A Weekend Lake House Adventure In Ouidah, Benin Republic.

It started off as a carefully worded reply (berating her for not keeping me in the loop) to my friend Alex’s tweet on her plans to go on a road trip from Lagos to Cotonou in June and needing female partners for the trip.

A few days later and a whatsapp group titled Cotonou trip was created. A couple of new additions/removals, back and forth later and we were all set to go.

The final group consisted of six people – myself inclusive. Two that were well-known to me (Alex and Banke) and the others, a mix from social media (Tomi, Claire And Daisy)

Now, this wasn’t my first road trip from Lagos to Benin Republic (I blogged all about my first trip to Cotonou here and what I got up here) but this was special as we were going to be spending the most part of our time there at a lake house!

This post is a bit delayed because I’ve been thinking long and hard about how to put it together. Everyone wants to know about the lake house but I also want to do a more detailed post on my experience travelling from Lagos to Cotonou by road.

I finally decided to just share my lake house experience in this post. We have also put together a guide E-book detailing our cost breakdown, travel itinerary and the answers to all of the questions I’m sure you have.

UPDATED: I revisited the Lake house in 2021, and have created an updated guide to help you plan your trip! Click here
If I’m being honest, the lake house was my main reason for embarking on another road trip from Lagos to Cotonou. I saw a few pictures and was immediately sold.

A picturesque cabin by the sea? Count me in of course! It appealed to the inner asiyami in me and my body needed the change in scenery too.

So after a particularly shitty first day which was spent in an equally shitty hotel somewhere in Fidjirosse, I was insanely relieved and pleased when after an hour long drive from Cotonou to Ouidah, we arrived at the lake house the next day.

The first thing that got me excited was the fact that there was a hammock. My browser search history is filled with search words like “Affordable beaches with hammocks in Lagos”. Don’t judge me. haha.

Looking for the perfect budget friendly place to vacation with your partner/friends? This picturesque lake house in Ouidah, Benin Republic will suit all your needs! Click To Tweet

The lake house is a three bedroom (fits six people) cabin called Nature luxury lodge overseeing the Atlantic. It is located in Ouidah, a few kms from the popular Casa Del Papa resort.

It’s in an isolated location which meant that we couldn’t leave Ouidah to go explore the city proper and also that we had to get all our food stuff/cook our own meals.

Regardless, I had a relaxing and awesome experience. So much that when we actually decided to leave the lake house to go explore Ouidah, I got in a mood mid way into our exploring and just couldn’t wait to get back and lay in the hammock while taking in the cool breeze.

I was a bit worried about being bored but I immediately found that sometimes all you need is some peace and Wi-Fi (the lake house had Wi-Fi). When we weren’t taking pictures or just relaxing, we spent our nights belting out lyrics in true karaoke fashion and playing a variety of games.

If you’re worried about mosquitoes, don’t be. We came handy with repellents and even met more repellents at the lake house but personally no insect bothered me and we ended up not using the repellents at all.
We went to Cotonou with a budget of 60,000 Naira but ended up spending at most 50,000 Naira individually. The fact that we went in a large group (of six) also helped as we could share costs and reduce individual expenses.

UPDATED: I revisited the Lake house in 2021, and have created an updated guide to help you plan your trip! Link here

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Have you ever been to Benin Republic? Ever spent time at a lake house? Where was that please? What was your experience like?

 As always, please leave me your thoughts, comments, suggestions etc! And let’s connect!