Senegal
Dakar
The westernmost city on mainland Africa: Gorée a ferry ride offshore, mbalax until dawn and surf breaks wrapped around the peninsula.
Dakar is Senegal's capital, a sprawling, loud and stylish city on the Cap-Vert peninsula, the westernmost point of mainland Africa, with the Atlantic on three sides. Its defining sight is Gorée, the small island off the port whose House of Slaves has become a global memorial to the Atlantic slave trade. Around it the city runs on mbalax played until dawn, thieboudienne at lunch, pirogues landing the catch at dusk and surf breaks strung along the rocky shore.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
French, Wolof
Currency
XOF
Timezone
UTC
Why you'll love Dakar
Gorée A short ferry ride from the port, a car-free island of ochre houses and bougainvillea holds the House of Slaves and its Door of No Return, a quiet, sobering counterweight to the city.
Music Mbalax, the sabar-drum sound Youssou N'Dour carried around the world, is the city's soundtrack, and live bands rarely take the stage before midnight.
The coast Surf breaks, a mosque on the shore, fishing pirogues and the Corniche road wrap the peninsula, which ends at the westernmost tip of mainland Africa.
Food Thieboudienne, the national dish of fish and broken rice, yassa sharp with onion and lemon, grilled dibi lamb and café Touba, coffee roasted with peppery djar.
Best time to visit
Oct-Jul
25-31° days
14.693° N, 17.448° W
UTC · Africa/Dakar
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Weather & when to go to Dakar
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Oct-Jul
Surfing prime Oct-Mar
Activity seasons none fair good prime
Watch for Jun-Nov cyclones & hurricanes risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Dakar
August and September are the rainy months, bringing short, heavy downpours, sticky humidity and flooded streets in low-lying suburbs. The rains build through July and ease in October. From November to May the city is dry, breezy and mild for West Africa, though the Harmattan wind can haze the sky with Saharan dust.
Top things to do in Dakar
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Île de Gorée - the island and the House of Slaves
history culture arts 👍 PopularA 20-minute ferry from the port reaches a car-free island of ochre and pink colonial houses, bougainvillea and sandy lanes. The House of Slaves, with its Door of No Return opening onto the sea, is the centrepiece of a UNESCO-listed memorial; walk up to the Castel for views back to the city, and stay on as the day-trippers thin out.
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African Renaissance Monument - the bronze giant on the Mamelles
culture arts scenic 👍 PopularA 49-metre bronze of a man, woman and child facing the ocean from one of the twin Mamelles hills, unveiled in 2010 and visible across much of the city. Climb the long stairway from the road, then take the lift inside to a viewing deck in the man's head, looking over Ouakam, the Almadies and the Atlantic.
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Museum of Black Civilisations - Africa and its diaspora
culture arts history ⭐ Highly recommendedA vast round building beside the Grand Théâtre, its form echoing the impluvium houses of the Casamance, tells the story of Africa and its diaspora through masks, textiles, ironwork and contemporary art, with galleries on human origins, science and the slave trade. It also holds a sword attributed to El Hadj Omar Tall, returned from France.
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Kermel Market and the Plateau - colonial Dakar on foot
history shoppingWalk the colonial downtown: Kermel Market, an iron-framed hall rebuilt after a fire, piled with fish, flowers and crafts; Place de l'Indépendance; the Presidential Palace and its red-uniformed guard; and the IFAN museum of African art on Place Soweto, an old-fashioned collection of masks and instruments. For wax-print cloth by the length, with tailors on hand, head to HLM market.
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Pointe des Almadies and the Corniche - to Africa's western tip
scenicThe Corniche Ouest runs above cliffs and coves from the Plateau toward the Almadies, busy with joggers, outdoor gyms and football on the sand. Along it: the Mosque of the Divinity on the shore at Ouakam, the old lighthouse on the Mamelles and, at the end, the Pointe des Almadies, mainland Africa's westernmost tip, where stalls serve fresh sea urchins at sunset.
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Ngor Island and Ngor Right - surf and swim a pirogue hop away
surfing scenic 👍 PopularPirogues shuttle from Ngor beach to this small island a few hundred metres offshore, with sheltered swimming coves on the landward side. Its right-hand reef break, Ngor Right, starred in The Endless Summer in 1966 and still anchors a busy surf scene, with camps and schools in Ngor village. The water runs cool in the winter swell season, so bring a wetsuit.
