Dakar is the arrival, and it holds a trip on its own: markets, sabar drumming, the best restaurants in West Africa, and Gorée twenty minutes offshore. Then pick a direction. South, the Petite Côte leads to the pirogues and shell islands of the Sine-Saloum delta. North, Saint-Louis is a colonial island at the river mouth. The Casamance, beyond Gambia, is rice paddy, palm forest and the beach at Cap Skirring. Give Dakar three or four nights and pair it with the delta or the Casamance.
1 Senegal city guide
Fun fact
UNESCO counts 218 shellfish mounds in the Saloum Delta, some several hundred metres long, built up over centuries by the people who fish there. Twenty-eight carry burial tumuli, and the islets they raised hold the delta’s channels in place. The 5,000 square kilometre site was inscribed in 2011.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realitySenegal has changed government by ballot since independence in 1960 and has never had a successful coup. The US State Department rates it Level 1, its lowest. The exception is the Casamance: the tourist areas are calm, but the border zones are flagged, with landmines off the main roads.
The realityFrench runs government, school and every sign, and it will get you through a trip. People speak Wolof to each other, even those whose first language is Pulaar or Serer, and village French thins out fast. Learn the Wolof greeting: no five minutes of preparation changes more.
The realityThe north edges into the Sahel and looks it by May. The Sine-Saloum is mangrove and tidal channel, the Casamance is rice paddy and palm forest, green all year, and the southeast around Kédougou is hills and waterfalls. Saint-Louis and Ziguinchor feel like two countries.
The realityDakar invented mbalax, hosts the Dak’Art biennale and cooks the food of the whole sub-region better than anywhere near it. It has an Atlantic corniche, surf at Ngor and Yoff, and a UNESCO island in the harbour. Three nights is the floor, not the ceiling.
The realityTeranga is a Wolof idea of hospitality that carries real obligation, and within a day or two a stranger will invite you to eat from their bowl. It is neither performance nor transaction. Accept a little, never refuse outright, and bring something small when invited into a home.
How to behave
- Greetings come first and they are long. "Salaam aleikum", the reply "maleikum salaam", then questions about the family and the house before anything you actually came to say. Skipping to the request reads as rude, not efficient.
- Eating is communal and right-handed. Work the wedge of the shared bowl in front of you without roaming, and when the host pushes the best pieces of fish toward you, take them.
- Touba is a religious city and behaves like one. Alcohol is prohibited there, dress covers shoulders and knees, and women cover their hair at the Great Mosque. Outside pilgrimage season non-Muslim visitors are generally welcome, with a guide.
- Ask before you photograph anyone, and expect to be asked for something in return at the fishing beaches and the markets. A refusal is a refusal. Religious sites and the mosques are the strictest about it.
- Ramadan reshapes the day. Restaurants outside the tourist strips may not open until dusk, work slows in the afternoon, and eating or smoking in the street in daylight is legal but conspicuous.
- Bargaining is expected in markets and for taxis, and the first price is only an opening position. Agree the taxi fare before the door closes, because almost no yellow taxi runs a meter.
Famous Senegalese faces
Youssou N’Dour
Baaba Maal
Ismaël Lô
Safi Faye
Mariama Bâ
Cheikh Amadou Bamba
Kalidou Koulibaly
El Hadji Diouf
Ousmane Sembène
Djibril Diop Mambéty
Léopold Sédar Senghor
Amadou Mahtar Mbow
Cheikh Anta Diop
Sadio Mané
Must-try Senegalese food
Thieboudienne
Broken rice in fish and tomato stock under a stuffed fish. On UNESCO’s list since 2021.
Caldou
A clear, sharp fish broth with rice, lemon and chilli. The one to order in the heat.
Thiebou yapp
The meat version of the national dish: rice browned with lamb or beef and onion.
Fataya
Fried turnovers of spiced fish or minced meat, sold outside every school and taxi rank.
Yassa poulet
Lemon-marinated chicken under onions cooked down with mustard. Casamance in origin.
Mafé
Meat braised in a thick groundnut sauce with tomato and root vegetables, over rice.
Suppu kanja
Okra and fish stewed in palm oil. The dish Senegalese abroad miss first.
Yassa poisson
The lemon and onion treatment over a whole grilled fish. The default lunch on the coast.
Dibi
Charcoal-grilled mutton, chopped and wrapped in paper with onion, mustard and chilli.
Accara
Black-eyed pea fritters in a baguette with fierce chilli sauce. The standard breakfast.
Ataya
Green tea brewed and poured three times, each round sweeter. An invitation means an hour.
Bissap
Hibiscus steeped, sweetened and served ice cold, often frozen in a sachet. Tart, deep red.
Café Touba
Coffee roasted with djar pepper for a clove-like heat. Sold on the street from flasks.
Thiakry
Millet couscous stirred through soured milk and sugar. Served cold, after thieboudienne.
Sombi
Rice slow-cooked in coconut milk and vanilla to a loose pudding. Milder than thiakry.
Ngalax
Millet, groundnut paste and baobab fruit, made at Easter and shared across faiths.