Over Easter, my sister and I embarked on a Nigeria Ghana road trip from Lagos to Accra via Grand Popo and Lome. We spent 2 days in Grand Popo, Benin, half a day in Lome, Togo and a total of 6 days in Accra and Cape Coast, Ghana. This cost breakdown is based solely on our experience and is only intended for trip planning and to present a fair idea of how much to budget.
All prices stated here are either approximate values or exact values at the time of this writing. If you have recently embarked on this trip, leave me a comment here and I’ll update the pricing on this post.
What's Covered in this Post
Nigeria Ghana Road Trip: Stop 1 – Benin Republic
I have previously written a breakdown for Benin when I visited Fidjrosse and Ouidah for N20,000 only. You can find that here. This time, my sister and I stayed in Grand Popo and here’s a breakdown of our trip.
Transportation
Getting from Lekki to Seme: We took a bus to CMS for N200, to Mile 2 for N400 and Badagry for N800 (See the detailed route here). A shared taxi from Badagry took us to the Seme border for N300.
Getting to Grand Popo from Seme: We grabbed a bike from the border into the town for N400 and a shared taxi into Cotonou for 1,000cefa each. Then another taxi from Cotonou to Grand Popo for 2,500cefa each.
Crossing the Seme Border
Crossing the border should be free but unfortunately, it isn’t. What this means is that you can and should haggle your way through immigration if you must get your passport stamped. Or be prepared to wait for hours if you refuse to pay. Crossing the border for the first time attracts a different fee from an ‘old crosser’. You need a valid passport and yellow card to cross these borders. Here’s what to expect.
On the Nigerian side:
There are about 4 stops/shacks. The first isn’t a stop but they ask for money anyway. You can get away without paying anything there. The second is the ‘Port Health’ stop. If you’re crossing for the first time (with your valid yellow card certificate), they’d ask for N1,500. We paid N1,000 for my sister. I didn’t have to pay.
The next stop is where you ‘register your passport’ (LOL, even writing this is ridiculous!). Anyway, first-timers pay N500. I don’t think you can haggle your way out of paying this. After that is the ‘immigration office’. They asked for a total of N1,000 in the two rooms. We paid N500. And that was all for the Nigerian side.
On the Beninese Side:
There are three stops. First is the main immigration office. PS: Don’t pay money to the guys outside the shack if you want to get your passport stamped. The price for first-timers is N2,000 and the old-timers are N500. Next is the Port Health stop. The price for first-timers is N1,000. (I paid N500, my first time). Old-timers go for free. Last is a bike stop where first-timers pay another N500.
Of course, you can escape all of this by taking a standard bus from Lagos. They manage all the border formalities on your behalf.
Accommodation, Feeding & Entertainment: Nigeria Ghana Road Trip
We stayed at the Auberge de Grand Popo and it cost us N40,000 for two nights (including lunch on arrival day and breakfast for 2 days). Lunch on day 2 cost us N4,000.
We didn’t get up to much in Grand Popo as we had money issues but we got an offer to tour some key places for N7,000.
(Scroll down for an overview)
Nigeria Ghana Road Trip: Stop2- Ghana
Transportation
Getting to Accra from Grand Popo: We took a motor taxi (bike) from our hotel to the Hillacondji border for N1,400. After crossing the border, we shared a taxi to a stop in Lome and a motor taxi to the Aflao border. The cost was N2,400. From the Aflao border, we hopped on an STC bus into Accra for N4,000.
Getting from Accra to Cape Coast and back: Our onward journey with STC was billed at N3,800, while our return journey with another service cost us N5,000.
Our return journey to Lagos from Accra using ABC transport service cost us N21,600 each.
Crossing the Hillacondji & Aflao Borders
On the Benin Republic side, there’s just one stop and first-timers are asked for 2,000cefa. It’s the same on the Togo side as well. For the Aflao border, I can’t say much because we crossed for free. But we were asked for 3,000cefa each on the Togo side.
(See, only a few lines. Seme border is the worst!)
Accommodation, Feeding & Entertainment
Our first three nights were spent at a guest house in Accra. We paid N6,000/night. Then we moved to Urbano hotel which cost us N35,000/night and in Cape Coast, we stayed at Almond Tree Guest House for N16,500/night. We spent our last night in a lovely apartment hotel (Earl Heights), hosted by Meyiwa & Juliana.
We spent a total of N25,000 on food and another N30,000 on tours in Accra and Cape Coast.
Total Costs for a Nigeria Ghana Road Trip
Here’s an overview of everything we spent on our Nigeria to Ghana Road Trip;
Again, this is solely based on our experience. Therefore, these prices may differ due to various reasons.
PS: Here’s a list of all the articles in the Nigeria to Ghana Road Trip series;
Road Tripping from Lagos to Grand Popo
Accra to Cape Coast (The Castles & Kakum National Park)
please dear, for a person that doesn’t know anybody there, pls how will I do it? because I want to go Ghana to hustle. I’m waiting for your reply .thanks
Hello Joseph, unfortunately, I am unable to respond if you intend to go there to work or settle permanently. I only address temporary visits to Ghana for tourism purposes.
Amarachi this is amazing! I am really impressed. I intend to travel for my 6day leave and i am going through your blog to aid and guide me with destination and cost plans. This is healthy 😍😍😍
Thanks Francisca! I hope you find something that you can work with! Let me know if you need any help planning your trip.
