Brazzaville

Travel Guide Africa Republic of Congo Brazzaville

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Introduction

Bullet Riddled Brazzaville

Bullet Riddled Brazzaville

© polhill

Brazzaville is the capital and largest city in the Republic of Congo and has about 1 million inhabitants in the city but 1.5 million in the larger metropolitan area. It is located in the south of the country along the shores of the Congo River and Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo is located on the other side, facing each other. The city was founded in 1880 and is home to over a third of the total population of the country. It functions as the economical and administrative hart of the country but has not much to offer for travellers.

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Sights and Activities

  • St. Anne's Basilica
  • Nabemba Tower
  • Marien Nguouabi Mausoleum
  • Brazzaville Zoo

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Weather

Brazzaville is hot and humid year round, with temperatures usually around 30 °C during the day and 20 °C at night, with a few degrees difference between the hottest and coolest month. Rain falls evenly spread out, but the June to August period is a bit drier as well as a little less hot.

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Getting There

By Plane

Maya-Maya Airport (BZV) near Brazzaville receives several international flights. Airlines flying to Brazzaville include Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle) Air Mauritanie (Nouakchott) Cameroon Airlines (Douala) Ethiopian Airlines (Addis Ababa), Hewa Bora Airways (Douala, Kinshasa), Interair South Africa (Cotonou, Johannesburg), TAAG Angola Airlines (Luanda, Pointe-Noire), Kenya Airways (Nairobi) and Royal Air Maroc (Casablanca, Douala).

Domestic flights are mainly between Brazzaville and Point Noire on the Atlantic coast.

By Train

Rail services link Brazzaville with Dolisie and the seaside city of Pointe-Noire. A new "express" train named La Gazelle was introduced in 2012, however it still takes a gruelling 15 hours to complete the journey. On the plus side the train has air conditioning, a bar car and power sockets. There's also slower services, generally not recommended for tourists.
The train is at the moment onlly running from Pointe-Noire part of the way because the tracks where destroyed near Brazzaville in 2017.

By Car

There is surprisingly no bridge between Brazzaville and Kinshasa. If you wish to take a car across, it is possible to pay extra and get a ride on the ferry. There have been reports the car will require "disinfection" when crossing from Congo to DR Congo.

By Bus

Buses from Brazzaville to Pointe Noire (the road is generally good), are leaving around 6:30am (Ocean du Nord and some other companies) and take 9.5 hours, 7,000 XAF. Ocean du Nord goes also to Ouésso from where you can take a ferry to Cameroon, but there is no public transport on the Cameroon side, only some sort of payed hichhicking with trucks and that only in the dry season.

By Boat

There are regular ferries across the Congo River to Kinshasa as well as further away towards Bangui in the Central African Republic

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Getting Around

You may use local green taxis, even if they are in a poor technical condition. Much as you would anywhere, take a security-first approach to taxis - Refuse to hop into any car that has two or more people in it already. One trip anywhere in town is XAF 1,000 (USD 2).

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Eat

Eat at Mami Wata (great pizzas in the afternoon, enjoy the Kinshasa view over the Congo river) or Nenuphar (great steaks). For Muslims there are very few places to go out for eating like La Mandarine, one of the Lebanese Restaurants in the city. On the Avenue Foch are few restaurants and cafes where you can get dinner, snack, coffee. But at all the Lebanese restaurants one can find Halal food.

There are several great restaurants in Brazzaville. Any taxi driver can take you to one of these nicer places (5,000-15,000 CFA). Most places are closed on Sundays. Expect beers to be overpriced here (1,000 to 2,000 CFA).

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Sleep

The Hippocampe hotel and restaurant is where you most likely find other travelers, it has decent food and free wifi. Rooms from 28000 XAF (but you can find cheaper places).
Rue Béhangle
+242 06 668 60 68

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Keep Connected

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

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Contributors

as well as UliS (12%), Hien (7%), hasbeen (5%)

Brazzaville Travel Helpers

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This is version 9. Last edited at 13:29 on May 3, 18 by Utrecht. 16 articles link to this page.

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