Cotonou
Cotonou is the seat of government and largest city of Benin.
Cotonou is the seat of government and largest city of Benin. The official city proper population was 679,012 in 2012; however, over two million people live in the larger urban area. The urban area continues to expand, notably toward the west. The city lies in the southeast of the country, between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Nokoué.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Cotonou
10 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.
- 01Lake Nokoué
Lake Nokoué is a lake in the southern part of Benin. It is 20 km wide and 11 km long and covers an area of 4,900 ha.
7.4 km · lake in Benin · Wikipedia - 02Stade de l'Amitié
L'Amitié Stadium or Friendship Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Cotonou, Benin. It is currently used for football matches and also has facilities for athletics.
6.3 km · association football stadium in Benin · Wikipedia - 03Cotonou Cathedral
The cathedral of Notre Dame de Miséricorde, commonly known as Cotonou Cathedral, is a Catholic cathedral located near the Ancien Pont bridge in Cotonou, Benin. It is renowned for its distinctive burgundy and white striped tiled architecture.
1.3 km · building in Africa · Wikipedia - 04University of Science and Technology of Benin
The University of Science and Technology of Benin ) is a private university in Benin, whose headquarters are located in the district of Kpondéhou in Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin.
3.1 km · private university in Cotonou, Benin · Wikipedia - 05Dantokpa Market
The Dantokpa Market, also known simply as Tokpa, is a large open-air marketplace in Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin. It is one of the country's principal wholesale and retail trading centres and has been described as the largest open-air market in West Africa.
600 m · Market in Bénin · Wikipedia - 06Stade René Pleven d'Akpakpa
Stade René Pleven d'Akpakpa is a multi-use stadium in Cotonou, Littoral Department, Benin. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is used as the home stadium of Requins de l'Atlantique FC. The stadium has a capacity of 15,000 people.
1.7 km · building in Benin · Wikipedia - 07Amazon Monument
The Amazon Monument is a statue honoring the Dahomey Amazons. A metal structure covered in bronze, it is 30m high and weighs 150 tons.
3.5 km · monument in Cotonou, Benin · Wikipedia - 08Ancien Pont Bridge
The Ancien Pont is a bridge in Cotonou, Benin. The bridge crosses the Lagune de Cotonou which separates the two sides of the city.
1.3 km · bridge in Benin · Wikipedia - 09Presidential Palace, Cotonou
The Palais de la Marina is a government complex in Cotonou, Benin. The palace is relevant in Beninese politics, being used to hold government meetings between the Cabinet of Benin, ambassadors, and the president.
3.2 km · presidential palace in Benin · Wikipedia - 10Benin Marina
Benin Marina was a four-star hotel in Cotonou, Benin. It was located at Boulevard De La Marina, B.P. 1901 in the Haie Vive neighborhood, near the Cadjehoun Airport and the Erevan Shopping Center.
4.7 km · building in Africa · 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
Cotonou is far from an attractive city, even accounting for the expected sprawl and poor sanitation one expects in urban West Africa. Still, there are a few things to see. For those who prefer to stroll aimlessly, the most interesting scenes will likely come in the Zongo neighborhood, the city's busy Muslim quarter centered around the huge main mosque of Cotonou, a hub of street activity.
- 01Cotonou Cathedral
- 02Fondation Zinzou
Avenue Germain Olory Togbe, Quartier Zongo (Just north of Carrefour St.
- 03Grande Mosquée de Zongo
The largest mosque, and possibly all of Benin, it's a center of it all for Cotonou's Muslim communities.
- 04Place de la Bulgarie
A bizarre Cold War anachronism, this traffic circle features a larger-than-life statue - seemingly rising out of nowhere - of Bulgaria's first Communist leader, Georgi Dimitrov.
- 05Place des Martyrs
A big North Korean-built monument to those who died fighting against colonialism.
- 06Place
Statue to honor the Agodjié (Amazone) women warriors of Abomey, Kingdom of Dahomey, as popularized in the movie The Woman King.
From Wikivoyage: Cotonou, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Things to do
- 01Institut Français
Avenue Jean Paul II (across from the CNHU hospital complex).
- 02Stade
The national stadium of Benin and anchor of a sports complex, Stade de l'Amitié hosts not only football matches, but also concerts and markets on the adjacent esplanade and parking lots.
- 03Air de Jeux Plage Erevan
- 04Obama Beach
From Wikivoyage: Cotonou, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Where to eat
In addition to what's listed here, you're likely to find innumerable street stalls and local restaurants in Cotonou. These can range from a woman on the side of the road with a vat of oil to large open-air bars that double as restaurants during the day. Street snacks to look out for include atta (bean flour fritters), doko (small fried donuts, sometimes made with mashed bananas), and igname frite (fried yam slices).
- 01Boucherie Zitawi
Ganhi, near the Avenue Steinmetz overpass (In the von across from Pacha nightclub).
- 02Chez Maman Bénin
Rue 201A (In the von one block north of Boulevard Saint-Michel, near Hall des Arts),.
- 03Fifadji Pork Maquis
Rue 2650 (Across from Pharmacie La Tamaya).
- 04La Galette à Sucre
Route de L'Aéroport, Cotonou (next to the Turkish Airlines office).
- 05Ci'gusta
Cotonou outpost of a chain that serves Italian-style ice cream, paninis and pizza across the Global South, Ci'gusta rapidly became the city's top spot for ice cream upon its opening.
From Wikivoyage: Cotonou, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Getting to Cotonou
- Airports
- Cotonou Cadjehoun (COO), 6 km · Murtala Muhammed (LOS), 101 km · Lomé–Tokoin (LFW), 132 km
- Stations
- Cadjehoun Airport, 5.5 km
- Lagos → Cotonou108 km · quickest by road, 2h 7m · ₦6,600–8,800
- Lomé → Cotonou135 km · quickest by road, 2h 53m · $12–17
- Accra → Cotonou303 km · quickest by road, 6h 20m · GH₵190–250
- 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 Cotonou
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 Cotonou. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get inBook with a skeptical eye, though a bus is likely to be safer than a bush taxi, although it may or may not be any more comfortable.
- Get inVirtually every Beninese town has bush taxi transport to Cotonou, although smaller towns in the north will probably only have one per day or fewer, or may only get you to the next-closest town with bush taxis running to Cotonou.
- Get aroundMoto taxis - locally called zemidjans or kekenos, are the most common form of transportation for the average Beninese person.
From Wikivoyage: Cotonou, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
- 01764 km
- 022,831 km
- 033,139 km
- 043,227 km
- 053,299 km
If you know how people move in Cotonou – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Cotonou
Cotonou is 13 km from Abomey-Calavi, the nearest large city, whose note carries the wider picture.