Anyone been to Nigeria (Lagos)

JohnCleary

Heading to Nigeria for a wedding in June. Wedding itself will be in a village between Lagos and bordering country, Benin.

Things are being arranged for me like accomodation, driver etc. and the friends i'll be with have been there before. We're spending 2 weeks there and apart from the wedding we plan on doing sight seeing/any tourist things that there are to do

However if anyone has any feedback/tips i'd be grateful. Any recommendations on things to do within say an 80 mile radius?

Any tips on security? I know it's a terrible thing, but when I hear "Nigeria" I think 'Scam me' - Any tips on how to keep financials safe? I was told to bring no more than 150euro cash with me, and that my Laser (Cirrus) card will work in the ATM's (Was told we'll be close to an ATM every few days, so just get enough cash to last 2-3 days at a time)

Thanks folks

bringitdown

I was there in 2004 and am afraid I cannot really say anything positive!

I was on a business trip but deliberatly dressed down on foot of advice from a collegue.
I was asked for 'bribes' at customs and passport check ("got anything for me?") but played dumb ... seemingly that may not be the ideal thing but got away with it.

Lagos was pure and simple an utter hole when I was there ... there was nothing to do and see in the city itself and was under recommendation not to leave the hotel campus without an escort, and then not to lave Victoria island which is the 'up-market' area.

I do remember the drive on the inter-island causeway being entertaining but only in the sense of a roller-coaster with pedestrians crossing every so often.

Not much in the way of advice I'm afraid, but watch your stuff, don't flash the camera or anything ... on the way back to the airport we passed a market and someone tried to take a camera thru the partially open window ... our driver just sped up ...! I brought US$ and exchanged them for NAIRA at the airport, make sure you change anything back before you leave. Am sure Euro would be fine too.

I am relatively well travelled but Lagos scared the bejeesus out of me, hopefully you will have a better time than me...!

lods

Not too sure if i'd want to go there , but not all doom & gloom. Hope the wedding goes well, thats the important thing.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g304026-Lagos_Lagos_State-Vacations.html


Some interesting facts about Nigeria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagos

Quint

Supposed to be grand if you use your common sense, but stay away from the delta area of Lagos. If you're with people that were there before, and have drivers organised just enjoy the trip.
Lonely planet have a forum dedicated to each country, might be worth asking questions there.
These threads might be useful about safety:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1700032&tstart=15

Stay away from people like this::D

Beno

It looks like i'll be heading to Nigeria in june as well since I've just accepted an internship with a Nigerian company for 2 to 3 months. I was set up with IASTE Ireland so its all above board.

The firm is based in Lekki, Lagos so i am interested to know more about that area.

I have the same concerns JohnCleary and am just wondering if any could tell me what its like?

Sorry for hijacking the the thread

mikom

I know all the best tips on traveling to Nigeria sarrr...
Now thank you sarrr, firstly all i require is your bank account deetails... and sort code.
I can then wire your monies information directly to your bank account!

dvpower

I haven't been myself, but I had some colleagues who had to go to Lagos on business.

They all hated it. The streets were too dangerous to walk. They would get up in the morning, take a cab to the office. After work they would take a cab back to the hotel and stay there. Nobody had a good word to say about the place and were glad to get out of it.

Quint

Get a tee-shirt saying:

MY BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER IS: 23489070
MY SORT CODE IS: 12-98-98
NOW FU*K OFF

NullZer0

Believe it or not there was a plane crash not so long ago and a long lost relative of mine happened to be on board.

I have to travel out to Nigeria in the next week or so. He left me a substantial amount of money.

Quint

On a serious note, Abuja is supposed to be very safe. I was in west africa before, and I was told to stay away form Nigerian people - from a nigerian! He said that the people from Lagos were dodgy, but people from the rest of Nigeria were grand.
JohnCleary, once you're out of Lagos it'll ge cool. I know people from West Africa that are afraid of Lagos and won't leave the airport when they stop off there!