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Soumbédioune - pirogues and the fish market at dusk
culture arts shoppingIn the late afternoon, painted pirogues run up onto the beach at Soumbédioune, a cove on the Corniche Ouest, and the catch is sold on the sand amid a crush of buyers. The craft village beside it sells carvings, leatherwork, jewellery and cloth; bargain with good humour.
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Mbalax - live music until dawn
nightlife music ⭐ Highly recommendedMbalax, built on the sabar drums and taken global by Youssou N'Dour, is the sound of Dakar nightlife. Live bands play in clubs across the city, mostly Thursday to Saturday, rarely start before midnight and peak in the small hours. Sabar drumming at a street wedding or naming ceremony is the daytime version.
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Laamb - Senegalese wrestling
culture artsWrestling with punches is the national obsession. Big bouts fill stadiums with drummers, griots and fighters working through gris-gris rituals before a clash that may last seconds, while smaller neighbourhood bouts play out on beaches and sandlots and the big fights are watched on every screen in town.
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Thieboudienne and yassa - eat Senegalese
foodThieboudienne, the national dish, is fish simmered with tomato and vegetables over broken rice, eaten at lunch from a shared bowl. Try yassa, chicken or fish in a sharp onion and lemon sauce; mafé, a peanut stew; dibi, grilled lamb from a dibiterie; and fataya and accara from street stalls. Drink bissap, bouye and café Touba.
Best areas to stay in Dakar
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Plateau
Sightseeing base $$Colonial downtown of markets and ministries
Explore hotels in Plateau →
Almadies
Nightlife and comfort $$$Upscale western tip, seafood and bars
Explore hotels in Almadies →
Ngor
Surf and beach $$Fishing village with surf and an island
Explore hotels in Ngor →
Gorée Island
Quiet nights $$Car-free island of colonial houses
Explore hotels in Gorée Island →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Dakar
Getting to & around Dakar
Getting there
Fly into Blaise Diagne International at Diass, well southeast of the city; the old airport at Yoff no longer takes passenger flights.
Flight
Blaise Diagne International Airport (DSS)
Around 45 km on the toll motorway, roughly 45 minutes to an hour to the Plateau or Almadies and much longer at rush hour. Taxis wait outside arrivals, so agree the fare before you get in; airport shuttle buses and hotel transfers also run into the city.
Ferry
Port of Dakar
The overnight ferry from Ziguinchor in the Casamance docks at the port near the Plateau, an easier alternative to the long road south through the Gambia.
Coach
Gare des Baux Maraîchers, Pikine
Buses, minibuses and shared sept-place taxis from Saint-Louis, Touba and the rest of the country arrive at the main gare routière in the suburbs; allow an hour or more into the centre in traffic.
Getting around
Taxi
Yellow-and-black taxis are everywhere and unmetered, so agree the fare before getting in. Traffic on the peninsula's few main roads crawls at rush hour.
TBC
Ride-hailing apps
Yango and Heetch work across the city and spare you the haggling, which is especially handy at night.
TBC
Minibus and car rapide
White Ndiaga Ndiaye minibuses and the painted blue-and-yellow cars rapides run fixed routes, crowded, slow and cheap; the apprentice hanging off the back takes the fare.
TBC
TER train
Electric trains run from the central Dakar station out through the suburbs to Diamniadio, useful for the eastern outskirts rather than sightseeing.
TBC
Ferry to Gorée
The chaloupe leaves the Gare Maritime near the port through the day for the roughly 20-minute crossing; check the time of the last boat back.
TBC
Day trips from Dakar
Lac Rose (Lake Retba)
Half dayPink salt lake
A shallow lagoon behind the dunes that turns pink on bright days, when salt-loving algae colour the water, most vividly in the dry season. Salt collectors wade in to break salt from the lake bed and pile it along the shore. It was long the finish line of the Paris-Dakar rally, and 4x4s run over the dunes to the ocean.
Getting there
car | tour
About an hour northeast by car or on a tour, depending on traffic
Bandia Reserve
Half dayFenced wildlife reserve
A fenced savanna reserve stocked with giraffes, rhinos, zebras, buffalo, eland and ostriches, many brought in from elsewhere in Africa, seen from open vehicles among huge baobabs, one of them a former burial place for griots. Pair it with the Somone lagoon or the Petite Côte beaches for a full day.
