Bissau Autonomous Sector · Guinea-Bissau
Bissau travel guide
Bissau is a city in Bissau Autonomous Sector, Guinea-Bissau, home to about 492,000 people.
- Nearest airport
- OXB9 km · Osvaldo Vieira International Airport
- Currency
- XOFWest African CFA franc
- Time zone
- Africa/Bissau
- Language
- Portuguese
About
About Bissau
Bissau is the capital and largest city of Guinea-Bissau. As of 2015, it had a population of 492,004.
Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Things to do
What to see and do in Bissau
See
- Presidential Palace
- São José de Amura fort
- National Ethnographic Museum
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Where to stay
Which part of Bissau to stay in
Hotels in Bissau are generally overpriced. There's hope that prices will decrease as new hotels are open.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
When to go
The best time to visit Bissau
Bissau has no month that is both mild and dry by the measure used here. March is the warmest month, with average highs of 35 °C; August is the wettest, with about 636 mm of rain.
Comfortable means average daytime high between 18 °C and 29 °C and under 80 mm of rain in the month. Averages for 1991–2020 over the surrounding area, a grid square about 50 km across, so a coast or a nearby mountain can make the town itself warmer or cooler. Data: CRU TS v4.10, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia (Open Database License).
Getting there
Getting to Bissau: airports and arrival
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Osvaldo Vieira International Airport (OXB), about 8.5 km from the city centre in a straight line; Ziguinchor Airport (ZIG, 109 km) and Cap Skirring Airport (CSK, 140 km) are also within reach.
Getting in
Air Senegal flies from Dakar. Cabo Verde Airlines has four flights each week from Dakar to Bissau, returning to Dakar the same day. These flights are not an example of punctuality, and it is a good idea to check with their office in Bissau (Av. Amilcar Cabral 8B, tel. 206087) before you head to the airport. A sept-places (7-seat shared taxi) from Ziguinchor, Senegal, costs CFA 4,000. Additional CFA 1,000 for a normal sized bag. The trip takes 2½ to 3 hours, depending on border formalities.
Getting around
Shared taxis are cheap and plentiful. Stop taxis and tell them where you want to go (or tell the passing taxis by pointing), and they will either accept "na bai" (I'm going), or decline "não" (no) if people, already in the taxi, are going to another part of the city. Prices are more or less fixed, and you'll normally not get cheated, except when you're an obvious foreigner and taking a taxi from the airport or Hotel Bissau Palace. Group travel is cheaper, for example: 1 person CFA 300, 2 persons CFA 300, 3 or 4 persons CFA 600.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
OXB · Osvaldo Vieira International Airport
ZIG · Ziguinchor Airport
CSK · Cap Skirring Airport
Local knowledge
Eating, drinking and staying safe in Bissau
Drink
There are quite a few discos and nightclubs, one nightclub popular with expats is X-Klub which has pool tables and a small dance floor.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Questions
Bissau: questions travellers ask
When is the best time to visit Bissau?
Bissau has no month that is both mild and dry by the measure used here. March is the warmest month, with average highs of 35 °C; August is the wettest, with about 636 mm of rain.
Which airport is closest to Bissau?
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Osvaldo Vieira International Airport (OXB), about 8.5 km from the city centre in a straight line; Ziguinchor Airport (ZIG, 109 km) and Cap Skirring Airport (CSK, 140 km) are also within reach.
What currency is used in Bissau?
West African CFA franc (XOF).
Nearby
Destinations near Bissau
Sources: city facts from Wikidata and Wikipedia; airports from OurAirports; climate from CRU TS v4.10 (University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit), 1991–2020 monthly means, 0.5° grid; places to stay, guest scores and amenities from each operator's own public pages. How this guide is made.