ROAD TRIP || SOUTH WEST – COST BREAKDOWN

Hey Guys!!

Did you miss the last post on my road trip to Nok Village? Check it out here.

I was planning to go to Ghana with my friends for the Christmas break (uno visit a new country goal) but my friends changed their minds. When I heard there was a public holiday on Monday (12 December 2016), I figured it would be a great opportunity to take a road trip to the South West.

I mentioned it to a couple of people who I figured would be interested in the road trip and by Friday night we were 6 going on the road trip. Thanks to @UnravellingNigeria, we were able to plan our route and budget for the trip (15,000 pp).

We planned the trip in 2 days (Thursday and Friday) and by Saturday morning we were headed to Ekiti State. We had earlier planned to hire a taxi at Ojota Motor Park to take us to Ikogosi. However, by the time we got to the park all the taxis had gone. We were told that, if we had gotten there at 6:30am we would have gotten a taxi to take us there.

We shall entered a bus (N2,050 pp) heading towards Ado-Ekiti and we were advised to come down at Aramoko and take another bus to Ikogosi. We left Lagos at 8am and got to Aramoko at 2pm. On getting to Aramoko, we hired a taxi (N300 pp) to take us to Ikogosi (about 30 mins away from Aramoko).

When we got to Ikogosi WarmSprings Resort, we paid for our rooms (Deluxe Standard, N12,500 per night) and a refundable deposit fee of N2,500. However, we got moved to the Executive Standard (N16,500 per night) rooms because the small generators do not power the Deluxe Standard rooms.

We were told that Arinta Waterfalls closed by 4pm so we had to rush to the compound where the waterfall is located. The resort did not have any bus or taxi or car on ground to take us to the waterfalls. So we had to hire okadas to take us to the waterfall and wait for us.(They requested for N1250 pp on the Okada, however we were able to negotiate it down to N750 pp).

P.S. Make sure they wait for you because Arinta Waterfalls is located 2 towns away from Ikogosi and in a secluded area so it may be hard to find transport back to Ikogosi.

When we checked in to the resort, we noted the following:

• PHCN does not supply Ikogosi WarmSprings Resort power (it is in the middle of a forest/jungle) so they have to use generators to power the resort.
• The generator is powered on from 7pm to 7am daily. If there are less than 10/15 people at the resort, the small generator is powered on else the big generator is powered on.
• There are no fans in the rooms only ACs. However, since the small generator does not power ACs standing fans are provided.
• The small generator only powers the lights in the rooms and 2 sockets (one of which is taken by the fan). *You might want to take an extension with you if you are sharing a room with someone or have stuffs (phones and powerbank) to charge*.
• Food at the restaurant is only prepared when you want to eat which takes more than an hour to be ready. *Ensure you order for your food very early*.
• There was no water in the morning for about 30 minutes. They had to call the maintenance guy to switch on the pump (I think).

When we called the restaurant on Sunday morning to order complimentary breakfast (only yam and egg sauce was available), we were told that since we did not pay the complete fee for the Executive Standard room we were not going to be getting the complimentary breakfast. I was so pissed off at the point I had to call the reception. Finally, they called the restaurant to prepare our breakfast. About 45 minutes later, breakfast was still not ready. We had to leave as our journey was still very long.

Luckily, we remembered to collect the number of the taxi guy that brought us from Aramoko the day before (N300 pp). He came to pick us on Sunday morning and organized a taxi to take us from Aramoko, Ekiti to Osu, Osun State. The taxi man was kind enough to take us to Erin Ijesha at Erin Ijesha, wait for us, take us Moremi Statue at Ile-Ife, wait for us and finally drop us in front of OAU where we took another taxi heading to Lagos (N2,500 pp).

Attractions Visited

• Arinta Waterfalls, Ipole-Oloro
• Ikogosi WarmSprings, Ikogosi
• Erin Ijesha Waterfalls, Erin Ijesha
• Moremi Statue of Liberty, Ile-Ife
• Osun Oshogbo Grove, Oshogbo  (We had to cancel because of time).

Have you ever stayed at Ikogosi WarmSprings Resort? What was your experience like? Was it good? I did not enjoy staying there to be honest.

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Thanks for reading!

Simi