TRAVEL
The main international airport of Côte d'Ivoire is situated at about 14km south of Abidjan city center and is known as Felix Houphouet Boigny International Airport or Port-Bouet Airport. The airport is a modern facility and increased security has shaken its old reputation as a place for travellers to be ripped off.
You can find daily schedules of planes on the airport website: www.aeroport-abidjan.com
Many airlines operate direct flights to Abidjan, for more information, please visit our travel and hotels section or get in touch with the Airport:
Website: www.aeroport-abidjan.com
Facebook: Aéroport Abidjan
It is also possible to obtain information on departures, arrivals, delays and other information by calling the airport.
Tel: +225 21 75 79 01 / +225 21 75 79 02
Many airlines operate direct flights to Abidjan, for more information, please get in touch with the airport.
Felix-Houphouet Boigny International Airport has daily scheduled flights to and from Paris (Air France), Istanbul(Turkish Airlines) and Brussels (Brussels airlines), to name a few. There are also regular flights to other West-African capitals.
Air France also operates regular flights of the famous Airbus A380 at the Houphouet Boigny international Airport.
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner.
It is the world's largest passenger airliner and the airports at which it operates have upgraded facilities to accommodate it.
Airlines flying to Abidjan
- AIR CÔTE D’IVOIRE
National carrier that offers more than 300 flights a week to 25 destinations in West and East Africa.
Address: Plateau Place de la Republique
Tel: +225 20 25 10 30 / +225 78 11 69 77
Facebook: Air Cote d'Ivoire Officiel
Reservation on: www.aircotedivoire.com
- AIR ALGÉRIE
Address: Plateau Avenue Houidaille
Tel: +225 20 32 56 51
Reservation on: www.airalgerie.dz
- AIR BURKINA
Address: Plateau Rue du Commerce opposite SAHAM Assurance
Tel: +225 20 32 89 19
Reservation on: www.air-burkina.com/en
- AIR FRANCE
Address: Plateau Avenue Nogues - "Kharrat" Building 1rst Floor
Tel: +225 20 20 24 24
Reservation on: www.airfrance.fr
- ASKY AIRLINES
Address: Plateau - "Le Général" Building
Tel: +225 20 32 70 44
Reservation on: www.flyasky.com/asky
- BRUSSELS AIRLINES
Address: Marcory Zone 4 Rue Pierre & Marie Curie opposite Mercedes - Brussels Airlines Building
Tel: +225 21 21 38 70 / +225 21 75 70 90 / +225 08 51 90 14
Reservation on: www.brusselsairlines.com
- CAMAIR-CO
Address: Treichville Zone 3 Boulevard Valery Giscard d’Estaing opposite Solibra - "La Balance" Building
Tel: +225 57 54 63 98 / +225 54 03 20 00
Reservation on: www.camair-co.cm
- CEIBA INTERCONTINENTAL
Address: Treichville Zone 3 Boulevard Valery Giscard d’Estaing opposite Solibra - "La Balance" Building
Tel: +225 21 35 49 83
Reservation on: www.kayak.com/CEIBA-Intercontinental
- CORSAIR
Address: Plateau Rue Augustin de Tessières CNPS Building
Tel: +225 20 32 15 00
Reservation on: www.corsair.fr
- EGYPTAIR
Address: Plateau Boulevard de la République JECEDA Building opposite Sorbonne near Hotel TIAMA
Tel: +225 20 21 09 64 / +225 20 21 09 69
Reservation on: www.egyptair.com
- EMIRATES AIRLINES
Address: Plateau JECEDA Building
Tel: +225 20 25 62 53
Reservation on www.emirates.com
- ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES
Address: Plateau Avenue Chardy le Paris Building on the ground floor
Tel: +225 20 21 94 30 / +225 05 06 32 94
Reservation on: www.ethiopianairlines.com
- KENYA AIRWAYS
From Nairobi (also continues to Dakar on the same aircraft)
Address: Plateau Avenue Noguès - "La Prévoyance" Building 1rst Floor
Tel: +225 20 30 31 10 /+225 21 58 66 88
Reservation on: www.kenya-airways.com
- MIDDLE EAST AIRLINES – AIR LIBAN
From Beirut via Accra or Lagos
Address: Marcory Zone 4 C les Terrasses de Prima Building
Tel: +225 21 25 52 05 / +225 21 58 67 90
Reservation on: www.mea.com.lb
- ROYAL AIR MAROC
Address: Plateau Boulevard Botreau Roussel "Le Paris" Building
Tel: +225 20 21 20 38
Reservation on: www.royalairmaroc.com/ci-fr
- RWANDAIR
Address: Ground Floor Building "Jeceda" - Plateau
Tel: +225 20 21 82 50 / +225 52 01 01 16
Email: sales.abidjan@rwandair.com
Website: www.rwandair.com
- SENEGAL AIRLINES
Tel: +225 20 32 30 04 / +225 20 32 29 86 / +225 58 12 17 17 / +225 58 12 18 18
Reservation on: www.senegalairlines.aero/en
- SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS
Address: Plateau Between mosque and Chambre du Commerce School Anyama Building Ground Floor
Tel: +225 20 30 10 20 / +225 21 58 66 30
Reservation on: www.flysaa.com/ci/fr
- TUNISAIR
Address : Plateau Rue du commerce Galerie Résidence Nabil
Tel: +225 20 22 45 42 / +225 20 22 45 43 / +225 20 22 45 40
Email: tunisairabj@tunisair.ci
Reservation on: www.tunisair.com
- TURKISH AIRLINES
From Istanbul
Address: Plateau Boulevard Lagunaire N'zarama Building 3rd Floor
Tel: +225 20 24 23 69 /+225 20 24 23 70
Reservation on: www.turkishairlines.com
Traveling by road
It is ill advised to try to enter Côte d'Ivoire driving from Guinea,Liberia, or Mali . The Ghanaian border is fairly secure. If you enter at Elubo, you can easily catch a shared taxi to Aboisso and then a bus to Abidjan. There are about many military check-points between the border and Abidjan so have your documents ready. If you do not have proper documentation of your inoculations at the border you will be forced to pay a small fine and they will give you an injection at an on-site clinic.
