When it comes to travel, Nigeria has the perfect combination of elements. Its fantastic wildlife preserves, beautiful rolling countryside, thrilling markets, and personable cities make it a bucket list destination for many a couple – as well as families and solo travelers.
If you love wildlife, you can’t do better than Nigeria. With animals straight out of a zoo exhibit, the country amazes when it comes to safaris: hippos, giraffes, wild dogs, buffalo, lions, rhinos, elephants, and more.
The awe-inspiring scenery, sunny weather, and vibrant culture make it an even better place to rest for a while. Plus, its beautiful beaches – located along the Gulf of Guinea – are always welcoming to tourists.
Get a tan, enjoy the Atlantic’s most beautiful waters, and experience rest and relaxation like never before.
Of course, you’ll want to save money while doing it. Any international vacation can quickly get out of control if you don’t plan ahead, which is where we come in.
Keep reading to learn all the tips and tricks you need to make your Nigerian getaway both amazing and affordable.
Average Trip to Nigeria Cost in 2024
An average one-week trip to Nigeria for two people will cost around $4,800:
- Average Accommodation Cost: $100 per night
- Average Flight Cost: $1,300 per person
- Food, Drink & Activities: $75 per person, per day
- Transportation: $400 total
- Total Cost: $4,800
Nigeria has a deep history, stretching back to prehistoric times. According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, “Evidence of human occupation in Nigeria dates back thousands of years. The oldest fossil remains found by archaeologists in the southwestern area of Iwo Eleru, near Akure, have been dated to about 9000 BCE.”
That’s pretty incredible. Plus, “There are isolated collections of ancient tools and artifacts of different periods of the Stone Age, but the oldest recognizable evidence of an organized society belongs to the Nok culture.”
Today, that culture has melded into the modern age. Nigeria today is a mix of ancient spiritualism and tradition, but with all the cell phones and automobiles you’d find anywhere else in the world.
However, because it’s a less developed country than many, you can experience most of what it offers for a very affordable price.
Below, we’ll take a look at various categories of expenditure: accommodations, flights, food and drink, activities, and transportation.
Nigeria Trip Cost: Average by Item
Kehinde Temitope Odutayo/Shutterstock
What you spend on your trip is up to you and how you travel. However, it’s good to start with some baseline costs so you can get started with your budget.
Below, we take a look at the averages for each of these categories. Naturally, you can spend more in any of these categories in order to create the trip you desire. You can also use our tips to spend less if you’re on a tight budget. Up to you!
Accommodation Costs
Hotels in Nigeria cost between $50 and $150 a night, in general. You can get perfectly nice hotels for about $75 a night in the city, while a 5-star hotel in Lagos will cost you only about $100. Prices are roughly the same in Kano and other cities in Nigeria.
You’ll often pay less in smaller towns, depending on where they are, how close they are to the major attractions, and other factors.
Before you book hotels, make sure to carefully consider your safari options. There aren’t a ton of options for safari day trips, which means you’re looking at overnight trips. And that in turn means you’ll want to factor the cost of overnight accommodations into your trip cost.
Safari isn’t as expensive as you might think.
Sure, you can pay almost any amount for a luxury safari, but most of them will cost around $350 a night for your average stay, $150 a night for the budget option, and $1,500 for the All-Out Movie Star Adventure. (If you’re going on that one, can I please come?)
Before you automatically decide on the budget option, keep in mind that safaris typically include transportation, park entrance fees, and food for that day/night cycle.
So you’ll need to do a little math to determine if you’re better off putting together your own day trips by renting a car (discussed more below) or purchasing an all-inclusive safari to take the pressure off.
Overall, if you set aside $100 per night for lodging, you should be fine on safari and in hotels. However, this is a very easy area in which to save money – up to half for the budget-conscious!
Flight Costs
Of all the budgetary items, flights will cost the most. A round-trip ticket from New York City to Abuja, Nigeria, costs about $1,100 on average. From Los Angeles, it’s closer to $1,200.
You’ll pay more to fly into other cities, such as Lagos, Kano, Enugu, or Port Harcourt – often to the tune of hundreds of dollars. Note that if you don’t live near a hub in the US, you will need to pay a bit more to get to one: usually between $100 and $200.
There are some ways to save money, though.
One way is to fly into the capital, then purchase domestic flights to other areas of Nigeria. A flight from Abuja to Kano, for instance, can cost as little as $100, but will add several hundred onto your international ticket price.
The same is true for other major Nigerian cities.
Another strategy is to price-shop in incognito mode. Travel sites and airlines track your visits and will know if you’re interested in a particular flight due to cookies that get saved in your browser. This can cause them to return higher-priced results on your next visit because they know you’re likelier to buy the ticket than a first-time viewer.
Keeping to incognito mode until you’re ready to buy is a solid strategy.
Overall, you should expect a ticket to Nigeria to cost about $1,400, assuming you’re not flying into the capital or coming from a major American city, and assuming you do no price shopping.
If you’re conscientious about looking for flights well ahead of time, though, you may shave a few hundred off. We’ll call it $1,300 on average.