This is great stuff
Thank you.
Lovely post! Been pondering on places I could go for my vaca. which is in about 3 weeks. This seems cool except for the border wahala you mentioned. Would love to try this.
Hi Damola, thanks for your comment. You can actually avoid the whole border stuff if you travel with a standard bus. So don’t let that stop you.
Heyyy! What was the exchange rate like ?
Hi Sandra. It was 100 naira to 1 Ghana cedi when we visited and about N650 to 1000 cfa if I remember correctly.
Waoow I am a Ghanaian lady and I am happy you enjoyed your stay in my country. I would also love to travel to Nigeria for holidays as well. Your post was helpful and I enjoyed it
Hey Adwoa, thanks for stopping by. I really enjoyed my time in your beautiful country. I can hardly wait to visit again and explore more places. Let me know when you visit Nigeria. I would be happy to show you around a little 🙂
Waoow Tnx Amarachi. I would surely visit Nigeria. And I will contact you when I am ready. Tnx once again
Passion attached to determination… good works girlie! hope to travel with you someday. At least someone to swing me off my aerophobic nature
I foresee a problem traveling together with the expectation of me swinging you out of your ‘aero’ fears. I also have a phobia for flights! Haha, it’ll be like the blind leading the blind
Breakdown definite and straight to the point. Why won’t I travel to Ghana then.thanks for being detailed and showing us how to live the baby gyal life
LOL @ baby gyal life. Thanks for reading too, hope you get to take your trip soon.
Hi again, I should have finished reading the entire series before I asked for hotel name and cost. please forgive my impatience.
Thanks for the detailed breakdown. I will send this post to my friend so that it can help us plan our trip.
http://www.fehintolaogunye.com/
🙂 no worries! Linking up all the post in the series once I’m done writing them. Glad you enjoyed reading them and hope you got enough info to plan yours.
Hi amarachi….please what is the name of the first guest house you stayed in at Accra?
Hi Tracy, it was called Gracie Jones Guest House, Accra
This is so detailed. Thank you so much for sharing! I hope that one day i will have this experience. How did you do with internet and network?
http://www.ijefinelivin.com
You’re welcome, Ije. For internet, most of our hotels had wifi but I eventually had to get a SIM card in Ghana. Got an MTN SIM for about 2cedis (200 naira). Roaming my Nigerian line was super super expensive! Makes no sense to do this at all.
We should definitely go on an African trip together (or any other trip for that matter.) This looks like a lot of fun. You make me want to travel Africa so bad. Ghana looks really beautiful. How does it compare to Nigeria? I’m so curious.
http://www.theufuoma.com
travel lifestyle passion
I would love to go on a trip with you! I hope that happens someday.
As for Ghana/Nigeria comparisons; Ghana is similar to Nigeria in very many ways. Accra felt like a toned down version of Lagos. There were a few times I completely forgot I was in a different country. It felt familiar, yet strange. I guess the language spoken (both their local language as well as their spoken English) reminded me of where I was.
From a foreigner’s perspective, Ghanaians appeared friendlier than Nigerians and I certainly felt safer walking the streets, whether it was 5am or 12am. I also felt safe hanging my DSLR over my neck while walking about – which isn’t something I’ll ever do back home.
There were also differences in the way things were run. Like the STC bus example in the previous post. That was refreshing to see. To summarize in the words of our wise taxi driver; Ghana and Nigeria – we’re brothers from different mothers 🙂 (PS: In the same breath, he said ‘but Nigeria too like 419’ Lol)
Nice one Ajala Amarachi! This is def a go-to-page for planning a West African Road Trip *wink*
I should plan one with Ify! *smiles*
Well done *claps*
Thanks Nnenna and I think you’ll enjoy the trip very much. Especially if we ‘bounce’ Ify and I come instead! Lol
Amarachi, this is my phone number 0903… I have more question to ask you.
Hello Clement, please send me an email instead. I will respond to that
Thanks so much for this! This is so useful and I hope I can ask you any questions I have relating to my future west Africa trip!
You’re welcome, Tolu. I’d be happy to answer to the best of my knowledge.
Awesome stuff, Amara. Thank you for the insight and knowledge. I have got 2 questions:
1. How/where did you get a yellow card?
2. Where did you change your cash to Cedis to spend in Accra?
Hey Stan, I got mine at the Port Health office close to the international airport in Ikeja. Cost was N1,000. For cash, we changed some money at the border and also got a bureau de change guy in Accra. We sent money to his Nigerian account and he gave us cash in cedis.
Hi Amara,
This bureau de change guy with a naira account, do you still have his contact? I honestly don’t feel too comfortable travelling with cash. Thinking of a road trip to Ghana this weekend and this guy will definitely be useful.
Lovey post. Quick one:
1. How did you move your cash around? You travelled with physical cash or you used your card? If you used cards, how much physical cash will suffice?
2. Did you travel with the currencies of those countries or you changed your naira over there?
Hi Harold, we travelled with very little cash – which we changed into local currency at the borders. This quickly became a problem though. Our cards never worked on ATMs and it was pretty much useless on POS machines too. (There’s also a $100 monthly limit on Naira Mastercards if they eventually get to work). My advice will be to travel with USD and maybe a dollar MasterCard.
USD is universally acceptable, not bulky and easy to change. You can also travel with Naira and change into cefa or cedi at the different borders.