Give Yamoussoukro one full day and a night. Spend the morning in the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, then see the Grand Mosque and the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Foundation. Be at the crocodile lake by the presidential palace in the late afternoon, and eat on the 14th floor of the Hôtel Président. A second day buys Bomizambo's weavers or Lake Kossou.
Yamoussoukro is the village Félix Houphouët-Boigny was born in and the capital he made of it in 1983. Wide boulevards, artificial lakes and monuments built to impress sit on Baoulé farmland, three hours up the motorway from Abidjan.
Guinness lists it as the largest church in the world: a dome and colonnade after St Peter's, 7,000 m² of French stained glass and room for 18,000. John Paul II consecrated it in 1990. Go in the morning, when the light comes through the glass.
The lake ringing the presidential palace holds more than 200 Nile crocodiles, fed beef by their keepers in the late afternoon. It is the city's strangest sight. Watch from the road side and keep well back from the water.
A congress centre created in 1973 to promote peace in Africa, designed by Olivier-Clément Cacoub. Its two amphitheatres keep their original 1970s decor. Ask at reception for a guided walk through the halls.
Houphouët-Boigny had the mosque built in the 1960s, two decades before the basilica, and the two still face off across town. The white minarets are the view. Visit outside prayer times.
Olivier-Clément Cacoub's tower in a 25-hectare park is the city's grand hotel, and its 14th-floor panoramic restaurant has the best view of the basilica. Come for dinner or a drink at sunset even if you sleep elsewhere.
The town's first great church, named for Houphouët-Boigny's late brother Augustin and made a cathedral when the diocese was created in 1992. Smaller and busier than the basilica, it is where Yamoussoukro actually goes to Mass.
Eighteen holes by Dave Thomas, opened in 1980 around a six-hectare lake, with a clubhouse of two concrete tents by Roger Taillibert. Visitors can book a round. The clubhouse alone justifies the detour.
The Bandama River dammed in 1972 into Ivory Coast's largest lake. Drive out for the view across the water from the dam. Go in the dry season, when the roads are easiest.
A Baoulé village where men of every age weave pagne cloth in 15 cm strips on wooden looms, a trade learned over seven years. Watch a loom, then buy directly from the weaver who made the cloth.
A 204 km² reserve of protected savanna and grassland, the nearest wildlife country to the capital. It is not a safari park, so arrange a vehicle and guide before you go and set off early.
Cacoub's palace behind a 22 km wall, with two rams at the gate. Houphouët-Boigny lies in a vault beneath its chapel. Exterior only.
The national engineering school, created in 1996 on a sprawling campus.
Also called Abla Pokou: the upscale quarter, where most of the better hotels are.
Baoulé families come home for three days of Easter feasting, reunions and masks.
A two-day festival of braised meat and fried fish. Dates move each year.
The national day, with parades. Yamoussoukro hosted the 2022 celebration.
Pilgrims fill the basilica for a week of Masses and processions.
A Mass for peace at the basilica, then delegations walk on to the Grand Mosque.
The Grand Mosque fills for the end of the fast. Dates follow the lunar calendar.
Eid al-Adha prayers at the Grand Mosque, then family feasts across town.
Villages around the city, Lolobo among them, give thanks for the new yam.
A 3,000 m runway, once long enough for Concorde, with mainly Air Côte d’Ivoire domestic flights. International arrivals land in Abidjan.
Abidjan is 237 km away, 217 of them on the motorway, about three hours by car.
UTB runs daily coaches to Abidjan, about three and a half hours, for around 4,000 to 4,500 CFA francs.
Yamoussoukro taxis are white with green and orange bands. Many have meters; agree the fare first if not.
Plantain pounded smooth, the Baoulé staple with every sauce.
Palm-nut sauce with fish or meat, poured over foutou or rice.
Chicken slow-cooked in its own steam with vegetables and spice.
Fermented cassava couscous with braised fish and raw onion.
Attiéké with fried tuna, tomato and chilli. The cheap street lunch.
Fried ripe plantain with spicy tomato sauce, sold at dusk.
Fermented cassava paste with a rich sauce, often okra.
Chicken grilled over coals at a maquis, with attiéké.
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Ivory Coast
