Solo Female Travel in Benin: Is it Safe to Travel to Benin Alone?

Is it safe to travel to Benin alone as a woman?

I traveled to Benin alone and  plenty of other curious and adventurous women asked me about what it was like to travel alone in Benin. Is Benin safe for a woman traveling alone? What is solo female travel in Benin like? What are some things to know about traveling alone as a woman in Benin?

Also, consider checking out my other posts about Benin:

Benin Know Before You Go and my Benin Travel Guide and Itinerary!

I loved traveling in Benin and can vouch that it is generally a calm, welcoming place to travel. Plenty of local women travel around and work alone. Walking alone one the street in a big city or even a village is no big deal.

Though one thing’s for sure: if you stand out as a tourist you will certainly get plenty of attention. I wanted to share some anecdotes and advice for solo female travel in Benin so that you can focus on having a good time during your trip!

My number one rule: don’t walk around alone at night.

I would say that this rule applies to men as well as women. Unless you really know what you’re doing (and you know who you are if you do), I wouldn’t advise any woman traveling alone to Benin to walk around after dark.

In fact, this is my number one rule when traveling alone on the African continent. Walking around unfamiliar cities alone after dark is unfortunately just not a very good idea.

Also, don’t forget to plan ahead when taking public transportation. The sun often sets at 6pm, and so you will have to wake up early to take the early bus to avoid arriving in new places after dark!

Does this mean you have to lock yourself in your hotel room? No way! You can certainly go out after dark, but unless you are going right next door, it’s important to always have a trusted Zem (moto) or Taxi driver take you. Your hostel/hotel/auberge will help you if you don’t know anyone.

Of course there are always exceptions to the rule! There are small villages where everyone knows each other and walking is normal. But even the smallest villages would have a local bar and the streets fill with drunk young men at night. Are they dangerous? Probably not. Are they extremely annoying? Oh yes…

Also, on the topic of bars…

Going alone to bars or even just drinking alcohol may unintentionally send a message to people around you…

Now I saw plenty of women in Benin enjoy a beer with friends and family. It’s not so unusual for women to drink! It’s just the context that may be tricky.

Sure if you’re in your hotel restaurant or bar and enjoying a drink among other travelers and locals it really wouldn’t be a big deal.

But if you go out to the local watering holes (and not the cosmopolitan, hip places at the center of the big cities), most of the women at the bars in the evening will be sex workers.

Now I don’t want to criticize these women at all, I just want to say that if you end up there alone then a lot of people will just assume that you also are a sex worker! I don’t know about you but that’s not my reason for traveling to Benin alone!

So should you avoid going to bars like the plague? No! Just make sure to bring a trusted friend with you. It’s really fun to go out and experience the nightlife!

Street harassment while traveling in Benin:

People in Benin are warm and friendly, and so no all conversations people will strike up with you on the street are negative!

If you’re obviously a tourist don’t write off a friendly hello on the street- you could miss out on meeting some really cool people!

BUT! Women traveling alone to Benin will inevitably experience negative attention while walking around, regardless of the time of day. There will inevitably be a group of young men who start calling out to you on the street, especially if you stand out in any way as a tourist.

Sorry if this is harsh, but I’ve had enough frustrating experiences to write off large groups of young men in ANY part of the world when I travel solo.

My experience was that these men were amazing at luring you into conversations where it would just be impossible to say “ok thank you goodbye!” and politely walk away. Suddenly I had to be stern (and rude) and get angry. I hated doing that because I’m definitely a visitor in THEIR country and I don’t want to be rude.

But time and again I would get drawn into conversations with no exit. And then of course the conversations ALWAYS went to:

“Where’s your boyfriend? Can I be your boyfriend? Come over here. YOU! Come HERE! Let me be your boyfriend! Hey? HEY COME BACK…HEEEEYYYYYYYYYYY”.

These men definitely weren’t treating the local Beninoise women like that!

Ways to avoid street harassment in Benin:

It’s definitely harmless, but it got intimidating when I would have to pass by these groups of young men multiple times a day. And plus it was just EXHAUSTING.

Now I want to clarify: not all men are like this. Time and again I met wonderful men of all ages, but generally older men who were obviously married or religious would be great people to talk to or approach for directions etc. Approaching a group of young men to ask for directions is like a lamb approaching a pack of wolves…ok that’s a little extreme but prepare yourself for the flirt attack!

But at the suggestion of a friend I decided to play dumb…at first I  was always interacting with these people in French. Once I magically didn’t know how to speak French, the interactions consisted of a nice hello and a smile and that’s it.

It stayed positive and friendly and didn’t cross any lines.

So, to avoid negative situations, just pretend you don’t know the language when a group of flirty 18-year-olds starts screaming at you on the street…give them a confused look, wave hello, shrug, and say “I don’t understand French sorry!” and move on. In my experience they would wave back and smile and everyone’s happy!

Avoid telling people where you are staying.

Well, I mean, avoid telling any young, unmarried man what hotel you are staying at…unless you want to wake up the next morning to him waiting for you right outside the hotel.

Need a polite way to get out of telling people when you’re traveling alone in Benin? When they ask you where you are coming from or going, say you were or are going to visit a friend. Then memorize the name of a hotel on the other side of town to give!

