Hostels in Nigeria

As with hotels, your principal criterion in choosing a hostel in either of the main Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja should be security. This is not security against bodily threat, but against pilfering and petty theft that is the scourge of the Nigerian hospitality industry. Backpackers and long range travellers are particularly susceptible to this, and any backpackers lodge, hostel or guest house with any integrity will be mindful of this fact, and will both offer safe lock up facilities and be highly vigilant to ensure that the local habits of cupidity do not intrude on your stay.

Lagos is not a particularly traveller friendly city, and taxis, busses and other public transport facilities, although not necessarily a threat to life and limb, expose you to all the vagaries of a sharp talk and hustle society that can be extremely wearisome after a while. The main objective of arriving in Lagos, therefore, is to get out as quickly as possible, and access the much easier and friendlier countryside.

Despite this there are some very cool guest houses and hostels in Lagos that are fully in tune with the backpacker and long range travel ethos. The best and perennial advice is to ensure that you book your Lagos hostel or guest house in advance before you leave home, and never, under any circumstances, arrive at the airport on a limb, jump into a taxi and ask the taxi driver his advice on where you should stay. The potential for skulduggery is just too great, and you will without doubt regret it.

Once you have arrived in the country it is much easier to slip into the travelling groove and feed off the advice and experiences of others around you, particularly with regards to cheap accommodation and other relevant facts in the outlying areas.