CBD
Abidjan in a word: Magnifique!
Chance of Hooking up: 3.5 / 5
Quality of Girls: 4 / 5
Nightlife: 4 / 5
Smoking tolerance level: 4 / 5
Costs €$£
Beer: €1 for 1 litre beers in Marqui bars, €4 for small bottle in clubs.
Bed: €20 – €50 for a private room.
Bud: €3 for a small bag.
Board: €3 for a half a chicken with chips.
Budget other: You will need taxis to get everywhere and they can be expensive. Budget an $15 extra a day. The most expensive clubs charge $20 for a small beer!
Overview
It may be not be a great budget option and a little intimidating in size (5 million people), but dam is Abidjan kickin! We were there at the end of the civil war and it was still buzzin! Out of all the cities I’ve visited in West Africa, this would be the first city I’d recommend to live in. Abidjan is a modern developed metropolis, with clean streets, sky scrappers and high end shopping malls. It’s not what you’d expect for West Africa. The people are fantastic and the night is rockin’ too. Highly recommended.
The Girls
If you haven’t already, I’d strongly recommend you read my article Sex in Africa 101 before continuing.
Nina Keita
If you plan on hooking up with any girl in West Africa, try and make it an Ivorian. First and foremost, many Ivorians have a relatively decent income and it’s not hard to find ‘good’ girls (i.e not prostitutes, some even buy you drinks!). Secondary, Ivorian’s in general are great company. They tend to be more educated, worldly, sophisticated and progressive. All this, and they still maintain their feminine charms and man do they know how to dress sexy. Plus it just sounds hot… ‘Ivorian’. These chicks are keepers!
Ok, so the average woman on the street isn’t all that, but when you have a melting pot of over 60 tribes with 20 million people, the cream of the crop is inevitable going to be sexy as hell. In Abidjan, the second biggest city in West Africa, the competition is astounding. A night out here can leave your head spinning. Not only will go to clubs where every second local girl has the body of a runway model, you will also encounter a healthy splash of hot Lebanese and French girls. You could spend a year in Abidjan in pussy heaven. All that said.. your chance of hooking up increases ten-fold with French. Even very basic French (Pimsleur level 1) will get you laid like a rock star.
Night times can still be pretty sleazy as is the trend in the region, so if you want to avoid any potential shores I’d highly recommend picking up girls in the day time. Shopping malls are the best place to meet wealthy, well-bred girls. The Mall in Memroz has tons of cute girls hanging around.
Abidjan is a perfect city for pipelining as well, due to the population. Girls with online profiles in Africa tend to be more educated and a little better off as well.
Nightlife Recommendations
Abidjan nightlife can be a little bit of a pain in the ass. There are many nightlife districts, all of which are miles away from each other and pub crawling usually involves taxis. We couldn’t go to the popular Princess road in Yopougon, as people were still been killed there and everywhere was forced to close. We spent most of our time in the more affluent district of Zone 4. This where you will find the highest quality women.
Any Marquai Bar
Start your night dining and drinking at one of the city’s atmospheric bars before you go out. It’s a great place to mingle with locals and down a few 1 litre club beers (€1). These places are great and also act as good places to bounce to at 6 am after the club. The party never stops!
Le Cabane Bambou
This trendy little bar is a good pre-club place. A little pricey but good vibes. It’s a favorite for sexy Lebanese girls and Ivorian courtesans. The bar girls are gorgeous too.
Le Club St. Germain
“Fuck me.” That’s what you’ll be saying when you walk in the door of Abidjan’s most dubious establishment. This is not in Lonely planet for a reason. It’s expensive ($6 a beer) and it’s shoring central, but it’s free in, wild every night and packed with scanty clad girls. This was the only club still pumping in the height of the civil war; a mandatory visit is required. Wanna see photos!? Website here.
High Life is the’s city most pretentious club. Located in the CBD, it’s attracts a few models and the rich, but expect to pay $20 in and $20 per beer! It was very disappointing, but they do let you smoke weed inside. P.S – The manger Frank is the man. He let us in free and got us free drinks.
Getting High
Where to buy marijuana: As usual I’d ask male bar staff or better yet – waiters at marquai bars. Order it with your food. You can also ask the young guys selling credit on the roadside. Avoid taxi drivers.
Prague Marijuana Prices: We got a decent bag (small handful) for €3 in the capital Yamoussoukro. Even that was paying over the odds. Our Marquai waiter arranged someone to fetch it.
My Abidjan Experience
We entered Cote d’Ivoire in style during the civil war (read here), then staged the notorious Siege of Abidjan. Sadly Captain Cluck met his end on the way to the city. A large piece baggage fell on top of him in transit 🙁
😉
Why not check out more cheeky City Guides?
A global consulting firm (Mercer) ranked Abidjan as the third worst city on earth due to excessive violence and political/social unrest.
http://www.usnews.com/news/world/slideshows/3-worst-cities-on-earth/2
They’re not the only source with Abidjan as one of the most dangerous cities on earth either.
Still sounds tempting though….
anybody who has info. regarding selling following drugs contact me:
shrooms
ecstasy
cocaine
Did you get any hook up “Korie” I really want those drugs.
I can hook you up, are you in Abidjan?
If you love Abidjan then you gotta go To Douala In Cameroon. In terms of prices it must be in the same range as the Ivory coast but the night Life is really good. Im going back there in three days for december and I just can’t wait tu turn up!!! By the way they speak both english and french usually. As it’s a bilingual country