Burkina Faso: good to know
The general-information half of trip planning: how expensive Burkina Faso feels, what is considered polite, what is not, and the everyday practicalities - alongside our 36 written places.
Greetings stretch long and warmth is the point; nobody transacts before asking about your family.
✓ Considered polite
- Take time with greetings - ask after the family and answer when asked, it is the real start of any exchange
- Use the right hand for eating, giving money and passing anything
- Accept invitations to share food or tea - joining in matters more than how much you eat
- Learn Bonjour plus a greeting or two in Moore - the effort lands well
✗ Better avoided
- Skip greetings and get straight to business - it is considered genuinely rude
- Hand over money or food with your left hand
- Refuse hospitality flatly - taste a little and thank them
- Take the first market price at face value - opening offers expect a counter
Worth knowing
- The currency is the West African CFA franc and the economy runs on cash - cards barely exist outside big hotels
- Bargaining at markets is normal and friendly - counter well below the opening price and settle in the middle
- Dolo, the local beer brewed from red sorghum, is served by the calabash in small dolo bars
- Handshakes between friends often end with a finger snap - follow their lead
Plugs and voltage: Wikipedia, «Mains electricity by country» (after the IEC World Plugs list), read 15 October 2026.
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Customs are living things - regions differ, cities relax, generations shift. Take these notes as a friendly head start, watch what locals do, and when in doubt a smile and a greeting in the local language cover almost everything.