Skip to content
Mixroutes
Bissau
Capital and largest city of Guinea-Bissau

Bissau

Bissau is the capital and largest city of Guinea-Bissau.

Plan a trip to Bissau→From Banjul (Yundum)

As of 2015, it had a population of 492,004. Bissau is located on the Geba River estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean, and is Guinea-Bissau's major port, as well as the country's administrative and military center.

Get in

Getting to Bissau

Air Senegal flies from Dakar. Cabo Verde Airlines has four flights each week from Dakar to Bissau, returning to Dakar the same day. These flights are not an example of punctuality, and it is a good idea to check with their office in Bissau (Av. Amilcar Cabral 8B, tel. 206087) before you head to the airport. A sept-places (7-seat shared taxi) from Ziguinchor, Senegal, costs CFA 4,000.

See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    Presidential Palace

    Reconstructed in 2013 with Chinese money, serves again as the president's seat.

  2. 02
    São José de Amura

    Old Portuguese fort, containing the mausoleum of national hero Amilcar Cabral and tombs of other revolutionaries.

  3. 03
    National Ethnographic Museum
Do

Things to do

The French Cultural Center in the Bayana roundabout often features concerts, movies, dance classes, French classes etc. The Portuguese Cultural Center (next to the Portuguese embassy, behind "Benfica") also hosts concerts, but in slightly less inviting surroundings. Swim at Ceiba Hotel, Hala Hotel, Azalai Dunia Hotel or Campo Sueco (CFA 3000 - somewhat more noisy and crowded, but more African atmosphere).

Eat

Where to eat

Recidencial Coimbra has a good buffet every night at CFA 2000-7500 including starters, main courses, desserts, wine and water. Hotel Malaika. Has a nice restaurant inside, but also a roof top restaurant for drinks and fast food style meals. O Bistro - Belgian owned restaurant next to Mavegro, delicious food. Bijados (inside Azalai Dunia Hotel). Good restaurant, and excellent service, but somewhat overpriced.

How locals move

Getting around Bissau the local way

  • Get inA sept-places (7-seat shared taxi) from Ziguinchor, Senegal, costs CFA 4,000.
  • Get aroundThere are also minibuses "toca-tocas" going on fixed routes, you'll pay CFA 100 a person for the ride, but the buses are often very crowded!
  • Go nexttake a pirogue directly for CFA 3500 (luggage excluded, takes 2.5 hours), or the ferry to Enxude (CFA 9000), then the truck/bus to São João, then a Pirogue to Bolama (CFA 300).

From Wikivoyage: Bissau, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.