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Cotonou
Largest city in Benin

Cotonou

Cotonou is the seat of government and largest city of Benin.

Plan a trip to Cotonou→From Lagos

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.

Get in

Getting to Cotonou

  1. 01
    Cadjehoun Airport
See

Worth seeing

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.

  1. 01
    Cotonou Cathedral
  2. 02
    Fondation Zinzou

    Avenue Germain Olory Togbe, Quartier Zongo (Just north of Carrefour St.

  3. 03
    Grande Mosquée de Zongo

    The largest mosque, and possibly all of Benin, it's a center of it all for Cotonou's Muslim communities.

  4. 04
    Place 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.

  5. 05
    Place des Martyrs

    A big North Korean-built monument to those who died fighting against colonialism.

  6. 06
    Place

    Statue to honor the Agodjié (Amazone) women warriors of Abomey, Kingdom of Dahomey, as popularized in the movie The Woman King.

Do

Things to do

  1. 01
    Institut Français

    Avenue Jean Paul II (across from the CNHU hospital complex).

  2. 02
    Stade

    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.

  3. 03
    Air de Jeux Plage Erevan
  4. 04
    Obama Beach
Eat

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).

  1. 01
    Boucherie Zitawi

    Ganhi, near the Avenue Steinmetz overpass (In the von across from Pacha nightclub).

  2. 02
    Chez Maman Bénin

    Rue 201A (In the von one block north of Boulevard Saint-Michel, near Hall des Arts),.

  3. 03
    Fifadji Pork Maquis

    Rue 2650 (Across from Pharmacie La Tamaya).

  4. 04
    La Galette à Sucre

    Route de L'Aéroport, Cotonou (next to the Turkish Airlines office).

  5. 05
    Ci'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.

How locals move

Getting around Cotonou the local way

  • 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. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.