8 Reasons To Avoid Sightseeing At night In Benin City

Night sightseeing generally gives you the opportunity to view a city’s most famous landmarks at their floodlit best. Like most cities in Nigeria, Benin City, the capital ofEdo state (the heartbeat of Nigeria) boasts of many sights and sounds, and so has become a year-round tourist attraction. These attractions include historical landmarks, eye-catching natural features and festivals such as: The Royal Oba’s Palace, Benin National Museum, The Benin Moat, Okomu National Park, Amahor Waterside, Lampese Crocodile Lake, Igun-Eronmwon quarters/igun street, Chief Ogiamen’s House, the Oba Market, New Benin Market and Agbado Market.

Like any big city, Benin is safe, however, whether you are jet lagged, insomniac or just bored, sight-seeing at night in Benin is not the best option as the city is mysterious at night. As colours fade, even familiar areas turn dangerous. People behave differently, and most of the areas are quiet,  dark and lonely. If you are tourist or visitor in Benin City and you are feeling wired for night sightseeing, you might want to take sensible precautions. Jovago.com, Africa’s No. 1 Online hotel booking site gives you 8 reasons to avoid night sightseeing in Benin City.

Easy target for criminals

Moving around in Benin at night makes you an easy target for kidnappers and ritual killers. There has been many rumours and incidents of ritual killings and kidnapping in Benin City. Most popular was the incident at upper Sokponba, where an assumed ‘mad man’ was found with a gun, different human parts and a sum of N4m. You might just want to cut out the risk or being a victim and avoid sight-seeing at night while in Benin.

Closed tourist sites

Most of the tourist attractions in Benin do not open for night tourists. Most of them close between 5pm -8pm and visitors are not allowed to enter the premises after official closing time. While you might get an outside view of the site, you might not be able to get much information as tour guides would not be available as well.

Harassment from prostitutes

This might seem far-fetched,  but if you are a strolling the streets of Ihama road, GRA, Benin at night, sightseeing, you might want to avoid Time Out Fun Paradise as hordes of prostitutes flock the areas and harass passersby. These women adopt aggressive marketing strategies which might not be very pleasant.

Poorly lit streets

Do not be deceived by the street lights you see on some major streets, most of them are rarely turned on at night, especially in areas like Akpakpava, Benin-Agbor road, Sapele road and some parts of airport road. Also, some of these tourist sites are not well lit and you cannot really appreciate them at night. The few areas that are lit like  King’s Square,  might not be enough to hold your attention for more than a few minutes. Going sightseeing at night might not be profitable if you intend to feel the essence of the city. The best time to achieve that is midday.

Possible Traffic

Although Benin is much slower than towns like Lagos and Port Harcourt, there are still some areas where traffic holds down commuters at night. Ikpoba Hill area is an everyday occurrence, while some areas like Sapele Road (before Agip junction), Airport road, Oba Market road, e.t.c feature night traffic quite frequently as well. There is a chance that you might get caught in traffic on the way to your destination. That can be very frustrating and would most likely kill the mood.

You could get lost

Benin City seems like a small city, but in reality, it is quite large. While most of the major streets are addressed and numbered, there is still a chance that you might get missing, especially if it is your first time in the city or you do not have a guide. Google Maps or the normal paper maps might not come in very handy as well, as the city does not have traffic cameras or officials (guides) that patrol the streets at night.

Empty streets

The streets in Benin are usually empty and devoid of people at night, most people stay within the confines of their homes from as early as 7pm. Night sightseeing might not be the best option as there is a high chance you would be parading alone on the streets. It is always best to stick to crowds or groups of people when you are touring a new city, that way you can avoid any adventure to locations where you could be robbed and killed and no one would see a thing.

Night  vision

If you are visiting Benin, there is a high chance you would be moving around in a cab. It is easy for anyone to drive in the day time, but not everyone has adequate vision for safe driving at night. Lax vision screening requirements are not obligatory for driver’s license renewals in Benin, so there is a high probability of being at risk in the hands of your driver