Yamoussoukro

Yamoussoukro has been the political capital of Côte d'Ivoire since 1983 and is the birthplace of the country's first president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, about 235 km north of Abidjan on the tolled A3 motorway. The drive takes 3-4 hours each way, so a return day trip means roughly 14 hours door to door, best undertaken with a departure from Abidjan before 05:30 to reach the city by mid-morning. UTB and other interurban coaches leave the Gare Routière d'Adjamé, Yopougon or Koumassi stations through the morning from around 06:00, while a hired car with driver covers the same distance with more flexibility on timing. The centrepiece of the visit is the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1990 and one of the largest churches in the world, its esplanade offering little shade, which makes a morning visit far more comfortable than one at midday. A guided interior tour, where available, covers the stained glass and the dome, followed by a walk or short taxi ride to the Houphouët-Boigny Foundation and the presidential palace, where a lake of sacred crocodiles is fed by keepers at set times and draws visitors along the palace perimeter. The Saint Augustin Cathedral and the wide, largely empty boulevards laid out for a capital far larger than its current population round out an afternoon that is best covered by car given how spread out the city is. Lunch is typically taken at one of the restaurants near the basilica or in the town centre, with maquis fare and river fish from the nearby Kossou reservoir both on offer. Because the return drive is another 3-4 hours, the day should be planned to leave Yamoussoukro by mid-afternoon at the latest to avoid arriving back in Abidjan very late at night; an overnight stay is a more comfortable alternative to a single very long day. The dry season from November to March gives the most reliable driving conditions on the A3 and the most bearable heat on the unshaded basilica esplanade.