Thirsty Thursdays: 9 Nuts Bars I Visited In Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 🇧🇫

“Nuts loyal” – this travel blog.

While I’m pleased to bring this unique Thirsty Thursdays for you all from Ouagadougou, please note the real smiles and the amazing people I met in these bars! That is what really happens when you really go backpacking, rather than sit on a laptop in your bedroom like so many wannabe “experts” – First up, quell the fake news from extremists, fake tourists, governments that don’t go backpacking and social media keyboard wizards. Those governments have never and will never visit any of these bars or go backpacking. They are there to fake newsify people. Burkina Faso is open, it’s friendly and it’s welcoming. But I knew that before I’d even arrived here! Get your Burkina Faso visa (link further down), go and visit!

“No alarms; and no surprises, please” – Radiohead.

The amount of excrement I received and read online in the month leading up to backpacking Burkina Faso away, was nuts. There are a lot of online groups, mostly full of rich white “westerners” (I hate that word, but as a northerner, I’m just glad I’m not a westerner) who egotistically scaremonger loyal to fellow tourists wishing to backpack Africa Away. I won’t believe you, or fall for your excrement. Try backpacking Belfast in the 1980s and you’ll get it.

“Don’t you ever consider giving up” – Ace of Base.

Once you’ve got your online Burkina Faso visa, ignored the fake stories, get ready for the madness of Ouagadougou. The city that capitals Burky F, Burkina Faso 🇧🇫, the former Upper Volta, is nuts, wild and magical. This was country 230 on my nuts journey around the globe. We managed to get a multiple entry visa and ended up with 7 days here, a 5 and then a 2, after we dipped in and out of Benin to celebrate Christmas down by the beach. As you do in the charmed life.

Then just for a moment, you work your way through some cool bars in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Here were the 9 we visited, there are many many more, all open, all friendly, all welcoming. We loved it and probably could even have visited more, but time and money is always of the essence. Plus we had to backpack the sights, watch some football, do some blogging and plan the next 7 countries on the journey…

1.The Maradona Bar (aka La Casa / Pasta Basta)

Address: 8FGJ+CJF, Patte d´oie, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Beer Prices: From 1,500 WAF

Get your fist out and do the Maradona at Ouagadougou away. This is not just the bar the hang out in, this is your place to stay. You sleep next door at La Casa. In the photo below, you’ll spot Diego Maradona just over my right shoulder.

Hang out with Fabio, the owner from Napoli who has constructed one of the trendiest bars in West Africa right here. The Maradona is the bar at La Casa and is also known as Pasta Basta, for the restaurant part. Ice-cold beers, chill out music and the best bargirls this side of Ballyclare make it a top notch bar. Make sure to tell Fabio you read it on Don’t Stop Living.

As a bonus ball here, on the Sunday, the bar staff managed to play AFC Bournemouth against Manchester United for me on the TV on the Sunday. I had told my mates the score would be 3-0 to AFC Bournemouth but nobody believed me. I asked nicely for the football and they put it on.

This was because the season before it was also a textbook easy 3-0 win to the Cherries and surely lightning couldn’t strike twice? But it did, and the magic was here. Cherries smashed the Red Devils 3-0 at Manchester United away. I celebrated in the Maradona Bar. Brilliant.

The Maradona Bar also has local Burkinese liquers for you to try, plus a full food menu as part of Pasta Basta restaurant. It’s a top spot.

It opens at 10 a.m. for breakfast and also has live music at the weekends. Plus the decor with all the Maradona, Naopli and quotes is inspiring for a writer. Remember, I have 10 books out already and many more on the way.

Shout out to Sadia, my favourite barmaid. What a girl…

“Hey baby, I want to know if you’ll be my girl” – Bruce Channel

2.De Niro Pub

Address: 8FGJ+CJF, Patte d´oie, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Beer Prices: From 1,500 WAF

Are we getting clichéd here by going downtown and backpacking Bobby? The old Bobby De Niro follows in after the Maradona Napoli pub! Some Italian links for sure!

It might not even be a bar named after Robert De Niro but a wild Italian influence is certainly a thing I didn’t expect when barpacking Burky F. This bar is a trendy spot to meet locals and even play pool, and watch the Ouagadougou world go by, along the street. It’s friendly and welcoming.

Try the Brakina Beer. I always love trying the local beer in every country I am in. Really good, but only if ice cold of course!

3.La Vita Restaurant

Address: Alarmingly By The Airport, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Beer Prices: From 1,500 WAF

We decided to head downtown for a lunch on our second day, and ended up nearly back at the airport! For a good rice dish, local bottles of cold beer, live football and a veranda, I really recommend La Vita. Great staff too.

We had lunch and beer here on our second day and loved it. We went for rice with a mix of meat and vegetables. I’m not actually sure what was in it but this in retrospect was our nicest meal in our time in Burkina Faso!

What was nuts about La Vita was that it feels so dowtown, like you are in the heart of the city then you hear an aeroplane taking off and you realise that this restaurant, and the hotel next door are a mere 5 minute walk from the international airport, which is named after Thomas Sankara, the national hero.

