Benin & Ghana

• Adventure in comfort • 15 years + experience • Highly experienced photo tour-leaders • Hotels.- From 5-4 stars hotels, boutique hotels, local hotels to -in a few adventurous destinations- simple camps with good services. • Transport: comfortable 4x4 , each passenger with his window, in mini-bus 2 seats per passenger. • Airport pickup and accompaniment • Meals included

This expedition was curated and designed by Harry Fisch, founder of Nomad Photo Expeditions, who was enthroned as Prince and Minister of the Kingdom of Angolin, Benin, in January 2023. His long relationships with priests, elders and nomadic communities open doors that standard itineraries never reach. Rather than watching the Voodoo Festival from the edges, you enter its heart with a local guide who is himself an acolyte, then travel on to the animist villages of Lake Aheme, the Fulani camps of the Agonlin foothills and the Holi villages near Ketou.

You'll move through the Voodoo Festival alongside a local guide who is an acolyte himself, which places you among the priests, masked figures and white-painted devotees rather than behind the crowd. At Lake Aheme, the same guide opens the way into an animist village where ritual chicken sacrifice and dance ceremonies still unite the living with the dead, and at Bopa you photograph the high priest in his own temple. With a measure of good fortune, the group may also be received by the King of Angolin.

The festival opens at the Temple of the Pitons, where Supreme Priest Daagbo Hounon Houna II performs a sacrifice beneath the sacred iroko. The procession then reaches the beach beside the Gate of No Return, where griots balance on tall poles and straw fetishes spin across the sand. At Bopa, the high priest receives the group for a formal portrait session in his temple. In the Agonlin foothills you share a picnic with Fulani nomads, and with good fortune you may be received by the King of Angolin. Ganvié, the Holi villages and Abomey add many other photographic opportunities.

The Benin photo tour departs on 6–15 January 2027 at US$6,900 per person, and the following departure, 6–15 January 2028, is US$8,900 per person, both based on double occupancy. The price includes tuition from Harry Fisch and/or Roberto Pazzi, all breakfasts, lunches and dinners except the first and last days, private set photo sessions, good hotels, all local private ground transportation, airport transfers on arrival and departure, and coordination of every listed activity. International flights, tips for guides and drivers, drinks, personal hotel expenses and medical and cancellation insurance are not included.

The dates are built around the Voodoo Festival of Ouidah, the single annual gathering when thousands of devotees from Benin, Haiti, Brazil and Togo converge for a three-mile procession to the sea. Arriving in early January lets you photograph the eve of the festival, when pilgrims, drummers and offering-bearers fill the old colonial streets, before giving a full morning to the procession and the beach ceremonies. That same afternoon, the festival's energy carries straight into the animist communities of Lake Aheme.

You stay in good hotels placed along the route so that each morning starts close to the subjects. The journey opens in Cotonou, moves to Ouidah for the festival and to Possotomé, beside Lake Aheme, after the ceremonies. From there the nights follow the route through Abomey, the UNESCO royal city, Cové in the Agonlin region, Porto Novo, Benin's political capital, and Grand Popo on the Atlantic coast, before a final night back in Cotonou. Rooms are based on double occupancy.

The Benin photo tour is led by Nomad founder Harry Fisch and/or Roberto Pazzi, and they welcome all levels, from amateurs to working professionals. With groups kept to 4–10 participants, there’s room for individual coaching and feedback, and non-photographers are welcome, particularly when accompanying a partner.

Harry Fisch is a world-recognized travel photographer who founded Nomad Photo Expeditions in 2011, leading small-group cultural photo tours across more than 50 countries. His acclaimed work has earned international honors—PX3 Gold in Paris, IPA Awards of Merit, a MIFA Bronze in Moscow, Grand Prix de la Découverte jury awards, Photoespaña and Lens Culture—celebrated worldwide for its human depth.

Roberto Pazzi is a world-recognized Italian travel photographer, an engineer-turned-expedition-leader who partners with Nomad Photo Expeditions across more than 60 destinations. His acclaimed work has earned global honors—2025 European Photography Awards Photographer of the Year, Smithsonian, PX3, TIFA Gold, MIFA, BIFA and New York Photography Awards—and reached publications worldwide including National Geographic, GEO, The Times and The Guardian.

Benin is a stable and welcoming country for travellers who take normal precautions, and on this tour you're never left to manage alone. A Nomad representative meets you at Cotonou airport, you travel in private vehicles with local drivers, and a local guide accompanies the group through the festival and the village visits.

The itinerary is moderate rather than strenuous. You should be comfortable walking two to three hours at a gentle pace with regular breaks, standing through ceremonies, and getting on and off vehicles and boats unassisted. Expect cobblestones, uneven ground and stairs without handrails in places. Festival days start early and are hot and busy, and the drive from Abomey to Cové is long, followed by on-foot visits to Fulani villages.

You'll photograph Vodun at full public scale: the Ouidah procession with its ceremonial umbrellas, masked priests and white-painted faces, griots and spinning straw fetishes at the Gate of No Return, and the pythons of the Temple of the Snakes. Beyond the festival come ritual ceremonies at Lake Aheme, the fetish market of Bohicon, Abomey's royal palace and plaza dances, the tattoos and elaborate hairstyles of the Fulani, the facial tattooing of the Holi, Ganvié's stilt village, Atlantic fishermen hauling nets and the crowds of Dantokpa Market.