Nigeria itineraries: 1 week, 2 weeks and 3 weeks

Pick the length first, then the route. Every option below starts and ends in Lagos because that is where international flights land and where most domestic connections start.

Costs are 2026 estimates for one person, mid-range hotels, domestic flights and a driver where needed. They exclude international airfare.

Base in Victoria Island or Ikoyi for four nights. Day one is arrival and a slow walk around your area. Day two: Lagos Island — Freedom Park, Tafawa Balewa Square and the old quarter, best on a Sunday morning when traffic is lightest. Day three: Nike Art Gallery in Lekki and Terra Kulture on Victoria Island. Day four: a boat day to the beaches, or the Lekki Conservation Centre canopy walk early in the morning before the heat.

Fly to Calabar on day five — about 1.5 hours (check schedules). Two full days there cover the colonial-era museum quarter, the primate projects and the waterfront. December adds Calabar Carnival, which is also when hotels cost most and book out.

This is the safest first trip: two cities, one flight, no long drives. It also fits a work trip where only one week is free.

Ten days: Lagos 4 nights, then Abeokuta or Ibadan for 2, then Abuja for 3, then one last night in Lagos before the flight home. Abeokuta is about 2 hours from Lagos by road and has Olumo Rock and the adire cloth dyers. Ibadan is roughly 2.5 hours by train from Lagos and is a good base for the first university and Yoruba city life. Check your government's advice for Ogun and Oyo states before committing.

Abuja is the calm half of the trip: planned streets, Aso Rock, the National Mosque and the National Christian Centre. Two to three nights is enough. Fly Lagos–Abuja rather than driving.

Fourteen days adds Calabar back in: Lagos 4, Abeokuta or Ibadan 2, Abuja 3, Calabar 4, Lagos 1. That is four flights in two weeks, so build in slack for delays.

With three weeks you can add one more region, not two. Option A is Kano: the ancient walled city and dye pits, reached by flight from Abuja or Lagos. Kano sits under a travel advisory for several governments, so check the current advice and your insurance before booking. Option B is Cross River: Obudu plateau for cool highland air and the Drill Ranch at Afi Mountain, both reached from Calabar by road with a vetted driver in daylight.

Keep the Lagos–Abuja–Calabar spine from the 14-day route and bolt the extra region onto the nearest end: Kano after Abuja, Cross River after Calabar. Do not loop back through Lagos between them.

Three weeks also lets you slow down: two nights somewhere with nothing scheduled, which is when Nigeria is at its best.

Fly between cities. Nigerian road travel is slow, and the parent guidance for this country is to use a vetted driver in daylight only for short hops, and only where your government's advice allows. Domestic flights on the main Lagos–Abuja–Port Harcourt–Calabar routes are the practical option; book early in December and around Easter.

Get the e-visa and the landing card online before departure, and carry a passport valid for at least six months. Travel insurance that covers medical evacuation is worth the cost here. Carry some naira cash for drivers, markets and tips; cards work in Lagos and Abuja hotels but less so elsewhere.

November to March is the dry season and the easiest window. December is carnival month in Calabar and peak prices everywhere. The rainy season runs roughly April to October, heaviest on the coast.