Travel in Abidjan is the best when you have your own vehicle to travel around. The roads are quite good and the traffic rules are more or less obeyed except taxi drivers who steer everywhere on the road.
Taxis are a great and easy way to get around in Abidjan. Just look for an orange coloured car and flag it down. Fares are very affordable: US $2-4 depending on the length of the journey. Always negotiate before you get in the taxi, but they are overall reasonable.The roads to Abidjan are quite good despite their maintenance not being kept up as much as it should as of late. Traffic lights all but disappear once outside of Abidjan though, so be advised that driving outside of the city can be "active". It's important to note that whether in a private car, taxi, or gbaka (the shared minibuses) you will be stopped at various official (and unofficial) checkpoints where they will delay you at the very least and try to shake down a bribe at the very worst. Abidjan also serves as a terminus for long haul bus lines from Bamako, Ouagadougou and Accra.
Traveling in and around Côte d’Ivoire
Generally it takes time - and a whole lot of patience - to move around in West Africa. The roads are not all in great condition and many roads aren't paved. Always be sure to have an extra day or two in the end if you are going somewhere since planning is very hard when the transport is unreliable.
Here are a list of interesting tourist attractions you can visit in the West African region.
Côte d’Ivoire
- Yamoussoukro: is about 230km (143 miles) north of Abidjan. Discover the town's lively market, the Palace and Plantations of the President and the Mosque. Also of architectural interest but, above all, of statistical interest, is the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix. Fractionally smaller than St Peter's in Rome, it incorporates a greater area of stained glass than the total area of stained glass in France. Roman Catholicism is a minority religion in Côte d'Ivoire (some say that the cathedral could accommodate every Roman Catholic in the country several times over). Yamoussoukro was the birthplace of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who was Côte d'Ivoire's president for 33 years. The cathedral was paid for almost entirely out of his own pocket.
- Korhogo: Other towns of interest include Korhogo, the main city of the north and centre of a good fishing and hunting district; the former capital of Bingerville; and the town of Bouaké in the centre of the country.
- Tai National Park (Côte d’Ivoire): the largest remaining intact portion of the once great Upper Guinea Rainforest is home to the world's last viable population of pygmy hippopotami, as well as numerous rare monkeys, chimps, rare forest elephants, and other rare animals.
West Africa
- Bijagos Islands (Guinea Bissau): an archipelago of some twenty tropical, beautiful islands in Guinea Bissau with French-owned fishing lodges.
- Freetown Peninsula’s beaches (Sierra Leone): are these paradisiacal-looking beaches, each with an utterly unique appearance and culture, considered by some to be the most beautiful in the world.
- Ganvie (Benin): absurdly named the "Venice of Africa," this stilt village, at the center of a large lake, is more of a stilt city, and offers one of the strangest photo opportunities you'll ever have.
- Moyenne Guinee Fouta Djallon (Guinea): hills and mountains in the interior of Guinea with a relatively cool climate, the home of the Pular people and sometimes called the "Switzerland of Africa."
- Njokolo-Koba (Senegal): the largest National Park in Senegal.
- Tamberma Valley (Togo): in Togo an expansive, beautiful, mountainous region filled with surreal villages of improbable mud/clay fortresses, and culture barely touched by modernity.
- W National Park (Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso): a large, trans-border system of national parks, with parts in Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger, which offers the best opportunities for wildlife spotting in West Africa.
- Yankari National Park (Nigeria): the largest National Park in Nigeria, and the most visited of all the parks in the region.