WHERE IN THE WORLD? RISE AND SHINE
Anew study into the most popular cities for early birds has revealed Lagos, Nigeria, as Africa’s best riseand-shine location. Perhaps more accurately, the study reveals in which cities people feel the most moved to take sunrise photos and then share their cheery morning moods on Instagram.
To help early risers compile their own travel bucket lists, researchers from the UKbased Premier Inn hotel group started by taking more than 250 popular city-break destinations around the world, then looked at how many times people had shared pics on Instagram with the hashtag “goodmorning[city]”.
The result, they say, reveals “the most beautiful cities to wake up in”. And Africa’s winner is Lagos, with 3,807 “goodmorning” hashtags.
Cape Town is the second most popular morning city, with 2,233 hashtags. The researchers say “Cape Town is clearly a big hit among early morning Instagrammers capturing sunrises from some of Cape Town’s famous hiking routes such as Lion’s Head mountain, showing that Cape Town is even more beautiful from a great height.”
The rest of Africa’s top 10: Cairo,
Egypt (768), Durban, SA (467), Nairobi, Kenya (407), Casablanca, Morocco
(198), Accra, Ghana (54), Alexandria, Egypt (48), Kampala, Uganda (44) and Kano, Nigeria (38).
A spokesperson from Premier Inn says what posters are typically enjoying is the “quiet calm that comes ... before the cities spring to life and the hustle and bustle begins. The morning brings a fresh start to each new day, and what better way to start the day than experiencing some of the most beautiful city scenes at sunrise?”
Evidently, European cities are favoured by early risers, with seven of the top 20 located on the continent, including the German cities of Berlin and Cologne; Paris in France; Vienna in Austria; Amsterdam in the Netherlands; and Dublin in Ireland.
The US proved the most popular country overall for morning photos, with the five US cities in the top 20 amassing 62,000 hashtags. The Big Apple is the US’s most popular city, followed by Chicago, San Diego, Washington and Seattle.
As for Africa’s top city, the researchers say: “Golden morning swirls of sky are captured in many of the morning posts from Lagos, with Instagram users showcasing the city’s vibrant feel with people on their morning commute, making time to take a morning snap in front of Lagos Lagoon.”
Other frequently photographed sites include the canopy walkway at the Lekki Conservation Centre. The 78ha centre’s 401m walkway — along a series of suspension bridges in a forest — is the longest in Africa.
Another popularly posted spot mentioned is pictured here, though it is in fact a mangrove forest about 95km east of Lagos, in an area known as “the fish basket of Lagos state”.
● To stand a chance of winning R500, tell us the name of the mangrove forest. E-mail your answer to travelquiz@sundaytimes.co.za before noon on Tuesday, April 19. Last week’s winner is Lerato Malekane. The correct answer was the Meguro River.