One week in Lekki

Days 1-2: Settle into Phase 1

Base yourself in Lekki Phase 1 near Admiralty Way. Day one is orientation: walk the neighbourhood, coffee at Cafe Neo, lunch at Bungalow on Kingsway, cocktails at Z Kitchen. Day two is Landmark Beach from morning through sunset, about $10 entry plus $30 for loungers and food. Dinner at Yellow Chilli on Oyinkan Abayomi in Ikoyi, Nigerian food done properly, around $25 a head. Admiralty Way itself stretches for roughly a kilometre of shops, banks and eateries, so the first afternoon works best on foot before the evening traffic thickens toward the Lekki-Epe Expressway. Keep your first dinner reservation loose; Lagos traffic on a Friday can turn a twenty-minute drive into an hour, and Yellow Chilli fills up fast after 7pm.

For a week-long stay, pick a hotel with a generator and reliable wifi rather than the cheapest room on the map — Lekki's power supply is inconsistent and a long stay exposes weak infrastructure fast. Sunnyvale Hotel and Lekki Hotel and Suites both sit within a short Bolt ride of Admiralty Way and run $50 to $90 a night with breakfast included, a fair middle ground between guesthouse and business hotel. If budget allows a splurge for the first two nights while you adjust to the heat and humidity, Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel Lagos V.I. on the other side of the lagoon gives lagoon views and a proper pool for around $180 a night, worth it only if you don't mind the extra bridge crossing each morning.

Days 3-4: Art, markets and lagoon

Day three: Nike Art Gallery in the morning, then Lekki Arts and Crafts Market on Admiralty Way for beads, fabric and carvings. Bargain hard, expect to pay half the opening price. Lunch at Sao Cafe. Day four go east to Lekki Conservation Centre, then continue to Elegushi Beach for a rougher, louder afternoon with horse rides and grilled fish shacks, about $3 entry. Nike Art Gallery opens at 10am, is free to enter, and a $10 tip for a staff-led tour through the upper floors earns real context on the Yoruba and Benin pieces mixed among contemporary canvases. The crafts market next door repeats a lot of the same stock across stalls, so walk the full loop once before buying — prices swing more between vendors than any of them will admit. Lekki Conservation Centre itself opens at 9am and charges about $5 entry; go before 11am, ahead of both the heat and the school groups.

Evening on day four: sunset drinks at Shiro on Victoria Island, top-floor views over the lagoon. Sushi mains around $22. Book a table by the window rail before 5.30pm if you want the sunset itself rather than just the afterglow, since Shiro fills with the after-work crowd from nearby offices on Ahmadu Bello Way. If Shiro is booked out, a similar rooftop scene nearby runs a $15 cover after 9pm that converts into your bar tab. Either way, budget a $20 Bolt ride back to Lekki Phase 1 rather than trying to drive yourself through the Third Mainland Bridge traffic that builds from 8pm.

Days 5-6: Two day trips

Day five, take a boat from Tarkwa Bay Jetty at Walter Carrington Crescent (about $8 return) to Tarkwa Bay Beach, calm water, no cars, back by 5pm. Boats leave roughly every 30 minutes from 8am, don't run to a fixed timetable, and the last reliable return is around 5pm, so don't linger past 4.30pm waiting for the light to soften. Bring cash in small notes for boat fare and for the grilled fish and cold drinks sold on the beach, since there's no ATM anywhere on the sandbar. There's no shade to speak of beyond a handful of rental beach umbrellas at about $5 for the day, so a hat and reef sandals matter more here than at Landmark or Elegushi.

Day six, drive an hour further east to La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort in Ibeju-Lekki, $30 day pass, better sand, fewer crowds. The drive out the Lekki-Epe Expressway past the Dangote refinery turn-off is straightforward but slow near Awoyaya market in the mornings, so leave Phase 1 by 9am to get a full day on the sand. The resort's day pass covers the beach, a swimming pool and a small zoo enclosure, and chalets are available if you'd rather stay over for $70 to $110 a night instead of driving back in the dark. Skip the resort's jet-ski rental, priced at $40 for ten minutes and poorly maintained; the beach itself, with its palm-lined boardwalk, is the actual draw.

