Benin Hotels - Grand Popo Auberge

The village of Grand Popo is situated beside the sea midway between Cotonou (80 km) and Lome (Togo, 80 km).

The Auberge itself comprises of old colonial buildings, which we have restored.
During the colonial period, Grand Popo was a "circle", Nowadays, it is called a "Town" which means that it is administrated by an elected local Mayor and a council. These "circles", even at that time, were equipped with every essential service to enable the regional to be efficiently administered. Facilities such as Schools, Post Office, health centre, a veterinary surgeon, prison, police station, residence for the Head of the Circle (now the Mayor's residence), a colonial garden for plant and tree cuttings and a rest-houses for visiting officials.

The advancing ocean destroyed part Grand Popo during the 1940’s. At that time, the "Circle" was temporarily moved to Athie'me' in the interior. Today Grand Popo has again become a town and forms part of the Mono region who's Senior Government Official now resides in Lokossa.

To construct The Auberge de Grand Popo we took over a number of the old, derelict Colonial Administration Buildings. We restored the Old Customs building and it is now the reception and bar with a terrace where guests can sit and enjoy the wide panoramic view over the golden beach to the rolling waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

From the and bar and terrace there is access to our new open plan rustic timber and thatch roofed Restaurant which has seating for approximately 50 guests.

The Old Cultural Center has been completely rebuilt into 12 bedrooms each with en-suit bathrooms. Access to all these rooms is direct from a garden that surrounds the block.

The Office of the Commander of the Circle. This building was completely derelict but in its hay day it was a beautiful two story colonial building with access to the upper rooms via a teak staircase, this led to a teak wood balcony that ran completely around the upper floor providing access to all the rooms.

This building has been rebuilt in this original style using the local, beautiful teak timber for all the woodwork and it now contains 8 rooms with en-suit bathrooms. There are 4 double/twin rooms on the upper floor and 4 on the ground floor. Again there is a raised terrace to provide access to the bedrooms encircles the ground floor. These ground floor rooms each have a raised timber mezzanine that is suitable for sleeping two children.

At this time our newest accommodation is in Two bungalows each with 2 connecting rooms each with en-suit bathrooms. They have been designed with thatched roofs and in such a way that each bungalow can be let either as two double rooms or alternatively as one unit for family accommodation.

The ocean is right infront of the Auberge, about 40 meters from the bar terrace and the river Mono runs behind. The estuary of the Mono is approximately 5Km from the Auberge but can only be reached by driving over the beach in a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Coconut palms dominate the environment.

The national highway, which connects Cotonou to Lome and is in very good condition, passes 1 Km behind the Auberge. Coconut palms dominate the environment and one can stop and buy the young fresh coconuts at the roadside which the sellers will open so that you can drink the fresh milk direct from the nuts.

We are in the heart of the ‘voodoo’ world and the voodoo priests are very active, various ceremonies take place regularly.

It takes 1h 30min. to travel from Grand Popo to Cotonou for shopping and the airport.
We organize outings on small motor boats to go the estuary of the Mono River and visit fishing villages on the riverbanks, or simply for a picnic in the coconut groves where the lagoon meets the ocean.