Things to do in Abidjan

Landmark · Le Plateau

Aldo Spirito's 1985 cathedral, dedicated by John Paul II: a giant concrete figure with arms flung wide, the roof slung behind it on seven cables so it appears to be dragging its own cloak uphill. Some 370 m² of stained glass, and room for 5,000.

Local tip: Go late afternoon — the six windows are oriented so the nave floods with colour before dusk. It is a working cathedral, not a monument: dress modestly, and Sunday's choirs are the real spectacle.

Nature · Attécoubé

3,438 hectares of primary rainforest inside the city — reckoned the second-largest urban park in the world after Rio's Tijuca — whose river supplies about 40% of Abidjan's drinking water.

Local tip: The fanicos, the laundrymen who each work an assigned stone in the river, are the sight: come between about 10:30 and noon or you get an empty bank. Entry is XOF 5,000 for non-ECOWAS visitors, 07:00–17:00, and take a guide — the plant signboards have long gone.

Culture · 40 km east, on the coast

The French colonial capital from 1893 until yellow fever drove the administration to Bingerville in 1900, and UNESCO-listed since 2012: a whole quarter of decaying administrative buildings between lagoon and ocean, plus the costume museum in the 1892 Governor's Palace.

Local tip: It is a weekday town for the architecture and a weekend town for the beach — the Quartier France photographs far better midweek. Treat the surf with real caution; the French foreign ministry warns plainly that drownings here are frequent.

Nightlife · Marcory

Abidjan's nightlife lives south of the lagoon now: Zone 4 for bars, Lebanese restaurants and coupé-décalé, Biétry for the lagoon-front version. Reggae runs deep here — Parker Reggae City carries on from the legendary Parker Place.

Local tip: Older guides send you to Yopougon's Rue Princesse; it was bulldozed on 5 August 2011 and never came back. Nothing here starts early — arrive at 22:00 and you drink alone. Biétry also has an open red-light scene, which is worth knowing before someone sends you there blind.

Food · Adjamé

Adjamé, not Cocody, is where the city actually shops: the Forum des Marchés holds some 13,000 pitches, and next to it Marché Gouro — nicknamed the Tower of Babel — is the wholesale produce market run by a cooperative of Gouro women.

Local tip: Gouro is wholesale, so go early morning. And once you know the Gouro women's cooperative effectively sets produce prices for the whole city, your neighbourhood price rises stop being mysterious.

Neighborhood · 80 km east, on the sand spit

The weekend escape: a narrow peninsula with the Atlantic on one side and the calm Lagune Aby on the other, palm-thatch hotels along it, and a boat ride to reach the good bits.

Local tip: Book somewhere with lagoon frontage. The lagoon side is for swimming and the ocean side is for looking at — most stretches have no lifeguard and the undertow drowns strong swimmers every year.