Day 7: Slow finish

Brunch at Cactus, browse Terra Kulture, one last swim at your hotel pool. Cactus opens from 8am and its Nigerian breakfast plates run $8 to $12, a gentler way to close the week than another beach day. Terra Kulture on Tiamiyu Savage Street in Victoria Island doubles as a bookshop and gallery, and its ground-floor restaurant is worth a second coffee even if you've already eaten. If your flight isn't until evening, ask your hotel for a late checkout rather than paying for a day room elsewhere — most mid-range properties in Phase 1 will hold a room until 3pm or 4pm for a $20 to $30 fee.

Fly out from Murtala Muhammed International; leave Lekki at least four hours before your flight because the Third Mainland Bridge is unpredictable. An alternative route via the Lekki-Epe Expressway and Third Mainland Bridge avoids the Apapa port traffic but still crosses the same choke points as everyone else heading to the airport, so there's no clever shortcut that skips the bridge entirely. Book an airport transfer through your hotel rather than hailing a Bolt from the street with luggage; the fixed rate, usually $25 to $35 to the international terminal, is worth the certainty. Confirm your terminal in advance, since domestic and international departures sit in separate buildings a ten-minute drive apart.

Getting around for seven days

Bolt and Uber both operate reliably across Lekki, and a week of rides between Phase 1, Victoria Island and the Ajah stretch will run $60 to $100 total if you're moving twice a day. Surge pricing spikes hard between 7am and 9am and again from 5pm to 8pm, so shift beach trips and market visits outside those windows where the itinerary allows. Keke napep three-wheelers cover short hops within Phase 1 for $1 to $2 and are the fastest way to beat gridlock on Admiralty Way itself, though they won't cross onto the Lekki-Epe Expressway.

For the day trips to Tarkwa Bay and La Campagne Tropicana, book a car with the driver on standby rather than releasing him at the destination — return Bolts from Ibeju-Lekki in the evening are scarce and surge heavily once the sun sets. A private driver for a full day, arranged through your hotel, runs $40 to $60 and is worth the flat fee against three or four unpredictable Bolt fares. Keep a paper map or offline map saved; signal drops in patches along the Lekki-Epe Expressway past the refinery turn-off.

Where to sleep for the full week

Lekki Phase 1 offers the widest hotel choice for a week-long stay. Lekki Hotel and Suites and Sunnyvale Hotel both sit inside the Phase 1 grid for $50 to $90 a night and suit travellers who want to walk to Admiralty Way restaurants rather than Bolt everywhere. Warike Hotel and Suites and Royal Moon Hotel & Suites are a short drive further out toward Chevron and run slightly cheaper, from $40 a night, at the cost of a longer ride to the beach clubs each morning.

If the plan includes the Ibeju-Lekki day trips, Chaka Resort and Wavecrest Beach Hotel & Resort sit closer to that end of the coast and are worth booking for the final two nights instead of driving back to Phase 1 each evening — both run $60 to $100 a night with beachfront access. Jara Beach Resort is a similar option with a quieter stretch of sand, better suited to couples than groups. Whichever you pick, book at least two weeks ahead in December and around Easter, when Lagos residents themselves fill Lekki's hotels for weekend breaks.

Money, packing and staying comfortable

Carry cash in small denominations for beach entry fees, boat fares and market bargaining; card machines fail often enough at smaller vendors that $50 to $100 in notes for the week avoids awkward stand-offs. Most hotels and the bigger restaurants — Yellow Chilli, Shiro, Cactus — take cards without issue. Sunscreen and insect repellent are worth buying before you arrive rather than hunting for them in Lekki, where pharmacy stock is inconsistent; humidity sits above 80% most of the year and the mosquito load rises sharply after rain.

Pack light, breathable clothing and one smarter outfit for dinners at Shiro or Bungalow, since both lean toward a dressed-up Lagos crowd after dark. A portable power bank earns its weight given the patchy mains power in even mid-range hotels, and a reusable water bottle saves money against buying sachets daily. Petty theft on Lekki's beaches is opportunistic rather than violent — don't leave phones or bags unattended on the sand at Elegushi or Tarkwa Bay, and you'll have no trouble worth mentioning.