Sound evil? Well unfortunately sometimes you need to be an evil lady when you’re alone on the road.

When I was at Grand Popo, one young man patiently waited several hours outside of my hut just to casually say hello. Stinks for him that I decided to sleep in that day!

What to wear for solo female travel in Benin:

Now I don’t like telling people what to wear (unless you’re my colorblind boyfriend who thinks two completely different plaid patterns look great together), but keeping covered in Benin will definitely help reduce some annoying attention.

And, I know, it is SO HOT. But I promise that keeping covered really cut the amount of attention you will get on the street so you can focus on enjoying the wonderful things to see and do in Benin!

Shorts aren’t really a thing. I generally wore loose fitting dresses or tunics with leggings beneath. Short sleeves are fine but I tried to keep my shoulders covered. But it seemed like covering one’s legs was more important than one’s arms.

Of course if you’re in a beach resort you can frolic around in your swimsuit, but I would just look around to see what the other people there are doing.

Try to choose older tour guides.

While traveling alone in Benin, you will inevitably book a tour to see the amazing floating village of Ganvie or the sights of Ouidah.

These tours are often wonderful and there are so many knowledgeable and fun guides out there!

But…as with solo female travel anywhere there’s an extra layer of eyeroll-inducing BS to put up with.

To make a long story short, a lot of the younger guides (the guides were always men) seemed to think that we were on a date during my tours.

Expect request for tons of selfies (and of course he’ll have to put his arm around you in the most intimate way in each one), sitting way too close to you, wanting to “show you to his friends” who will then all need to touch you and take photos of you, trying to hold your hand…etc.

I had one tour guide who thought I would love to just skip the tour and hang out with his hoard of 18 year old male friends. I mean, hanging out with the locals is the best, but I am not interested in a group of flirty 18 year old boys sorry not sorry.

And, of course, after spending an exhausting afternoon trying to politely avoid having my tricep squeezed (I’m serious…), I have to then PAY the guide. Don’t forget the tip!

This kept happening to me, but once I sought out older tour guides it was amazing and my love for Benin was restored. I felt like I could actually TALK to them and ask questions about their lives and country!

Women traveling alone and public transportation in Benin

You are totally fine taking Zems (motos) and taxis around town. You are also totally fine in bush taxis or buses. Just know that things are CRAMPED.

I mean, I’m talking about being a woman in these situations. Compared to other parts of the world, overstuffed bush taxis aren’t very safe.

But they are a great way to meet wonderful local people.

A bush taxi is a normal car, but they fit 3 people in the front and 4 people in the back seat. Babies will go in addition and sit on their mothers’ laps.

Sometimes I would find myself in a car full of women and babies and everyone would be breastfeeding at the same time! It was pretty awesome that people were so relaxed and open to breastfeeding in public.

But, once again, you are crammed in there. But I want to emphasize that nothing  negative or weird happened to me in these cars, even when I was the only woman in a car full of men.

The concept of personal space adjusts (they have no other choice!), but people are also respectful within the situation.

Just know that if you’re in the middle “seat” in the front, the driver will basically need to reach in between your legs to shift gears! It pretty much made me laugh (I was wearing pants so it wasn’t that big of a deal), and it was never creepy. If that would make you uncomfortable consider a different seat in the car.

But where are all the women?

In some villages I was like what the heck why am I only interacting with men all day?

This was normally after a day of unwanted attention from men. Zem drivers ripped me off, tour guides bugged me, and I got maybe 1000 marriage proposals.

Just go to the market! You’ll find the women at their stands there or just hanging out with their friends there! Go hang out with them there!

You will get ripped off more.

It’s normal to have to pay more as a tourist on the African continent.

It’s normal to have to pay more if you are a white person who is a tourist on the continent.

I get that and it’s not worth getting angry about a handful of change.

But dang as a white woman traveling alone in Benin I would get charged sometimes way higher prices than white male travelers!

Now that would bug me!

Don’t drive yourself crazy with being suspicious. Don’t let it ruin your experience or make you dislike the country…but also don’t let yourself get pushed around either. Expect to pay higher prices but be ready to put your foot down.

Lastly, if things feel overwhelming…

Seek out the local women. On buses, on the street, anywhere…ask them for directions, ask them questions about their lives, ask them what is ok on the street and what is not.

When things felt overwhelming, nothing rejuvenated me like a bus ride next to the wonderful local Beninoise women.

Some final thoughts:

I don’t want to come off as some raging, angry woman who just travels around the world to complain about men!

I also don’t want say negative things about the wonderful people of Benin, even the young men of Benin.

It’s dangerous to generalize groups of people so I need to say that you need to take my advice with a grain of salt. I LOVED traveling around Benin and learned so much from the people there. They are the best thing about Benin!

I just write posts like this because sometimes these realities of solo female travel brought me down. They almost ruined a lovely trip.

Safety and harassment were constantly on my mind during the trip, but after plenty of conversations it became clear that my experience as a tourist would have been 100%  different had I been a man traveling alone.

For example, walking along a dark street full of drunk young men can be a fun cultural experience and I was “being totally mean in writing off these wonderful guys and not wanting to go there,” says one tourist guy who has never been harassed on the street by hoards of drunk men…

I hope that this advice may help you focus on building positive relationships and having just a hassle free time in wonderful Benin!