Ghana, Togo & Benin tour, Ouidah voodoo festival

Thank you very much for taking the time to review our ‘Ouidah Voodoo Festival’ tour.

We are really pleased to hear that you enjoyed your trip and that the sights in Elmina and Accra were real highlights for you.

With regards to the Ouidah Voodoo Festival, the day is a national holiday and a number of different ceremonies and celebrations take place all throughout the town. We understand that you spent some of the morning observing these different events before heading to the main festival area in the midmorning, and we feel that these are worthwhile visits to make. Some of the smaller ceremonies have a more intimate feel than the main festival and including these gives an authentic picture of the whole event.

We have taken your comment very seriously however, and will work to reflect all of the above information in a clearer way on our website and when sending out pre-departure packs to our travellers. We hope this will help to avoid any future disappointment about the structure of events.

On the subject of road travel in West Africa, we always try and prepare our travellers for this before departure and we send out detailed country information that includes a section about the condition of the roads and length of the journeys. Roads can often be poorly maintained and distances between key sites of interest can be long, not just due to underdeveloped roads, but because the main sites of interest are often spread out with regards to distance. Travelling in West Africa can be described as a little unpolished at times and it is important to remember that infrastructure here cannot be compared to that of more developed parts of the continent such as the popular tourist destinations of east and Southern Africa. We feel that this is all part and parcel of the adventure and hope you found that the destinations were well worth the journeys.

We understand that the food in West Africa can perhaps be a little bland for Western palates, as the staples are starchy foods such as pounded yams and rice, but this is something that we hope you understand is beyond our control. We find that most of our travellers enjoy embracing local cuisines, as part of immersing themselves fully in the country they are travelling in.

Lastly, we work with local guides and drivers to ensure that money stays in local economies and that the local people are benefitting from our tourism. Also, we use smaller hotels where possible. Environmental thinking isn’t at the forefront of everyday life in west Africa, but we do our best to ensure that our travellers don't contribute to nature’s downfall - we send out information before the tour about taking litter back to hotels (including cigarette butts) to dispose of properly and to not eat any bushmeat as hunting of these animals has severe consequences on their populations. We also advise about sensitive photography.
Again, thank you very much for your feedback and we are glad you had a good time overall.