Calabar
6 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.
- 01U. J. Esuene Stadium
The U. J. Esuene Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Calabar, Nigeria. It is used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of Calabar Rovers and previously Dolphins F.C. The stadium has a capacity of 16,000 and was opened in 1977.
1.6 km · building in Nigeria · Wikipedia - 02University of Cross River State
University of Cross River State is a Cross River State-owned tertiary institution with four campuses spread across four Local Government Areas of the state. The university was formerly known as the Cross River University of Technology.
5.5 km · a university in Nigeria · Wikipedia - 03Calabar Old Residency Museum
The Old Residency Museum is a government-run museum in the city of Calabar in Nigeria. The museum was constructed in the colonial time in 1884 in old Calabar and was named as the Government House.
400 m · Museum in Nigeria · Wikipedia - 04Cross River State Library
The Cross River State Library is a public library in central Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. The library's collection contains over 4,000 texts.
1.8 km · public library in Calabar, Nigeria · Wikipedia - 05University of Calabar Library
The University of Calabar Library is an autonomous research institution and the main academic library of the University of Calabar, located in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. The current University Librarian is Professor Aniebiet Inyang Ntui.
400 m · academic library in Nigeria · Wikipedia - 06Slave History Museum
The Slave History Museum is a museum in the Nigerian city of Calabar, which was a major embarkation port of the African Slave Trade, about 200,000 Africans being sold as slaves from Calabar between 1662 and 1863. Established in 2007 and opened on 17 March 2011, the museum was established as a tourism initiative by the Cross River State and is directly managed by the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
2.5 km · National Museum in Calabar, Nigeria · Wikipedia
Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What Wikivoyage says to see
There is a lot of colonial architecture in the older parts of Calabar that are around Henshaw Town, Duke Town and the waterfront areas. Duke Town Hall (Ekpe Stone), Eton by Eyamba Street. The present site of the Magistrate Court was before colonialism, more or less a town hall which was used also as an Ekpe lodge and the “Itiat Ekpe” there represents it.
- 01Drill Monkey Rehab Centre
Atekong Dr (on Atekong Dr west of Jahas Guest House), info@pandrillus.org.
- 02Duke Town
Built in 1846, one of the oldest churches in Nigeria.
- 03The Marina Resort
- 04National Museum
Ekpo Eyo Drive, Duke Town (on the hill overlooking the waterfront, in the Old Government House).
- 05Slave History Museum
Located in a former slave-trading warehouse.
From Wikivoyage: Calabar, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Things to do
- 01Tinapa Resort
From Wikivoyage: Calabar, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Where to eat
Go to Bogobiri Corner (Suya Arcade) and enjoy suya from the many vendors. Freddy's Restaurant is the local eaterie. Run by Ellie and a very professional staff, Freddies is a successful and well run restaurant. Main menu is Lebanese foods but Ellie will try to please everyone. Good salads, fish and best of all huge prawns are the best. Local beers, wines and all drinks are available and all at good prices.
From Wikivoyage: Calabar, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Getting to Calabar
- Airports
- Malabo (SSG), 142 km · Port Harcourt (PHC), 154 km · Douala (DLA), 187 km
- Stations
- Margaret Ekpo International Airport, 1 km
- Port Harcourt → Calabar147 km · quickest by road, 3h 9m · ₦11,600–15,500
- Enegu → Calabar4567 km · quickest by air, 20h 40m · €950–1,420
- Asaba → Calabar224 km · quickest by road, 4h 43m · ₦17,050–22,750
- 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 Calabar
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 Calabar. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- 01387 km
- 022,467 km
- 032,723 km
- 042,734 km
- 053,178 km
If you know how people move in Calabar – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Calabar
Calabar is 46 km from Uyo, the nearest large city, whose note carries the wider picture.
- Akwa Akpacity state3.8 km
- Eyo-Attatown in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria6.1 km
- Ibuet Ikotvillage in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria9.3 km
- Creek Towncity in Nigeria7.2 km