Benin is a small country in West Africa. It covers 112,622 sq km and has a population of about 9 million people (2011 estimate). Benin is bordered by Togo to the west, Niger and Burkina Faso to the north, and Nigeria to the east. The capital is Porto-Novo while the biggest city is Cotonou.
Guide to Benin Hotels
Here's a list of hotels in Benin that you can book online, listed by city, with full description, star rating, address, location map, evaluation, and prices as offered by different booking sites. This helps you to make your room booking with the site that offers the best price.
More on Benin
Benin is a multiparty democracy with the president as head of state. The official language here is French, although indigenous languages such as Fon and Yoruba are also commonly spoken. The Roman Catholic faith is the predominant religion in Benin, followed by Islam, Vodun and Protestant.
Farm shed, Benin
Author: Manu25 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)
Benin is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. Traffic is on the right side of the road. Phone IDD code here is +229. The West African CFA franc (XOF) is the official currency. In 2009, Benin has a nominal GDP of $6.6 billion, equivalent to a per capita nominal GDP of $709. The per capita GDP at purchasing power parity is $1,440.
Benin was originally the Kingdom of Dahomey, a name in used in the colonial period until the country gained independence on 30 November, 1975. The new name was chosen to achive neutrality for the different ethnic groups, as the former Kingdom of Dahomey only covered the southern third of the present country.
Ruins of the Kingdom of Dahomey are today the major tourist attractions in Benin. The country is also the birthplace of Voodoo, known here as Vodun. It remains the official religion of the country.
Rural structures in Koussoukoingou, Benin
Author: Jacques Taberlet (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)
Planning your visit to Benin
Visitors who do not need a visa to enter Benin include the citizens of Algeria, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Taiwan, and Togo.
The Cotonou Cadjehoun Airport (COO) is the main gateway to Benin as well as the airport serving Cotonou, the biggest city of the country. There are regular flights from Paris and Brussels.
The Cheerful Traveler
Something to cheer up your trip.
A blond, a brunette and a red head were all trapped on an island that was 10 miles away from the nearest other island with anything on it. The brunette thinks to herself, "I have to get off this island. I think I might be able to make it." So she swims out a mile and drowns.
The red head sees this and thinks, "I am in better shape than she was." So she starts to swim. She makes it 4 miles and drowns.
The blonde thinks, "Well I am in better shape than both those 2," and she swims out 9 miles, feels tired, and thinks, "I am never going to make it," and swims back to the island.
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