Nightclubs and bars in Burkina Faso

Les Bambous is a good place to listen to traditional music on any given night while sipping a drink. It's outdoors, so during the rainy season, the situation is variable, and obviously on the weekend, the bands are generally better. Locals will come and contribute to the excitement. Sorry I don't have any still images to show. We took video and I captured bootleg a stereo audio recording for a slideshow soundtrack.

Dress Code: none

The Wassa Club is right in the centre of Ouagadougou - actually in the centre of the street, in a mini-oasis - and inside you quickly forget about the traffic zipping by. It's a good place for a drink, and for food, especially as a starting point for a night on the town. It's a popular spot, so get there fairly early if you're intent on grabbing a decent seat, and order a Brakina or a Sob.B.Bra to while away the time until the food arrives.

Further south, along Ave Yennenga, Ave Loudun and Ave Nkrumah there are lots of late-night drinking and dancing spots. The slick nightclubs are far less interesting than the bars with music and dancing spilling out into the street - places like African Queen on Ave Yennenga or Sahel's on Ave Loudun, where you'll often find the band playing until dawn, with street food stalls popping up outside to re-fuel the dancers (try some yam fries!).

Dress Code: Dress up, especially for the air-con nightclubs, but make an effort even for the more casual places: the locals will, so you should probably try and lose the gritty t-shirt too!