Cheap flights to Burkina Faso

• Royal Air Maroc
• Brussels Airlines
• Lufthansa
• Turkish Airways
• Air France
• Air Burkina
• KLM

• From London Heathrow Airport to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, the trip takes about 7 to 8 hours to complete, depending on the route and the airline you choose. The flight has one stopover in the middle; either at Casablanca or Paris.
• There is one stopover in the trip from Manchester to Ouagadougou in Brussels, and the entire journey lasts for 11 to 12 hours.
• The ten-hour flight from Birmingham’s airport to the one in Ouagadougou has a layover in Pairs.
• The trip from London Gatwick Airport to Ouagadougou Airport only takes 7 hours and 30 minutes to reach its destination but has a stopover in Casablanca.

No as of right, now no direct flights are operating between Burkina Faso and the United Kingdom, from any airport of either country. Both Royal Air Maroc and Air France provide cheap flights to Burkina Faso. Usually, Air Maroc flights are more affordable, but Air France schedules more trips to the country, giving the traveller more options.

Air France flights from the UK to Ouagadougou are more economical and are demanded eagerly by our customers. These flights come with only one stopover in Paris, which is only one hour long. These flights have a duration of not more than eight to nine hours.

There are 12 flights routes between London and Paris, and each one connects the two cities multiple times during a week. For example, just AF1581 travels every day between London to Paris at noon sharp and arrives in Paris, precisely in time for the connecting flight to Ouagadougou.

Eleven Air France flights are leaving for Ouagadougou from Paris each week. Most passengers try to book seats on the AF914 that starts its journey at three in the evening every Monday, Thursday and Saturday from Charles de Gale. However, there are four other routes to Ouagadougou from Paris that you can choose from to best fit your travelling needs.

Burkina Faso experiences the rainy season from June to September. The rainfall can exceed 90 cm in the south of the country. Visiting the country just before the rains arrive or even during this period can keep the prices low. Come to Burkina Faso in May so that you can have a cheaper vacation and not many rainy days stop you from exploring the country. However, if you come to Burkina Faso after August, expect seven to ten days of wet days per month.

The June to September time, however, is not exactly the cheapest time to visit Burkina Faso. During October and November, the dusty Harmattan winds begin to blow into the country from the north bearing the sands of the Saharan Desert. A fine dust coats everything, from the bedside table to the floor of the porch. If you can carry on through that, going to Burkina Faso is even cheaper in October-November when the Harmattan is intense, even though they continue till March.

There are two airports in Burkina Faso that entertain international flights. Their details and corresponding information is provided as under:

• The Ouagadougou International Airport (OUA) serves the capital of the country, as the name suggests. Ouagadougou is located right at the centre of Burkina Faso, so moving from the city to any other part of the country is relatively easy. As a result of urban sprawl, over time, the town has spread around the airport. From Independence Avenue, which is where most of the government offices and embassies are situated, the airport is only 3 kilometres away; that is a mere seven to ten-minute ride via car. Last year, the airport handled around half a million passengers.
• Bobo Dioulasso International Airport (BOY) serves the southern half of the country. As Burkina Faso is a landlocked country, airports are an essential piece of public infrastructure which ensures the movement of people and goods. Bobo Dioulasso International Airport is not extensively used by passengers coming from Europe to Burkina Faso. However, the airport is used regularly by people travelling from the Ivory Coast and other parts of the country. From Place de la Nation intersection, the airport is only 4 kilometres away.

The best time of the year to visit Burkina Faso is between December and February. The country experiences two distinct types of climates. The northern half of the country is called the Sahel which is part of the Sahara desert; it receives little rainfall and has sparse vegetation. The southern half of Burkina Faso is a tropical savannah, has cooler temperatures and a greener environment. During the December to February months, the weather is the coolest, and the humidity is also low making this an inviting time to be in Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso has an embassy in the United Kingdom but, in reality, it does not process visa requests. Instead, contact the Embassy of Burkina Faso in Brussels and apply for your visa from there. Please also note that regardless of the printed visa tenure on your passport, the immigration officer may write the date the travel permit will expire at the time of entry. Consider this as the actual date of expiry and make sure you exit the country before that date. Please also note that there are currently no Burkinabe Embassies open in Accra, Ghana or Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The Foreign Office of the United Kingdom requests all British citizens to travel with caution to Burkina Faso.

After gaining independence from the French in 1960, Burkina Faso underwent a series of coups and regime changes. However, for the last few decades, there has been substantial stability. Burkina Faso continues to escalate its economy by exporting gold and cotton to fund the country’s infrastructure and maintain the wildlife parks of the country.

• The Arli National Park is a nature reserve in Eastern Burkina Faso. The national park is a part of the more massive W-Arly-Penndjari Complex, which is a region shared by two other neighbours of Burkina Faso — dedicated for the conservation and protection of nature. Arly Park, also spelt with a ‘y’, is home to wild African elephants, hippos, lion, buffalos and antelopes. The park is so large that it has been declared as a separate ecosystem and a UNESCO world heritage site. The entire park’s 760 square kilometres virgin beauty can be explored with the aid of guides that are available to the tourists coming to the country.
• The National Museum of Music in Ouagadougou celebrates the folk music and the artistic heritage of the Burkinabe. The museum is a great place to start your tour of Burkina Faso and quickly introduces the tourist to the culture of the country. The building, right in the heart of the city and easily accessible, displays the musical instruments that have been gracing their tunes to the different festivals of the Burkinabe people. These instruments include varieties of flutes, drums and bells that are hundreds of years old.
• Ouagadougou Cathedral is one of the landmarks of Ouagadougou and a testament of the colonial expansion into the culture of Burkina Faso. Even though the majority of Burkinabe are Muslims, Christianity has been thriving here for many years. This cathedral was built in the early 1930 and still welcomes worshippers for Sunday mass. The architects of the temple used local construction material to create a structure that has some semblance with the Notre-Dame in Paris.

Muslims in Burkina Faso celebrate the Ramadan and Eid ul Fitr festivals with religious adherence and devotion. At the end of the Ramadan, there are sweets, and special milk pudding is served to guests during the celebrations. The Tabaski festival always has surplus meat and barbeque parties, and these morsels of protein are packed with spice and flavour. The Islamic festivals follow the lunar calendar and as such do not have any fix dates in the Gregorian calendar. The biggest celebration of hip hop in West Africa is the International Cultural Hip Hop Festival and takes place in October around the entire country, including in the cities of Ouagadougou, Koudougou and Bobo-Diolasso. Burkina Faso also celebrates the ‘Festival Panafricain du Cinema', which portrays the realities of life in Africa and presents it on the silver screen.

It is generally not safe to travel during the night in Burkina Faso, but if you must, please carry phone numbers of taxi drivers that can get you to your destination swiftly. In the more urban areas of Burkina Faso, especially in the south, taxis are the best means of moving around tourists from the United Kingdom. Burkina Faso does not have a fully functioning public transportation, so the preferred choice for most tourists to get around is by using the taxi. The prices for petrol have gone up slightly, but for now, the taxi driver demands around 300 West African Francs to get you to the central market from your hotel in the Independence Avenue area. The moment you stray off the route the prices can go through the roof, so it’s best to haggle and bargain the price before getting into the car.

• Laico Ouaga 2000 Hotel
• Sopatel Silmande Ouagadougou
• Hotel Kavana
• Hotel les Palmiers
• Le Karite Bleu