Benin Tickets & Passes: Top 5 Experiences That Are Well Worth Having
Thinking about seeing Benin? Well, you are in for a real treat! There’s a special charm to Benin, one that sticks with you long after you’ve left its shores. From the history soaked into every stone of Ouidah to the amazing stilt village of Ganvie, so too it’s a place full of places to discover and tales that are just so compelling. Picking out tickets and passes can feel like a chore, that’s something people tell me often, that said, with a little guidance, it’s absolutely easy to arrange your trip without any stress! I have made this just a bit easier to digest.
1. Ouidah: The Heart of Voodoo and History Tickets
You really can’t miss out on Ouidah when you’re in Benin; it’s arguably one of the places where history feels most alive. Very famous as the heart of Voodoo tradition and a key point on the slave route, this town, by the way, really offers something that can move people. First, stop to visit the Sacred Forest; this place is filled with statues that reflect what Voodoo actually means to people and it offers, in some respects, a real deep dive into the local religion and what the beliefs really are. Afterwards, consider wandering down the Route des Esclaves, the Slave Route, marking each significant spot with plaques and memorials. What that shows, in some respects, are the many things that people had to undergo at the time.
Ticket Types: There’s no one ‘all access’ ticket, really, but there are specific tickets for things like the Sacred Forest. Also, guided tours are offered so you get much richer detail than going solo. That gives more color to the details, as I would put it.
What It Offers: It provides you with that deep connection to West African history and traditions; the ability to see what life was really like then, which is extremely hard to otherwise appreciate fully. This is often an extremely important experience and is usually quite profound.
Why Should you grab one?: You should do it to honestly just get under the skin of Benin’s history, not merely scratch the surface. You get an insight into what locals feel and their history, arguably deeper than any book can explain.
Read our full review: Ouidah Benin History Full Review and Details
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2. Ganvie: The Floating Village Experience
Picture a village that is sitting right in the middle of Lake Nokoué. This is Ganvie, sometimes called the “Venice of Africa,” but perhaps, just a little less crowded and less about piazzas and more just regular life out on the water. Way back when, the Tofinu people created this village as a refuge on water (where the Fon people were forbidden to battle according to their religious practices), meaning, arguably, it’s been inhabited for hundreds of years and it shows, really, in its design and the customs people follow. The way they built houses and just made the most of the lakeside living is quite admirable.
Ticket Info: What it usually includes is a boat tour out from the shore that circles around some parts of the village. More costly tours get you off the tourist path a bit so you can visit families that have been living there for centuries.
What It Offers: You get to view what it’s like in a really unique community. To visit this community floating along, not affected by the to and fro that you would see back in proper, urban life. To actually observe all that they achieve, and all they sustain. A view that very few will ever get.
Reasons to Get This Ticket?: For many, many reasons; mainly if you’re just a bit intrigued by uncommon ways of living and history so important to understand the African story. To have stories to actually pass along to your family, to better relate to people’s lives.
Read our full review: Ganvie Floating Village Full Review and Details
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3. Porto-Novo: Culture and Capital Tickets
You might not know, by the way, that Porto-Novo is the official capital city of Benin, yet many seem to glance over it in travel plans. Big mistake! It’s much richer culturally than a person would initially think, featuring, of course, various museums, busy markets, just to name a few points. Here’s one suggestion – go check out the Musée d’Art Africain Contemporain, displaying what many would believe is modern African creative genius and artistry, as I see it, while a stroll through the Dantokpa Market can provide a very realistic view of how locals really deal with their everyday shopping needs.
Ticket choices: Similar to Ouidah, individual tickets for individual spots will likely be the norm. Sometimes you might find group discount cards offering combined admission to, perhaps, two to three places of interest, especially at places tourists will gather, so too it’s good to keep your eyes open!
Value adds?: To absorb, maybe a little better, modern West African art or haggle some great finds with locals at Dantokpa Market is quite a unique experience and something everyone ought to undergo; especially that of understanding just how globalism trickles down into people’s lives and how people accommodate all that the globalized modern existence demands of a people. Very eye-opening. Worth every second.
You want this, why?: To just start piecing together Benin society more completely; blending old traditions in smaller locales like Ouidah, by comparison to, perhaps, modern urban vibes here. You just get closer to actually discovering how people actually navigate their world, their concerns, what motivates them. Which is absolutely interesting.
Read our full review: Porto-Novo Benin Culture Full Review and Details
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4. Pendjari National Park: Wildlife Safari Passes
Pendjari offers just a bit of respite for people that are into exploring wildlife. That, as a matter of fact, can make you feel as if you stepped into “The Lion King”— minus the musical parts but including really majestic scenery and possibly some of Africa’s most intriguing animals that everyone should get around to view. Animals like elephants, lions, different kinds of antelope species, so the list just goes on, really! Book the early trip when all the wildlife tends to get around; very memorable! This is definitely something you won’t find just anywhere.
About Those Passes: Pendjari needs that entry fee—often in the form of daily or multi-day passes; I’ve encountered those before! Tour companies provide that service as well and, you know, provide complete deals incorporating park admittance and guided safaris, meaning there are numerous ways of getting out there to view what all the reserve sustains and delivers.
It gives, why?: This provides just something amazing for wildlife lovers! Very unusual, it’s not what everyone will rush towards to find, giving unique experiences that only several portions of the planet manage to deliver.
Snatch them up why?: For those Instagram snaps or something much more—connecting personally with something quite primal as well. Wildlife here is rather unbothered and it shows just how natural that connection to planet can honestly get for any and all that are seeking more and more of what Earth provides for humanity. Breathtaking at times.
Read our full review: Pendjari National Park Benin Full Review and Details
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5. Tata Somba Villages: Cultural Immersion Tickets
In northern Benin exists another, really striking vista involving a visit through the Tata Somba district! It presents the amazing, castle-resembling clay homes constructed, still inhabited to the present day by local peoples. Just picture homes that truly merge into that locale seamlessly, in almost, almost perfect coordination. You just shouldn’t miss experiencing that, especially that, because it highlights and helps protect that living, present history.
Kinds on tap: Like places of cultural merit, passes mostly support entry and nearby guided tours so you are really understanding and valuing some insights from inside of each familial community; what is absolutely nice on a more intimate level; really creating an experience for you, from a place far away and unknown, perhaps.
It serves, why?: This visit shows insight inside one, really archaic type lifestyle which stands totally disparate versus the kinds of societies mostly encountered, or even considered in cities you’d view in other locations. In Benin— it just simply is something unique! Really valuable to get to connect to that on such just raw kind interaction; people who keep these societies also learn something during those visitations as well. It’s just not a ‘see the animals and that’s that’ kinda feeling! Far much more. In fact you’re changed by it!
Should I reach into that deep pocket, why?: In effect it’s all so worth supporting something like historic and cultural survival, where these customs still mean something in reality today—also to be fairly changed by direct insight to very differing civilizations which stand robust; which should actually matter to everyone—given everything feels pretty homogenous today!
Read our full review: Tata Somba Benin Villages Full Review and Details
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