A narrow strip that runs from the beaches of the Gulf of Guinea to the savannah of the north: voodoo, waterfalls among coffee plantations and the World Heritage mud tatas. Togo is West Africa's best-kept secret.
Togo is one of those geographic oddities that win you over: a thin strip wedged between Ghana and Benin that, in just a few hours on the road, takes you from the palm-fringed beaches of the Gulf of Guinea to green mountains full of waterfalls, and from there to the dry savannah of the north with its mud villages. It's West Africa concentrated and pocket-sized, still almost ignored by mass tourism, which makes it ideal for the curious traveller who wants something authentic without the crowds.
Its cultural heart is twofold. On one side, the coastal south is the cradle of voodoo: in Lomé, Togoville and Aného you can feel a living spirituality that has nothing of tourist folklore about it, with its fetish market, its shrines and its ceremonies. On the other, the north holds Koutammakou, Tamberma country, where the Batammariba still build tatas, those mud fortresses that are among the most impressive vernacular architectural ensembles on the continent and a World Heritage Site.
In between, the Plateaux region around Kpalimé is a lush garden of coffee and cocoa plantations and waterfalls —Womé, Kpimé, Aklowa— with trails among butterflies and Mount Agou, the country's highest point. Add tasty food built on fufu and spicy sauces, warm people used to welcoming visitors generously, low prices and short distances, and you have a destination that gives you a lot in just a few days. One caveat: the far north (Savanes region) is under a security state of emergency, so the classic route runs from Lomé to Kara.
The currency is the West African CFA franc (XOF), shared with seven other countries in the region. It has had a FIXED peg to the euro since 1999: 1 EUR = 655,957 CFA, so its value against the euro doesn't change from day to day. In dollars it's roughly 1 USD ≈ 575 CFA (verified July 2026). Togo runs almost entirely on CASH: bring euros (they're easy to change in Lomé and get a better rate than dollars) or withdraw CFA from Ecobank, Orabank or BOA ATMs in the cities, which accept Visa and sometimes Mastercard. Outside Lomé and the big hotels hardly anyone takes cards, and there are no ATMs in the inland villages: stock up on cash before heading north. Tipping isn't mandatory; people round up or leave 5–10% in upmarket restaurants, and a few hundred CFA to guides and moto-taxi drivers for good service.
Full converter for XOF →There are no direct flights from Latin America; you reach Lomé's Gnassingbé Eyadéma International Airport (code LFW) with one or two stopovers. The most logical routes are via Europe (Paris with Air France, Casablanca with Royal Air Maroc, Istanbul with Turkish) or via Addis Ababa with Ethiopian Airlines, whose affiliate ASKY has its hub right in Lomé and connects to much of West Africa (Accra, Abidjan, Dakar, Cotonou). From Argentina or the region, allow 24–30 hours of travel. You need an e-visa obtained online BEFORE boarding and a yellow fever certificate is mandatory. Inside the country the main artery is the N1 national highway, which runs north from Lomé to the Burkina Faso border; you travel it by bush taxi (shared cars), on minibuses from companies like Rakieta, or by hiring a car with a driver. In the cities the king is the zémidjan, the moto-taxi: dirt cheap and everywhere.
Togo has a tropical climate and the best time to visit is the dry season, from November to February, when roads are passable, humidity is lower and the heat is more bearable. December and January bring the harmattan, the dry, cool wind from the Sahara that lowers the perceived temperature (though it hazes the sky a bit with dust). February and March are the hottest months, with highs of around 32 °C in the south.
The rainfall pattern varies with latitude, because the country is very long. The SOUTH (Lomé, the coast, the Plateaux) has two wet seasons: a heavy one from April to June/July and a lighter one from September to November. The NORTH (Kara, Savanes) has a single rainy season from June to September. It's best to avoid the peak of the rains (May–June and August), when dirt tracks inland and in the north can become impassable. To combine beach, waterfalls and the northern tatas in one trip, aim for the December to February window.
Togolese cuisine is tasty, hearty and little known abroad: a crossroads of West African traditions with French and even German touches. The base is starches —maize, yam, cassava, rice, millet, plantain— served with rich sauces. The flagship dish is pâte (pâte blanche made from maize or cassava), a dough dipped into sauces of tomato, spinach (gboma), peanut or fish. Fufu (pounded yam or plantain) and djenkoumé or akume (a maize 'polenta', sometimes fermented and slightly sour, coloured red with tomato) are other must-tries. They're eaten with the right hand.
Try poulet bicyclette (grilled free-range chicken, tough but tasty), fresh fish from the Gulf, riz sauce and the skewers at the maquis, those smoky, easy-going popular bars. For dessert or a snack, fried plantain, peanuts and tropical fruit. To drink: cold local beer (Awooyo, Pils) is an institution, plus sodabi (palm spirit, strong), tchoukoutou (millet beer from the north) and bissap (hibiscus juice). Eating at a maqui or street stall costs 1.500–3.000 CFA (under 5 USD); a mid-range restaurant, 5.000–10.000 CFA.