Getting there
car | tour
About 90 minutes southeast by car or on a tour, on the road to the Petite Côte
Joal-Fadiouth
Full dayShell island village
Fadiouth is an island village built on piled-up shells, reached from Joal by a long wooden footbridge, with granaries raised on stilts over the water and a cemetery shared by Christians and Muslims on a neighbouring shell island. Joal, on the mainland, is the birthplace of Léopold Sédar Senghor.
Getting there
car
About 2-3 hours south by car along the Petite Côte
Sine-Saloum Delta
2 daysMangrove delta and islands
A UNESCO-listed maze of mangrove channels, sandy islands and fishing villages where the Sine and Saloum rivers meet the sea. Pirogues glide past pelicans, herons and kingfishers to islands raised on ancient shell mounds and crowned with baobabs, while women gather oysters from the mangrove roots. Lodges along the delta make it an easy overnight.
Getting there
car | tour
Three to five hours by road to Ndangane, Palmarin or Toubacouta, then guided pirogue trips through the creeks
A little history of Dakar
The Cap-Vert peninsula is home to the Lebu, a Wolof-speaking fishing people whose villages at Yoff, Ngor and Ouakam survive inside the modern city. Portuguese navigators reached its cape in 1444 and named it Cabo Verde, the green cape. Europeans settled first on Gorée, a small island in the sheltered bay, which passed between Dutch, French and British hands as a fortified trading post in the Atlantic slave trade. France founded Dakar on the mainland opposite in 1857, linked it by rail to Saint-Louis in 1885 and in 1902 made it the capital of French West Africa.
Dakar was one of the Four Communes whose African residents could vote in French elections, and in 1914 Senegal sent Blaise Diagne to Paris as the first Black African deputy in the French parliament. After independence in 1960 the poet-president Léopold Sédar Senghor made the city a showcase for Négritude, hosting the first World Festival of Negro Arts in 1966. Gorée, among the first sites on UNESCO's World Heritage list, became the best-known memorial to the slave trade, though historians still debate how many captives actually passed through the island.
Portuguese navigators reach the peninsula and name it Cabo Verde.
France takes Gorée from the Dutch.
French forces occupy the mainland opposite Gorée and found Dakar.
Dakar replaces Saint-Louis as capital of French West Africa.
French troops fire on West African soldiers demanding unpaid wages at the Thiaroye camp outside the city.
Senegal becomes independent, with Dakar as its capital and Léopold Sédar Senghor as president.
Dakar hosts the first World Festival of Negro Arts.
Gorée is inscribed on UNESCO's first World Heritage list.
The first Paris-Dakar rally reaches the city; later editions finished on the shore of Lac Rose.
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Rare
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type C / E
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+221
Cyclones & hurricanes risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
FAQs about Dakar
▸ When is the best time to visit Dakar?
November to May is dry, sunny and breezy, with the Atlantic keeping the city mild for West Africa, and it is also the heart of the surf season. June and July stay good, growing warmer and more humid. August and September bring the rains, with heavy downpours and sticky heat. October, as the rains fade, is the warmest month of the year.
▸ How many days do I need in Dakar?
Three to five days covers it: a day for Gorée, one for the Plateau's markets and museums with the Renaissance Monument, one along the Corniche to Ngor and the Almadies, and a day trip to Lac Rose or Bandia. With a week, head south to the Sine-Saloum Delta or north to Saint-Louis, the old colonial capital.
▸ How do I get to Gorée Island?
Ferries leave from the Gare Maritime beside the port, a short walk or taxi from the Plateau, and take about 20 minutes to cross. They run from early morning into the evening. Buy your ticket at the terminal, where foreign visitors pay more than residents, and check the time of the last boat back, or stay the night in one of the island's guesthouses.
▸ Is Dakar safe for visitors?
Dakar is generally relaxed and welcoming, but petty crime is the standing concern: pickpocketing and bag snatching on the Plateau, in markets and along the Corniche, and persistent touts around Place de l'Indépendance. Take a taxi after dark and keep phones out of sight near the road. Strong currents make many beaches dangerous for swimming. Check your own government's current advice before travelling.
▸ What language is spoken in Dakar?
French is the official language, used on signs, menus and in government, but Wolof is what the city speaks on the street, in taxis and at the market. A few Wolof greetings, starting with salaam aleekum and nanga def, go a long way. English is spoken in hotels and by some younger people in the tourist trade, less so elsewhere.