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.
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)
Hello amarachi, I love your blog. I am planning a vacation exactly like this but i have a number of questions.
1. Do i change my naira before getting to the border? 2. I want to use Auberge de grand popo hotel as well- do they take cefa or can I pay in naira ( I did a booking online and it came down to about 54,000naira for 3nights)? 3. What is the distance from Gracie Jones guest house to Abc Transport? ( i ask because Abc leaves accra quite early and I do not want to miss my bus back to lagos)
Hello Ogale, thanks for your comment. For your questions; you can change your money at the borders. The hotels would typically accept cefa (or dollars as this is more universal). Not so sure about the naira. I don’t exactly remember the distance between Gracie Jones to the ABC bus park but I reckon it should be a 20-30mins taxi ride at most.
Love this.
Amarachi thanks for the information.
Wow I like how you write….like I am on the trip myself. Planning a trip to Ghana in September with two of my friends. We have passports but I wanted to know if the yellow card must be from port health in lagos. We plan to go with ABC Also what is the name of the 6000/night guest house? We don’t want to spend so much. Thank you in advance
Hi Ngozi, thanks for reading! Glad you enjoyed the post. As for Yellow cards, yes, you have to get it from the Port Health office. It used to be given in hospitals in the past, but last time I checked, they no longer do so. The name of the guest house is ‘Gracie Jones’. It’s located off Osu road, not too far from Urbano hotel.
Well detailed Ama. I’ve surfed internet to get breakdown and finally got it from your blog. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t address my need of driving down to Ghana. I intend going with my car in October between 5th and 15th.
I am also looking for at least 2 people that can join me in my car for the trip to keep me company.
Amarachi, I will appreciate if you have idea of the cost of acquiring documents that allow me drive my car within the 3 countries
Hi Damilola,
I don’t have these details but I’m going to ask the community of Instagram and Twitter to see what we can find. In the meantime, I think there might be some info on Nairaland, so you might want to check that site..
No nairaland forum anything close. Getting the info will be much obliged
Hello, did you go on the trip or still planning to? I am planning a weekend trip to Ghana and would like to cut back on my expenses by sharing fares, etcetera. Send me a mail on …
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.