Things to do in Dakar

Culture · 20 minutes by chaloupe from Plateau

UNESCO-listed since 1978: a car-free island of ochre houses and bougainvillea that was a slave-trading post from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, and holds the Maison des Esclaves and its Door of No Return.

Local tip: Go on a weekday morning; weekends bring the whole city. Historians dispute how many captives actually passed through this particular house, and Senegalese guides will tell you so — the island's meaning as a place of memory is not in question, the traffic numbers are.

Nature · Almadies, north-west tip

The westernmost point of continental Africa, where the Atlantic arrives from three sides. Ngor village sits behind it, with a five-minute pirogue to the Île de Ngor and the surf break that put Dakar in The Endless Summer in 1966.

Local tip: Swim off the island rather than the mainland beaches, and go early — the pirogues get busy after 11am and the return queue in the afternoon is the part nobody warns you about.

Culture · Plateau, opposite the Grand Théâtre

Opened in December 2018, a 14,000 m² circular building inspired by the impluvium houses of Casamance, built to hold the pan-African collection Senghor first proposed in 1966. It is where restituted objects come back to.

Local tip: The permanent display is deliberately continental rather than national — go for the temporary exhibitions, which are where the argument about restitution is actually being had.

Landmark · Ouakam

A 49-metre bronze figure on one of the twin volcanic hills, inaugurated in 2010 and permanently controversial about its cost, its North Korean builders and its aesthetics. Below it, the Mosquée de la Divinité sits directly on the rocks at the water's edge.

Local tip: Climb the 198 steps for the view over the Almadies at sunset, then walk down to the mosque — the contrast between the two, one built by decree and one by a neighbourhood, tells you more about Dakar than either alone.

Food · Plateau and Grand Dakar

Kermel is the small colonial-era rotunda near the port for fish, fruit and flowers; HLM is the fabric market, hundreds of stalls of wax, bazin and basin riche with tailors attached who will copy anything you photograph.

Local tip: Buy at HLM and have it made on the spot — a bespoke boubou runs a fraction of a European suit and is far better for the heat. Sandaga, the market everyone still recommends, was demolished in 2020 and is being rebuilt; the traders dispersed.

Nature · 35 km north-east, past Keur Massar

A hypersaline lagoon where salt harvesters wade in shoulder-deep, coating themselves in shea butter against the brine, and where the Paris–Dakar rally used to finish.

Local tip: Manage expectations: the lake lost its pink colour after the 2022 floods diluted it, and its return is intermittent. Go for the salt harvest and the dunes behind, not for the photograph — and check with a local before driving out.