4.Restaurant Cafe Onu

Address: 8F8Q+F9J, Ouaga 2000, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Beer Prices: 800 WAF

This place, Restaurant Cafe Onu was nuts because of Dango Outtara. On arrival here, I immediately met an AFC Bournemouth fan!! What are the chances of it?? Dango Outtara is one of the most famous people from Burkina Faso – he plays for AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League and has notched last minute winners away at Tottenham Hotspur and Ipswich Town.

Absolutely wild to meet a fellow Cherry here. Good food and atmosphere but the snag is it is unlicensed so we weren’t on the rip in this one! It is near the National Monument. I really regret not getting the AFC Bournemouth fan’s name and email/Facebook/phone number. If you know him – PLEASE try to get in touch and send him the photos and say “Up The Cherries!”

5.Mini Alimentation Wend Kuni Socogib (“The Loke”)

Address: Where Rue 15.227 meets Rue Yanogo Jean, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Beer Prices: From 1,500 WAF

Our local for 2 of the 6 nights we had in Burkina Faso was nuts – it was our cheapest bar in Ouagadougou! It also has to be the coolest name ever for a bar to call your mates from – Mini Alimentation Wend Kuni Socogib (“The Loke”). Imagine this…

“Alright Millwall Neil, it’s Jonny here mate. I’m having a sunset beer in Mini Alimentation Wend Kuni Socogib (“The Loke”) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso formerly Upper Volta”.

It was in the same district as our hostel, La Casa and we went here just after I played football with the locals down the park. Initially we just went in to get a carryout so we could take it back to the hostel. Then we met a local lad called Omar who said we could sit down and just drink the beer as it was a shop that doubled up as a bar.

Essentially it’s just a local shop really that sold alcohol and snacks and was located near the football pitch where I played with the locals pre sunset. Mini Alimentation Wend Kuni Socogib (“The Loke”) was excellent!

I nicknamed it The Loke, but the full name, you can see on the photos is really that – Mini Alimentation Wend Kuni Socogib! We drank in here a brace of times on a street corner watching the world go by…lovely stuff! Plus we met Omar a cool lad and we played football round the corner. Sweet dreams are made of this.

“Where are you when the sun goes down?” – Dire Straits.

6.Le Yacht (Wakanda)

Address: 09bp1087 Ouaga09, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Beer Prices: From 2,500 WAF

Probably the swankiest bar on this list and one to certainly scoff some chicken and beer in, Wakanda came as a nuts surprise. We watched Manchester City v Everton in here and we were the only customers at midday!

It was me, Marek, Jules (our excellent local driver) and Aan from China. We met Aan in Cotonou Airport in Benin the day before and hung out with him in about 5 bars, 3 of them in airports!

The local beer on tap (pression) was 3,000 West African Francs, which was £4 during my trip. Not the cheapest but hey. Also, it is in front of this bar where the famous I Love Ouagadougou sign is, so get snap happy.

7.Farewell Airport Bar

Address: Ouagadougou International Airport, Burkina Faso
Beer Prices: From 1,500 WAF

As a final hat-trick on the way out, we managed to have a beer with Aan our Chinese friend, and Jules who was our excellent driver for a few days at the airport bar in the front, which allows you to drink in without having a boarding pass. This wasn’t even to be our final beer in Burky F! I didn’t catch the name of the bar so we called it Farewell Airport Bar.

I had a light 2% club Shandy in here for a change – it had a green and white Irish shamrock on it, so I felt the luck was coming before we backpacked Niger.

8.Kayali Cafe Bar

Address: Ouagadougou International Airport, Burkina Faso
Beer Prices: From 1,500 WAF

We arrived a textbook 3 hours early for our flight but it simply wasn’t open, we couldn’t get our boarding cards yet. We had to wait until 2 hours before it to even check in. After the farewell airport beer with Aan and Jules, Marek and I had time for one more and this bar, I caught the name of it as Kayali Cafe Bar, and oddly had a German beer called Cody’s. Not only were we barpacking, we were beerpacking too!!

We drank the Cody’s (in a can) from a paper Ivory Coast airlines cup!

This meant nabbing a beer in multiple airport bars to add to the 6 city bars on this original post.

9.Airport Bar 3

Address: Ouagadougou International Airport, Burkina Faso
Beer Prices: From 1,500 WAF

A final beer was necked in this joint, past security – which completed a hat-trick – Airport Bar 3 I nicknamed it. We were off backpacking in Niger next!

Burkina Faso away was so nuts that we visited the airport fource (four times) and it was almost fivce (five times). To under celebrate this, it meant I could drink in 3 of the airport’s 5 bars. Hat-trick nabbed! We finished our last beer and boarded, here’s me backpacking out of Burkina Faso…

Weirdest thing is, we still had another flight booked IN to Burkina Faso on this trip, and could have used it since our visa is valid until March 2025 on a multiple (yes, as many times as we want) entry! However, as I sipped that final sip of that Burkinese beer at Ouagadougou International Airport that day, I felt that just maybe, this was to be my last time in Burkina Faso.

Here are some videos from my time bar crawling in Burkina Faso 🇧🇫: