Lagos to Cross River: A Review of Services

Last updated on May 13th, 2020; Published on July 18th, 2017

I’m wrapping up our Lagos – Cross River series with a review of all the services we used during our trip. We spent our time between Obudu and Calabar. I wrote about them in the first part of this series. (Recap of our trip in Obudu | Calabar). I also wrote a cost and trip breakdown which you can find here.

This followup article is a review of all the places we stayed at and bus services we used.

First stop is our hotel in Enugu. We stayed at the Utopia. Here’s my personal review of the place.

What's Covered in this Post

Utopia Hotel, Enugu

We stayed here for one night but I’ve actually stayed here before during my cousin’s wedding. Our choice for hotels was between this and a different one I stayed at during the same wedding. This was cheaper, so we went with it. The hotel is located in the Independence layout area and is very easy to get to. On both occasions I’ve stayed here, the hotel provided us with the basic things we needed for a good stay. A clean room, a clean bathroom and good food.

What we loved

Location – The hotel is located within the city centre and quite close to the bus parks.
Food – The food was delicious!
Pool – Clean and empty. (I’m still working on perfecting my skills, so I was able to fool around without shame)

Low points

WIFI was only available in certain areas of the hotel
I sorta got a strange vibe from this place and the ‘No prostitution’, ‘No weed’ signs didn’t help.

Overall Rating: 4/5

Vintage Hotel, Obudu

We stayed here for two nights. It was the most decent place we could find within the town. My friend recommended somewhere else that was way cheaper but we weren’t able to locate it, so we stayed here instead.

What we loved

Service – Staff was friendly and always helpful.
Food – The food was delicious and super cheap

Low points

The bathroom sink was dirty
No running water in the bathroom bathtub
No extra facilities – WIFI, pool, gym, etc.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Nessville, Calabar

This hotel was recommended to us by Chakie and we loved our stay here. I particularly loved the pool which was clean and empty in the mornings and at night, the area came alive because of the adjacent bar. Even though the bar/swimming pool area was right behind our room, we weren’t disturbed at all.

What we loved

Service – Staff was friendly and always helpful.

Food – The food was delicious albeit expensive
Activities & Amenities: Our room was clean. The pool was really nice. We didn’t go down to the bar but they had activities like karaoke and co – which was cool.

Low points

None.

Overall Rating: 5/5

GIGM Bus Service

After using GIGM from Enugu to Lagos in the past, I was really looking forward to my trip with them this time around. Sadly, this experience wasn’t as good as the first.

What we loved

We were just happy to get to Enugu safely

Low points

The bus left 2 hours later than scheduled
The driver was quite rude to passengers. And he was automatically deaf when anyone didn’t address him as ‘Pilot’ (or was it ‘Captain’? I don’t quite remember)
The combination of bad roads and fairly rough driving made the trip rather stressful

Overall Rating: 2/5

Onitsha South Bus Service

There’s only so much you can expect from a mass transit service.

What we loved

The fare was super cheap
The bus was in good condition
The driver was careful for the most part

Low points

No Legroom
The bus took forever to get filled up.

Overall Rating: As far as MTTs go; 4.5/5

Cross River to Lagos – ABC Bus Service

Image from ABC Transport

Unlike our transit from Ghana to Lagos, the ABC shuttle service from Calabar to Lagos was pretty good.

What we loved

Service – Great driver, check-in was a breeze and bus was ‘punctual’ (We were delayed by 15 minutes)
The bus had good legroom
In transit, a meal was served. I thought this was really nice

Low points