5 Fun + 3 Historical Places you Should visit in Ibadan

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and stressed so I decided to go with a couple of friends for a weekend out at Ibadan. I was looking for a relaxing mini-vacation on a serious budget lol. In this post, I’d be highlighting 5 fun and 3 historical places you should visit in Ibadan; making a total of 8.

PS: Long Post Alert

Let’s begin with the Fun Places…

Here are places you NEED to visit in Ibadan Click To Tweet

5. Mauve 21

Mauve 21 is one of the biggest events centres in Ibadan. It also has a chilled club and restaurant, where people can go to have fun, eat and you would even think you’re in Lagos.

4. Ali Baba Suya

I asked about 3 different people where their best sue spot in Ibadan is and they all said, ‘Ali Baba Suya’. It’s located not far from the University of Ibadan gate. You’d be marvelled at how many big cars come to Ali Baba each night to buy Suya sticks. (I still don’t get why Suya is sold only at night though. If you know, biko yarn me in the comments section below). Someone right in from of me bought suya of N10, 000. Yeee!

For some reason though, I wasn’t really feeling the taste of the suya, maybe because I was really tired that night or my taste buds are just too razz for such tush Suya lol.

3. Agodi Gardens

I was really excited to visit Agodi Gardens as I had heard so much about it. It’s a very big park that hosts a zoo, a club, a gaming centre, a pool and spaces for picnics. The greenery of this place really good out to me and I was in love within minutes. It rained a few minutes before I got there so you can imagine how beautiful an environment with so much greens would look.

However, they wanted to finish all my money so I couldn’t stay long there. Entry into the Agodi Gardens alone costs N500 and this only allows you access to the zoo and the picnic spaces. You aren’t even allowed to take camera pictures without taking permission (which would eventually cost a fee). This means that to access the gaming centre (which had really cool games, even for adults like Paint-balling) and the swimming pool, you had to pay another N500. Arghhh! Again? Just to shoot ourselves paint and shake body inside water!

The Ijebu in me had this mini vacation in mind on a budget and I wasn’t gonna allow anything ruin the plans. I was beginning to feel a little urge to just pay and enjoy the pool at least when the rains started again. God just poured me water instead of me spending N500 to enter water (insert Mr Eazi’s “Pour me water” jam here).

I ended up going around the zoo (where most of the animals looked unkempt and dying), took some pictures and left. I would probably go there again though, with a much wider budget.

2. Frosties

I don’t know why Frosties is second on my list though, because everyone I asked about the place said they didn’t like how it had turned out. According to them, it used to be a warm and family centred place where everyone including adults and kids could come have fun, eat ice cream, cake and shawarma. People even used to have mini birthday parties there.

However, in a bid to make more money by the owner (I guess), he introduced a bar into the place and now, everyone including chain-smokers find their way to Frosties. No one going into Frosties is trusted anymore, as security guards are present at the gate to search your bags.

Nevertheless, the ice cream was quite nice and though, I have a few trust issues when it comes to trying out new food flavours, I allowed the attendant mix/match three ice cream flavours for me and I loved them. Each scoop costs N500.

I don’t have a picture of Frosties as I went there the first night I got to Ibadan and was too tired to snap away, but I was able to take a picture of the shawarma I go there. Not the best shawarma I’ve had though but pretty decent.

1. Paris Bakery

…and to the granddaddy on this list, Paris Bakery. That Place deserves some accolades thooooough! I honestly, in my wildest imagination, would have never thought that such a cute and beautiful place existed in Ibadan. It’s the home of the best ice cream, pastries and confectionary in Ibadan. Very beautiful wall art, designs, awesome customer service…did I mention cheap ice cream? Biko Paris Bakery, take all my coins!

A scoop cost N400 but the more scoops you have, the less your money. That is, 2 scoops cost about N700, 3 scoops cost about N900 and so on. Their doughnuts and croissant were also really lovely.

Plus, their in-house aesthetics were so cool! Talk about every blogger’s delight, all in one place!

Paris bakery is one place I’d go again and again in Ibadan.

I would have never thought in my wildest imagination, that a beautiful place like this existed in Ibadan... Click To Tweet

To the Historical Places…

 

MAPO HALL

I was really moved to visit this place because it was the event centre where my parents got married in so I did have some sentiment attached to it. It was commissioned as far back as 1921 by Captain Ross and has a hall that can seat a thousand people.

It also has historical stories attached to it as a place where decisions were made by some ruling people of the old Yoruba days and also had a prison for defaulters. Right beside Mapo Hall is a statue of a powerful warrior said to be popular in those days. The man who took us on a tour to this place took time to explain some things to us about it and you can watch that in the video at the end of this post.

BOWER’S TOWER

Bower’s tower is said to be one of the tallest towers in Ibadan. It’s located some metres from Mapo Hall and takes about 5 minutes to climb (minus the fear of heights you may feel along the way lol). From the top of this tower, you can see Cocoa House and so many other places located in Ibadan.

The brown roofs which Ibadan is known for, are also a delight to watch from the top. We paid N200 each to gain access to climbing the tower.

Baba Saka Cinema/UI Zoo

Baba Saka Cinema is located just opposite UI. It’s an old, deserted work of architectural beauty that used to be a cinema. It’s sad to find out that it’s now a home to area boys and maybe people who have no toilets in their homes as we did see quite a number of NUMBER 2’s on the stairs lol.

The UI Zoo located in the Zoology department of the university hosts a range of animals; from reptiles to birds, to mammals, carnivores and so on. It was quite obvious though that this place was lacking in care. Some of the animal nests/dens looked unkempt, some cages empty and forgotten. It’s sad to see that the popular UI Zoo is seriously lacking inadequate maintenance. We paid N500 each to go in and weren’t allowed to use professional cameras inside except phone cameras.

A video/vlog of my days in Ibadan are on my YouTube channel and you can watch it HERE  or click the video below

I hope you enjoyed this post.

 

 

Have you visited Ibadan before? Visited any of the places in this post? Know anywhere fun/historical I didn’t visit? Please let me know in the comment section, let’s have a travel chat!

 

Till my next post,

Always reflect God’s perfection xx.

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