Trip Planning
The TakeYourBackpack guidebooks are your all-in-one travel companion, featuring the best cities, national parks, hikes, beaches, and unique sites, along with essential tips on when to go, how to get around, exchanging money, and even local phrases to get you started — everything you need for a smooth, unforgettable backpacking adventure.
Stop researching. Start exploring.Discover all 82 highlights,ranked
and organized into practical routes.
Get instant access
Planning a backpacking route through Nigeria can be tricky — you need to balance must-see places, travel times, budget, and how long to stay in each destination. Our free personalized Nigeria itinerary planner creates a route based on your travel style, trip duration, and interests, so you can spend less time researching and more time exploring.
Personal tip: I normally search on good rating for atmosphere (for meeting people) and location (for easy exploring). Cleanliness as a bonus.
Travel Essentials
A yellow fever vaccination certificate is mandatory for entering Nigeria for all travelers aged 9 months and older, and airlines and border officers check it. Malaria is present nationwide year-round, so take antimalarial tablets and use repellent. Recommended vaccines include hepatitis A, typhoid, tetanus-diphtheria and an adult polio booster, plus meningitis for the northern dry season, hepatitis B, rabies for longer or rural trips, and cholera in outbreak areas. See a travel clinic 4 to 8 weeks before departure.
vaccination requirementsWhen I first started traveling, I often spent part of my first day in a new country hunting for a local SIM card. While this can still be slightly cheaper, it also takes time and planning.
These days, it's much simpler to install an eSIM before leaving home. Once you arrive in Nigeria, you can activate it immediately and have mobile data from the moment you land — which is especially useful for ordering transport or navigating away from busy airports.
There are many providers nowadays, and price differences are usually small. I personally go with
Holafly, as it offers excellent network coverage throughout the country and strong global coverage, so you can manage multiple countries from a single app.
HolaFly eSimCulture & Customs
Respect for age and status shapes daily life in Nigeria, so defer to elders, let them speak first and use titles such as “Sir,” “Ma,” “Alhaji” or “Chief” until you are invited to use first names. Use your right hand to give, receive and eat, because the left is considered unclean. Never push an open palm with spread fingers toward someone. That gesture, called the “waka,” is a serious insult. Calling someone over with a crooked index finger also comes across as rude, so use a downward wave of the whole hand instead.
Dress modestly, especially in the mostly Muslim north, where shoulders and knees should be covered and shorts on adults draw stares. Several northern states enforce Sharia law, which can restrict alcohol and mixed-gender gatherings, and daytime eating in public during Ramadan is best avoided there. Always ask before photographing people. Never point a camera at police, soldiers, checkpoints, bridges or government buildings, because that can get you detained. Haggling is normal in markets, so keep it good-humored, and accept small talk and hospitality offers graciously, since a refused drink or snack can read as cold.
Women travelers should expect frequent compliments and personal questions about marriage. A firm, polite reply works better than ignoring someone, and a long skirt or loose trousers cut unwanted attention, particularly in Kano or Sokoto. For LGBTQ+ travelers the situation is serious: same-sex relationships are criminalized nationwide with prison terms of up to 14 years, and Sharia courts in northern states can impose harsher penalties. Avoid any public affection, keep dating apps off, and treat your private life with full discretion for the entire trip.
Trying traditional food is always a great way to experience the culture. Here are some must-try dishes for Nigeria.
- Jollof rice: Rice cooked in a smoky tomato, pepper and onion base, served at every wedding, birthday and office party. Nigerians defend their version fiercely in the long-running jollof rivalry with Ghana, and the slightly burnt “party jollof” from wood fires is the prize.
- Pounded yam and egusi soup: Stretchy, smooth yam “swallow” eaten by hand with a thick soup of ground melon seeds, leafy greens, palm oil and meat or stockfish. It is the classic Sunday lunch across much of the south.
- Suya: Thin strips of beef or ram rubbed with yaji, a spicy groundnut and chili mix, grilled over charcoal and wrapped in newspaper with raw onion. It started as a Hausa street food in the north and now sells at roadside grills nationwide after dark.
- Pepper soup: A thin, fiercely spiced broth with goat, catfish or offal, flavored with native spices such as calabash nutmeg. Nigerians drink it with beer at outdoor bars and swear by it for colds.
- Amala and ewedu: Dark yam-flour swallow with a slippery jute-leaf soup and gbegiri bean soup, usually topped with stew and meat. It is the signature dish of Ibadan and Yoruba buka canteens.
- Moi moi and akara: Two dishes made from peeled black-eyed beans, one steamed into a savory pudding with peppers, the other deep-fried into fritters. Akara with pap or bread is a standard street breakfast.
Tap water in Nigeria is not safe to drink, and most locals avoid it too, relying on bottled water or sealed “pure water” sachets. Travelers should stick to bottled water from reputable brands, check the seal, and use it for brushing teeth as well. A filter bottle or purification tablets cut plastic waste and cost, especially outside the big cities.
The main language in Nigeria is
Hausa. Backpacking is way more rewarding if you know a bit of the local language, so I'd suggest brushing up on the basics just in case your Hausa skills have become a bit rusty.
Want to understand locals better?The complete Travel Guide for Nigeria includes 52 essential words and phrases — greetings, thank-yous, ordering food, transport, numbers, and common local expressions you'll actually hear.
Get your local basic phrases 👉
Get the Travel Guide - is Nigeria’s official language, so in Lagos, Abuja and other big cities you can handle hotels, banks, airports and restaurants entirely in it. Younger, university-educated Nigerians speak it fluently, though the fast Nigerian accent and slang take a day or two to tune into. In rural areas, especially in the north, English thins out and Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo take over depending on the region. Nigerian Pidgin helps most everywhere in the south, and a few phrases such as “How far?” (how are you) and “Abeg” (please) earn instant smiles at markets and in taxis.
Money & Payments
The local currency of Nigeria is NGN (₦).
ATMs are easy to find in Nigeria’s cities, but foreign cards work reliably only at major bank machines such as GTBank, Zenith, Access and UBA, with per-withdrawal limits that are often low and foreign bank fees of US$3 to 6 per transaction on top. Card payments work at upscale hotels, malls, supermarkets and some restaurants in Lagos and Abuja, while markets, buses, street food and small guesthouses run on cash or local bank transfers. Bring US dollars in clean, large, recent bills (2013 series or newer) as your backup, since they exchange at the best rates and euros come a distant second. Change money at licensed bureaux de change or hotel desks, which give rates close to the official one, and avoid street changers at airports and borders. Carry enough naira for a few days because ATM cash shortages and network outages do happen.
Tipping in Nigeria is not compulsory, but it is appreciated and common in cities. In sit-down restaurants, leave about 10 percent if no service charge appears on the bill, and give drivers, hotel porters and guides around ₦500 to 2,000 (US$0.40 to 1.50). Expect occasional requests for a “dash” (a small favor payment) from car park attendants and helpers, which you can give or decline politely.
v2.webp){kind=logo}
Best Backpacking
.jpg)
Over the years, I've learned the importance of packing minimally. It's so much easier to jump on the back of a truck or squeeze yourself into the last spot of a minibus without that supersized backpack. If you're headed to a warm destination, leave your winter jacket at home; for colder regions, opt for thin thermal underlayers. Instead of packing your entire wardrobe, bring just three sets of clothes, as laundry facilities are available everywhere.
.jpg)
Hi, I’m Johan (Netherlands 🇳🇱), the creator of TakeYourBackpack. Over the past 3 decades, I’ve backpacked through 90+ countries across six continents, gaining extensive experience with independent travel, long-term trips, and overland routes.