Food, Drink & Activity Costs
Agbebiyi Adekunle Sunday/Shutterstock
Food and drink in Nigeria are very cheap. You’ll pay a few dollars for a meal in an inexpensive restaurant or out of a street stall. Think rice, pounded yams, spiced meats, and egusi soup (a blend of pounded melon seeds with fragrant stock and meats – neat!).
Because food is so affordable, plan to eat on about $25 a day. If you want to go out to a nice dinner, which you’ll find in abundance in the cities, you’ll spend about $25 as well.
If you’re a history buff, Nigeria has you covered. Try visiting Old Oyo, a city built on top of Oyo, which was abandoned in the 18th century. Check out the palace compound, water reservoir, walls, cisterns, and grinding hollows.
The spiritually important Ogbunike Caves are another great destination. With 10 inner chambers, tunnels, and bat inhabitants, they’re a thrill. The Alok Ikom monoliths, which may be as much as 1,500 years old, are another fascinating archeological novelty.
The 14th-century walls of Ancient Kano are another marvel, made of Earth and still standing some 700 years later. Some of these sites have entrance fees, while others require only that you show up. Overall, though, they’re pretty affordable additions to your Nigerian itinerary. (The caves, for instance, cost $4 to see.)
Tours are spendier. If you want to visit the floating villages of Makoko, say, you’ll spend about $150. A half-day guided tour of capital city Abuja will cost about $75, while a tour of the Lekki Conservation Center (with the longest canopy bridge in Africa) is about $100.
If you average out the cost of 3-4 tours, eating cheaply, and a few nice dinners, you’re looking at about $75 a day, per person. But you can easily save money by visiting the beaches, heritage sites, jungles, and cultural landmarks on your own rather than signing up for groups!
Transportation Costs
Cabs are very affordable in Nigeria. You’ll pay about $10 for a 6-mile ride, and only about $25 an hour for your taxi to wait for you. Taxis are also very safe (which cannot be said for the buses), provided you use services recommended to you by hotels.
In general, stick to taxis in Nigeria for all your activities. Assuming you’ll take one outing a day with a few hours of waiting time, you’ll pay about $400 for good transportation for a week. While this might seem like a lot, there genuinely isn’t a safer way to get around.
Things to Consider
PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock
Here are a few other things to consider when planning your trip to Nigeria:
- Even if you use a safe and well-known taxi service, do not go out at night. Most attacks against foreigners happen after dark. You’re not safe even in a group, so if you’re going to travel in Nigeria, get home by nighttime.
- If you go on safari, you can remove your transportation budget as well as lodging for the days you’ll be on the trip.
- Obudu Mountain Resort is one of the most beautiful places to stay in Nigeria, and it’s only about $100 a night. Consider it if you want a gorgeous view of the highlands.
- Keep some cash on you, but not a ton. Robberies aren’t uncommon, even in tourist areas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Prostock-studio/Shutterstock
Here are some frequently asked questions about budgeting your trip to Nigeria:
Is Nigeria safe?
Currently, the US State Department advises you to reconsider travel due to terrorism, piracy, civil unrest, and kidnapping. If you are going to visit family or are a Nigerian citizen, you’re likely more strongly motivated to go. In that case, steer clear of the most dangerous territories.
If you are a tourist who wants to go to Nigeria anyway, your best bet is to stick to well-traveled areas. Stay off back roads, take tours if you’re going somewhere more remote, and stay indoors at night.
Is traveling in Nigeria affordable?
Yes, traveling in Nigeria is quite affordable. Traveling to Nigeria is more expensive, but there are ways to save money on a plane ticket (see below).
To save money while in the country, eat at street stalls (a delicious tactic) and eschew tours in favor of private taxi drivers who will cart you around and wait for you.
How can you save money on plane tickets?
Plane tickets are known to be the most expensive element of traveling afar, especially from America to Africa.
The best ways to save money include price-shopping, browsing for tickets in incognito mode, purchasing tickets about 9-12 months out, using miles, and avoiding November through January, which is the high season.
March is one of the best times to fly to Nigeria, as it often sees the cheapest ticket prices.
Where should I go to experience history?
If you like history and archeology, try Old Oyo, the Ogbunike Caves, the Alok Ikom monoliths, and the ancient walls of Kano.
When is the best time to visit Nigeria?
As discussed above, March is the cheapest time for plane tickets to Nigeria from the US. Other off-season months include April, May, September, and October. These are good months to travel because they’re not quite as waterlogged as summer, but are cheaper than the winter dry season.
Weather-wise, you will have the most pleasant time if you visit between November and March. These are the official months of the dry season, when you don’t have to worry about rainfall or washed-out roads.
However, be prepared for dusty winds: bring scarves, hats, and protective sunglasses.
Over to You — Book Your Trip Today!
| 🛎️ Average Accommodation Cost | $100 per night |
| ✈️ Average Flight Cost | $1,300 per person |
| 🍽️ Food, Drink & Activities | $75 per person, per day |
| 🚕 Transportation | $400 total |
| 💲 Total Cost | $4,800 |
The average cost of a one-week trip to Nigeria is around $4,800 for two people. Considering the exotic magic of this storied African country, we think it’s a small price to pay for the memories you’ll make. Happy travels!