Togo is, overall, a calm and welcoming country to travel in, but with two clear warnings. The first is geographic: the Savanes region, in the far north (borders with Burkina Faso and Benin, Dapaong, Cinkassé, Mandouri), has been under a security state of emergency since 2022 due to incursions by armed groups, with travel restrictions and bans; foreigners even need prior authorisation from the Ministry of Defence. The classic tourist route reaches Kara and Koutammakou and doesn't include Savanes. The second is urban: in Lomé and other cities there's pickpocketing and the occasional robbery, so take the usual precautions (don't flash valuables, take a taxi at night, carry copies of documents).
On health, two requirements and one strong recommendation. The YELLOW FEVER vaccine is MANDATORY to enter (they ask for the international certificate at the airport, with no exceptions except babies under 9 months). MALARIA is present throughout the country all year round: antimalarial prophylaxis is essential —see a travel doctor before you leave— plus repellent, long sleeves at dusk and a mosquito net. Hepatitis A and B, typhoid, tetanus and, depending on the case, meningitis and rabies are also recommended. Don't drink tap water: bottled only. Get good travel insurance with medical and evacuation cover. Emergencies: police 117, fire brigade 118, and in practice it's wise to keep your insurer's and your embassy's contacts handy.
Togo is a cheap destination for Latin American travellers once you're there (the flight is the expensive part). A frugal backpacker can get by on about 25–35 USD a day: a bed in a guesthouse or basic lodging (6.000–15.000 CFA, i.e. 10–25 USD), meals at maquis and stalls (1–5 USD per meal), and transport by zémidjan (moto-taxi, from 300–500 CFA per city ride) and bush taxi between cities. A mid-range trip runs 50–90 USD a day, with comfortable air-conditioned hotels (25.000–45.000 CFA), restaurants and the odd guided tour.
The costs that shoot up are excursions with a guide and vehicle: a day tour to Kpalimé and the waterfalls from Lomé can cost 40.000–70.000 CFA (70–120 USD) per car with driver, and a two- or three-day trip north to see Koutammakou quite a bit more, depending on the group. The e-visa costs around 30.000–40.000 CFA (approx. 50–65 USD). For an 8–10 day trip based in Lomé, with getaways to the Plateaux and a run up north, budget between 600 and 1.200 USD on the ground (excluding the international flight), depending on comfort level and whether you share tours.
The official language is French, used on signs, in government and in business: without at least basic French you'll struggle, because English is hardly spoken (except near the Ghana border). More than forty languages coexist on the street; the most widely spoken are Ewe in the south and Kabiye in the north. Learning a few words of French —a 'bonjour', 'merci', 'ça va'— opens every door: Togolese people are famous for their warmth and their patience with visitors.
On the religious side, Christianity, Islam (strong in the centre-north, Sokodé) and, very present, voodoo and traditional animist beliefs coexist, the latter woven into daily life in the south. Courtesy is valued: greet before asking for anything, dress fairly modestly away from the beach, and ask permission before photographing people, markets or rituals (sometimes they'll ask for a tip). Sockets are European-style (C/E plugs, 220 V), so bring an adapter. For connectivity, buy a local SIM from Togocom (Moov) or Yas with data as soon as you arrive; it's very cheap and there's 4G in the cities; deep in the interior the signal drops out.
Togo is a long, narrow strip of land that runs down from the Sahelian interior to a tiny stretch of coast on the Gulf of Guinea: just 56 kilometres of beach that for centuries were part of the dreaded Slave Coast. In this slender territory, which you can cross from east to west in an hour, an astonishing number of peoples live side by side: the Ewe of the south, with their founding legend of the flight from Notsé and the wall of the tyrant Agokoli; the Kabyè and the Tem of the centre and north; and the Batammariba of the far northeast, builders of mud castles that UNESCO has declared a World Heritage Site. It is also one of the cradles of vodun, the ancestral religion that was born here and in neighbouring Benin before crossing the Atlantic in the holds of slave ships.
This is the full history of Togo: from the migrations of its peoples and the precolonial kingdoms, through Togoville (the lakeside village that gave the country its name when a German explorer signed a treaty there in 1884), the German colony that Berlin showed off as its "model colony", and the partition between France and the United Kingdom after the First World War, up to independence in 1960, the assassination of founding father Sylvanus Olympio and the long decades of the Gnassingbé dynasty, which has ruled the country without a break since 1967. It's a small, little-visited country, but its historical and cultural depth surprises anyone who sets out to explore it.
Read the full history of Togo →Pick a region and open each destination to see what to do, prices and how to get there.
These are the sources we cite most across this country's guides, with how many times each appears. Hard data —tickets, opening hours, requirements, transport— comes from the official source and carries the date we checked it. Restaurant and hotel picks come from guides and reviews, and we say so on each page.
