Guide for voodoo villages and ceremonies | Tourist Attraction

Same as below- Marc was awesome and very knowledgeable- he majored in history and geography in university and will rattle off a ton of factoids as well as explain every little detail if you don't stop him lol. As said before: the man has a ridiculous amount of energy and you will need to ask him to stop if you are tired- he will just keep going (with free experiences) if you don't say anything.

Highlight for me was undoubtedly the ceremony- I saw both parts, dancing with the dead goats (which they cook and eat all of after) and the dancing at night, and I was the only foreigner there. I also don't think the fetish market was all that shocking. When you consider how terribly we treat animals in the meat industry in the west, or how many parts of Asia do the same thing with exotic animal parts for cultural superstitions, what they do here is pretty small scale.

Marc can be reached at the same number as below- I messaged him on Whatsapp and he responded right away. Heads up the ceremonies are not every day, so maybe check in with him in advance to make sure you don't miss out on this.

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We just spent last night with Marc at a Voodoo ceremony and then all day today on a tour with him. First, I would say that he is very kind, very knowledgeable and speaks good English. He will explain everything and answer all your questions. He really seems vested in making sure you have a really great experience.

All the prices are same as listed below. They seem kinda expensive for local standards, and he never lets you see him pay anything, he just takes all the money ahead of time. It definitely makes you feel like he is taking a cut of everything, but that said, it was still a great day and although it all adds up to be an expensive day, it was still worth it in our option and I am not really sure of any other way of doing it. The good part was he was very clear about all the prices ahead of time and there were no other surprises. There are some people you need to “tip” at the ceremony so bring small change (like a 500 is probably too big, coins). Once you start handing out 500s, a lot more people will any to come give you a blessing 🤣🤣. There are a few places that have shops that you can buy stuff if you want, but Marc made sure we didn’t feel any pressure to buy anything we didn’t want.

Only other things we can add to the list of prices below was that we didn’t want to drive our truck, so he arranged for 2 motorcycles (I think one was his) and one other driver. This was 5k each for the bike and driver + 2k for fuel.

Also, with the list of prices in hand, you can pick and choose what you want to do. We did the Voodoo ceremony, Voodoo village and priest, Chameleon temple (you do get to go inside with Marc), fetish market, and one palace. Everything felt worthwhile and we would recommend.

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As below with prices, I really enjoyed my time with Marc, highly recommend. Was very knowledgeable and was a great way to learn about the voodoo region. Was great to have a guide on when to tip and when to ignore any locals approaching throughout the day. Grey guy! Would do again!

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We (2 pax) did a one day tour with Marc. He is very knowledgeable and speaks good English.

Guide fee 15.000
Petrol for his motorcycle 2.000 (we followed with our car)

3.000 pp to visit the voodoo priest

3.000 pp to visit Cameleon temple

10.000 pp to visit a voodoo ceremony where they did the straw dancing

Visit of fetish market is free, 2.000 to take pictures at one stand

If you want you can also go to palaces (2.000 pp), sacred forest (10.000 pp), factory for dry fruits (500 pp) etc.

There are no receipts. You give the money to Marc and he pays it to the different places. No idea how legit are the prices.

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Marc is still there. He speaks English, French and local languages . Around Abomey and Bohicon he knows every palace. We did imprressive Voodoo ceremonies with him. We also went to villages with him to see handmade palm oil production and blacksmith men working. Near Lokoli we went on a kayak tour in a sacret forest where you can see a lot of monkeys too. Prices are negotiable. You can save money if Marc organizes your hotel or apartment with kitchen and nice garden.

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Marc is amazing. We had a great voodoo tour with him, and spent the whole day visiting places with him, he’s unstoppable.
Price wise he asked for 10k each which we negotiated down to 15k for the two of us.

Fetish priest (3k each) was great, absolutely worth it, chameleon church (3k each) was overpriced as you can’t get in. I would recommend to do that on your own OR to do that on a Sunday evening, when the ceremony is held (then 3k each would make sense I guess).
Visit of the fetish market was great and free. Marc is happy to take you in front of the different palaces and explain things without getting in (so you don’t pay the entrance).
There is no ticket for any entrance you pay, so we have no idea how legit the prices are.

Overall we’re really happy to have spent that money with him as he really did a great job. Next time we’ll come a Sunday evening for sure!

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As described below, would definitely recommend a tour with Marc, although we usually try to stay away from for guides ;)
We paid the entrance fees below + 20k to Marc for guiding and transport on his motorbike for the two of us. Felt like no further tipping was necessary.

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Possibly the most hardworking guide in West Africa, Marc managed to pack into 1 day more than we usually manage in a month! In the evening we attended a voodoo ceremony with him which was one of the best experiences we have had in 6 months of exploring West Africa, absolutely authentic (we were the only tourists) and amazing to see. During the day he took us to a voodoo village which dates from c.17, we met with the voodoo priest and he gave us fascinating insight into the religion. We then visited a voodoo church (shaped like a chameleon) the fetish market and an underground house used by soldiers of the Abomey kingdom. Marc speaks English and French. He charged 5000 per person for full day for groups, 10,000 for single person. It really is a full day, we started at 9.30 and finished at 5.30pm (he was still going strong, we had to say we needed a rest!) he then came back to the hotel and collected us for the voodoo ceremony which went on until 10.30pm. He didn’t charge extra for this, but we gave a decent tip. There are also entrance fees to pay, for priest was 2000 pp (possibly more if not in a group), for church 2000 pp, fetish market free but if you want to take photos expect to pay around 2000, underground village (think around 2000 but don’t recall exactly). We also paid 2000 pp to the voodoo priest for attending the ceremony, it is more if you want to take photos, we decided not to. There are also lots of other sites in town he can take you to which are free if you want to reduce costs - for me the visit to the voodoo village/ priest and the ceremony were the highlights and absolutely worth the money. He can be contacted on whatsapp 00 229 96 36 1158 or his number for calls is 00 229 95 76 4642 or ask in auberge abomey.

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