Lagos

Lagos produces an extraordinary volume of film. Nollywood, Nigeria's film industry and centered almost entirely in Lagos, is frequently cited as the second-largest film industry in the world by sheer number of productions, behind only India's, and ahead of Hollywood on that specific measure, even though its average budgets run far smaller. The industry grew explosively from the 1990s onward, built on fast, low-cost production and direct-to-video distribution before streaming platforms gave it genuine global reach.

Music has followed a similar trajectory. Afrobeats, a genre rooted in Lagos' club and studio scene, has become one of the most-streamed musical styles in the world over the past decade, with Nigerian artists routinely charting internationally and headlining major festivals abroad, a genuine cultural export on a scale few African cultural industries have matched.

Lagos Island, the historic core of the city, holds the Brazilian Quarter, a neighborhood shaped by formerly enslaved Afro-Brazilians who returned to Lagos in the 19th century after slavery's abolition in Brazil, bringing distinct architectural styles that still stand out among the island's older buildings. Balogun Market nearby ranks among West Africa's largest and most intensely chaotic open-air markets, a genuine sensory overload of textiles, goods, and negotiation that rewards visitors willing to wade in.

Victoria Island and Lekki, Lagos' more modern districts built on reclaimed and developed land, hold the city's upscale restaurants, hotels, and nightlife, along with the Lekki Conservation Centre's canopy walkway through a stretch of coastal rainforest, a genuinely different pace from the older island's density.

Lagos' sheer size, with metro-area population estimates ranging widely into the tens of millions depending on how the boundaries are drawn, makes it one of the largest and fastest-growing urban areas on Earth, and its infamous traffic reflects that scale directly — getting between neighborhoods can take considerably longer than the distance alone would suggest, a genuine planning factor for any visit.