In March 2024, I made a trip to Ivory Coast and hired Dayo's services for four full days. Dayo offered me a cultural itinerary around the most famous sites around Abidjan, as well as a day in a fishing village on the coast. I might have changed the itinerary to include some traditional mask dance, but I didn't ask at the time since other guides were asking for a lot of money for this event.

My personal experience with Dayo and his driver was, in general, good. The car was comfortable, with air conditioning, and generally, the transfers were correct. It's important to consider that traffic in Abidjan is terrible, and you lose at least 2 hours every day stuck in one of its avenues. An important issue to discuss with the guide when you finalize the budget is food. Keep in mind that Dayo's food is not included in the budget, which surprised me since in all the tours I've done, generally the guide never eats with the client. It's a topic I didn't review in the budget, so there's nothing to comment on that, I just mention it so that future clients are aware.

One thing that surprised me was the visits to the local markets. I got the impression that Dayo was in a hurry and was not at all comfortable with me stopping to ask questions and take some photos. We saw a couple of markets in Abidjan in a rush. I noticed that he wasn't comfortable with the situation, which surprised me because the essence of these trips through Africa is to mingle with the local people.

Another thing that struck me was that from the third day, Dayo no longer offered me water in the mornings. I think this is related to some comments I received from the owner of the hostel, who told me that he thought the tour with Dayo was very expensive for what it offered. I passed this comment on to him, and it seems it didn't sit well with him.

On the third day, Dayo suggested visiting a fishing village near the coast. He mentioned it was a special visit that is hardly accessible to tourists. It is true that it was a remote village with a lot of essence. He mentioned that we would go to a place to interact with local people. The interaction was sitting by the sea with four people speaking their language (which even Dayo didn't understand) and drinking a sort of herbal schnapps or firewater non-stop. The interaction was nil, and the experience was not good. After this visit, I told him that I would like to visit the village and take some photos. He agreed to accompany me but did not seem comfortable with the situation.

One of the main criticisms of the trip with Dayo comes from the visit to this village. There, Dayo showed me a video about traditional dances of the area. One of the members of that village mentioned to Dayo in French that the next day they were going to celebrate that festival in the same village. I told Dayo that I was interested in attending the festival. The problem is that the last day I had a visit to Grand Bassam, which was about an hour and a half away, and therefore, we had to go back by car and drop me off again in Grand Bassam. He told me that this was an extra of my trip and that it had to be paid separately. No problem. He also mentioned that we would have to give some money to the people of the village for attending the traditional dance. I said I agreed but was not willing to pay more than 50 euros for it. He said that he was not going to profit from this, and that we would have to pay at least 160 euros. I said no, that I could only go up to 80 euros, and he replied that we leave it at 100 euros, which I didn't understand because he said he didn't want to make money and suddenly he lowered it from 160 to 100 euros. Obviously, I said no, that these ways of negotiating were not correct when I had already paid a lot of money (710 USD) for 4 days of visits to the most touristic sites around Abidjan.

In summary, my personal experience with Dayo was good, but there were some attitudes I didn't like. Without a doubt, I think Dayo must improve especially in visits to local markets and interaction with them, which is ultimately the essence of these countries.