Togo

Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba (UNESCO World Heritage 2004), in the Tamberma valley of north-east Togo near the Benin border, is the country's cultural showpiece — a 50,000-hectare landscape of the famous takienta (or tata sombamba): tall, fortified two-storey mud-and-thatch towers in which the Batammariba people have lived for centuries. Each takienta integrates granary, kitchen, sleeping quarters and ancestral shrines into a single architectural sculpture; hundreds of them are scattered across the valley, often grouped in family compounds. The Batammariba initiation rituals (the difoani initiation cycle every five years for young men, the akotugbalega for young women) and their living architecture make Koutammakou one of the most powerful cultural-tourism destinations in West Africa. Best access from Kara or Kandé; community-tourism agreements with local guides ensure a respectful and well-informed visit.

Lomé, the coastal capital on the Ghanaian border, anchors any Togo itinerary with a comfortable 2–3-day stay. The Grand Marché (the great covered city-centre market, run primarily by the famous 'Nana Benz' women traders who built the post-independence wax-print fabric industry) and the Akodessewa Fetish Market (the largest functioning vodun ritual-supply market in West Africa, serving traditional priests and herbalists from Togo, Benin, Ghana and Nigeria) are the everyday cultural attractions. Lomé Cathedral, the Plage de Lomé Atlantic beachfront, the iconic Hôtel 2 Février (the 36-storey 1980 modernist tower that defines the city skyline), the new Lomé Marina and the small National Museum (Musée National du Togo) anchor the urban itinerary. The Lomé Friday-night live music scene at venues like Le Kilimanjaro is one of the most lively in West Africa.

East of Lomé, the Atlantic coast and the inland Lake Togo carry the country's deepest cultural layer. Togoville, on the north shore of Lake Togo 35 km east of Lomé, is the historical heart of Togolese vodun and a continuous pilgrimage centre — the small Catholic basilica of Notre-Dame du Lac stands beside the royal palace of the Mlapa dynasty, and pirogue trips cross Lake Togo from Agbodrafo on the southern shore. Aného, further east on the Atlantic, is the small coastal town with its 19th-century cathedral, the lively fish market on the lagoon and the Glidji-Anyron quarter — host of the annual Yêkê Yêkê Glidji vodun festival each September, when the chief priest divines the colour of the year's sacred stone (with white symbolising peace and prosperity for the year ahead), one of the most evocative religious calendar events in West Africa.

The Plateaux region around Kpalimé, 120 km north-west of Lomé, is the country's mountain and forest counterpoint to the coast. Mount Agou (986 m, the highest point in Togo, with a clear-day view to Lake Volta in Ghana on one side and the Atlantic on the other), the Kpime, Womé and Kamalo waterfalls, the working cocoa and coffee plantations of the Plateaux (Togolese arabica is exported to specialty roasters in Europe and North America), the butterfly forests around Kloto (over 1,000 species recorded, with the Centre des Papillons specialising in tropical species) and the traditional batik and weaving workshops of Kpalimé town make a comfortable 2–3-day extension. The town itself has its substantial Friday market, several small art galleries and is the base for half-day hikes up Mount Agou and to the surrounding waterfalls.

Togo's two major national parks — Fazao-Malfakassa in the centre and Kéran in the north — protect the country's elephant, hippopotamus, antelope (kob, hartebeest, roan), buffalo, leopard and around 250 bird species. Fazao-Malfakassa, west of Sokodé, is the country's largest park at around 1,920 km² and protects the largest remaining elephant population in southern Togo within a remote, lightly-tracked landscape of wooded savannah and the Fazao escarpment. Kéran in the north, near the Burkina Faso border and adjacent to Benin's Pendjari complex, is part of the wider West African transboundary wildlife corridor. The dry season (November to April) is the standard wildlife-viewing window.

The central and northern axis from Atakpamé through Sokodé to Kara is the cultural and geographic counterweight to coastal Lomé — Sokodé (the country's second-largest city, a Muslim-majority centre with the great Friday Mosque and the historical Tem-Kotokoli sultanate, host of the Adossa-Gadao knife festival each summer), Kara (the home of the Kabye people, with the dramatic Kara Mountains and the surrounding Atakora foothills, host of the Evala wrestling festival each July when young Kabye men compete in the traditional initiation contest) and the small university town of Pya. The whole region offers a quieter, more agricultural counterpoint to the great cultural set-pieces of Lomé and Koutammakou.

Togolese cuisine is one of the great kitchens of the Bight of Benin coast: fufu (yam or cassava pounded paste with peanut, palm-nut or vegetable sauce), akoumé (fermented corn flour porridge), gboma dessi (a spinach-and-fish stew, the everyday national dish), grilled tilapia and dorade from Lake Togo and the Atlantic, akpan (fermented corn drink), the celebrated Lomé palm wine (sodabi when distilled), abolo cornbread, koliko cassava chips, the great fish-and-rice traditions of the coastal towns and the local beers (Pils, Ngok and Awooyo are the major brands). Vodun is the cultural substrate that ties south Togo and south Benin together — Togoville, the Akodessewa market in Lomé and the annual Yêkê Yêkê Glidji vodun festival in September form the country's vodun trail. Togolese hospitality (the akwaba welcome of the Ewe south, the togba of the Kabye north) is the strongest single first impression for international travellers.