Nigeria 3 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use.
Before you book: Nigeria’s Lagos, Abuja, and Cross River/Calabar circuit is visitable with sensible precautions, but several regions are under active “do not travel” or “reconsider travel” guidance: the northeast (Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Boko Haram/ISWAP insurgency), the northwest and north-central Middle Belt (Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kaduna, Niger, bandit kidnapping), the Niger Delta (militancy and kidnapping tied to oil operations), and parts of the southeast (Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, separatist unrest). Check the current US State Department and UK FCDO advisories for the specific states you plan to visit before booking anything. Inside Lagos itself, use vetted ride-hailing over street taxis, don’t walk around after dark, and skip airport ATMs. This is a well-planned, precaution-first itinerary within the safe circuit, not a “just show up” plan.
Kano sits roughly a thousand kilometers north of Lagos, and Ibadan is a separate multi-hour trip again from there. No three-day plan should try to visit all three, or worse, hop the border into Benin, so this one stays in and around Lagos, where you can actually see something instead of spending the whole trip in transit. Want a second city? See the 5 day or 7 day version, both add Abuja or Calabar by domestic flight.
Day 1: Lagos Island and the Mainland Crossing
Murtala Muhammed International sits about 20 miles from Victoria Island, and the drive can take anywhere from 45 minutes at 5am to well over two hours during the 7 to 10am or 4 to 8pm rush. Book a ride through Bolt rather than an unmarked airport tout, and if you do end up in a street taxi instead, agree the fare before the car pulls off, there’s no meter.
Start at Lekki Conservation Centre, a genuine rainforest reserve rather than a manicured park, home to Africa’s longest canopy walkway. Treat any specific naira price you see for the gate and the walkway as a rough guide only, current pricing shifts with the exchange rate. Nike Art Gallery in Lekki is commonly free to enter across its several packed floors of textiles, sculpture, and painting, though a donation or a small purchase from the gift shop is the polite move given how much space and time the founder’s collection occupies. For food, suya from a roadside grill beats a hotel-restaurant version every time, the char and the yaji spice blend don’t translate well to a kitchen far from the coals.
Day 2: Markets, History, and the Shrine
Balogun Market on the island is the real deal for fabric, beads, and sheer sensory overload. Go with small bills, expect to haggle, and keep bags zipped and in front, pickpocket risk is genuinely higher here than at the beach clubs. The National Museum in Onikan is compact but holds Benin bronzes and Nok terracottas worth an hour, more a grounding stop than a full afternoon. In the evening, skip the hotel bar and catch a live set at the New Afrika Shrine, the Kuti family’s Afrobeat venue, for the version of Lagos nightlife that actually has roots.
Dress code matters more than most first-time visitors expect: modest clothing is the norm outside beach clubs and expat bars, shoulders and knees covered reads as respectful rather than restrictive.
Day 3: Tarkwa Bay Before Departure
Tarkwa Bay, reached only by boat from Victoria Island, is calmer and cleaner than the road-accessible beaches and worth the short crossing if your flight isn’t until evening. If a beach isn’t your speed, use the morning for Freedom Park on the island instead, a former colonial prison turned open-air cultural venue with music and food stalls, a good low-key final stop. Either way, reconfirm your departure transfer well ahead of an evening flight, airport-bound traffic in the late afternoon is some of the worst in the city.
| Day | Focus | Key stops | Est. cost (USD, per person) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lagos Island & Lekki | Lekki Conservation Centre, Nike Art Gallery, suya | $60-90 |
| 2 | Markets, history, nightlife | Balogun Market, National Museum, New Afrika Shrine | $50-80 |
| 3 | Beach or a slow morning | Tarkwa Bay or Freedom Park, airport transfer | $30-50 |
Book these before you go
- A Lagos city tour covering the Island side if you’d rather have a guide handle day one (check the current official travel advisory before booking)
- A hotel on Victoria Island, Ikoyi, or Lekki: search Lagos hotels
- Your Nigeria e-visa and yellow fever certificate, arranged through the Nigeria Immigration Service portal, not a third-party site
What’s the deal with Nigeria’s e-visa?
Nigeria overhauled entry in 2025: visa-on-arrival is gone, and nearly all nationalities now need an e-visa arranged in advance through the official immigration portal, not a third-party site. Cost varies by passport, from roughly $50 for African nationals to around $300 for Western passports (verify against your specific nationality). Approval typically runs about 48 hours, but apply at least a week out, not the night before your flight. A yellow fever certificate is checked at the border for arrivals over nine months old, carry the physical or digital card.
Should I add Ibadan or a Benin Republic side trip to 3 days?
No. Ibadan is a multi-hour road trip each way once you factor in Lagos traffic getting out of the city, and a Benin Republic crossing adds a separate visa and border-logistics problem neither of which fits a 72-hour window. If you want a second stop, add days and fly rather than trying to cram it into three.
Transportation: Bolt and Uber both operate in Lagos and are the safer, easier option over street taxis or the yellow danfo minibuses, which are cheap but crowded and a common pickpocket setting. Agree fares with any unmetered taxi before getting in. Self-driving isn’t recommended given road conditions and traffic; a hired car with a driver is the better call for anything beyond a short hop.
Things to know: carry a portable charger, Lagos’s power grid has genuine reliability gaps; stick to bottled water and skip ice from anywhere you wouldn’t trust the tap; malaria prophylaxis is worth a conversation with a travel clinic before you go, it isn’t a formal entry requirement the way yellow fever is, but the risk is real; and don’t photograph military checkpoints, government buildings, airports, or bridges.
The single most useful habit for three days in Lagos: build in double the travel time Google Maps suggests for anything crossing between the Island and the Mainland, and you’ll actually make your dinner reservations instead of apologizing for them.