The Best Hotels to Book in Benin

Entering this small hotel, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d walked into a modern-art gallery. Fish sculptures are splashed up one wall and weather-stained driftwood creations add an exclamation mark to the common spaces. The highlight, though, is the gardens, which are enclosed by desert-red walls and wrap around a long swimming pool – perfect for a few early morning or evening laps. The complimentary afternoon tea and cakes are a nice touch, too.

The Acropole is one of those delightful hotels that has real time-worn character to it. Sure, the rooms have seen better days and there are certainly more modern options in town, but the Greek-run blue-and-white hotel has a relaxed charm that makes it irresistible if you’re in search of ye olde Benin. Tables and chairs are set on a shaded street-side terrace for people-watching and there’s a long, dusty wraparound bar propped up by old timers; join them to catch up on all the local gossip.

It’s all about location at the Azalai Hotel de la Plage. One of the original hotels in Cotonou, it has cornered a patch of ground that’s both right in the city centre and on the beach. The rooms are all of an impressive size and there’s a big swimming pool that makes for much safer bathing than the nearby ocean, which has strong and unpredictable currents. Despite the central location, it’s surprisingly quiet here.

With Cotonou – the bustling economic capital – becoming an ever-more important destination for local and international bigwigs, who come here for a mix of business and leisure, the number of hotels catering to smartly suited guests grows. The Golden Tulip (which doesn’t have any tulips in sight) is one such hotel – set a short way back from the ocean waves and close to the airport. If you opt for one of their well-equipped, individually styled rooms, you’ll find yourself rubbing shoulders with movers and shakers from all over Africa.

Les Orchidées is more of a small, friendly guesthouse than a hotel, which means it had to do something to stand out from its more formal competition. So they ran with a purple theme a few miles. The dazzling colour scheme now means it’s impossible to miss. Colour aside, though, this is a refreshingly low-key place in a good, quiet location. The simple but highly polished rooms have everything you’ll need and perks include a terrace bar and a thimble-sized pool for dipping.

You know exactly what you’re getting for your money at this upmarket chain hotel. The compact rooms have extra-thick mattresses on the beds, double vanity sinks in the bathrooms, and are given a little local colour through wall-length art that channels the unique brand of Benin magic. The extensive landscaped grounds attract plenty of exotic birds while the vast pool complex attracts visitors of the two-legged variety. On particularly sultry days, you’re bound to appreciate the Arctic air-con in your abode.

Looking as if it were built out of giant, multi-coloured Lego blocks, this hotel in Cotonou offers spacious, tiled rooms that do the basics well enough. The staff add a little extra excitement to your stay by practicing origami with the bath towels to make them look like swans and other animals. While the location, out to the northwest of the city centre, isn’t really walkable to the city attractions, it’s a short taxi ride to the restaurants and sands of Obama Beach.

La Casa del Papa sits serenely beneath a grove of coconut trees on an empty stretch of beach, a short drive southwest of the historic town of Ouidah, known for its prominent role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The butter-yellow cottages are light and airy and have plenty of classic charm, but also come with modern amenities. It’s quite a trek into town so it’s a good job there’s a quality in-house restaurant serving fresh seafood, a bar to sip classic cocktails, and a spa for pampering. While the ocean is not suitable for swimming here, you can still get up close with nature by kayaking in the coastal mangroves.

This is a high-quality, French-run hotel set back from the gorgeous white-sand beach of Grand-Popo – a spread-out, one-street resort village close to the Benin-Togo border. Large rooms, which come in three different styles and price bands, are spaced out among an attractively landscaped garden filled with a riot of tropical flowers. There’s a quality restaurant and a huge, superb swimming pool which is a far more idyllic place to do your laps than the rolling surf of the Atlantic that you see from your windows.