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Dakar
Capital and the largest city of Senegal

Dakar

Dakar is the capital and largest city of Senegal.

Plan a trip to Dakar→From Banjul (Yundum)

The department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 million in 2023.

Get in

Getting to Dakar

  1. 01
    Aéroport international Blaise-Diagne

    The airport is about 50 km from Dakar near the village of Diass.

  2. 02
    Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport

    The old airport now only serves limited passenger flights to other African cities and cargo flights.

  3. 03
    Dakar
  4. 04
    Diamniadio
See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    African Renaissance Monument

    This colossal copper monument opened in 2010 and is dedicated to Africa's emergence from the oppressive European regimes that once ruled the continent and the end of slavery.

  2. 02
    IFAN Museum of African Arts
  3. 03
    Ile de Gorée

    It was named by the Dutch after taking over the island from the Portuguese in the late 1600s.

  4. 04
    Les Almadies

    The Western tip of the African continent where plenty of seafood restaurants are located.

  5. 05
    Dakar Grand Mosque

    Built in 1964 by French and Moroccan architects.

  6. 06
    Dakar Cathedral
Do

Things to do

Dakar has a vibrant music scene and is very popular with young people. Check out the incredibly rich and variant styles. Places like Club Thiossane, Just

Eat

Where to eat

Peanuts: The roasted peanuts you can buy on the street or get with your order of beer in any bar are delicious. These nuts are not greasy and have just the right amount of salt, and sometimes are still slightly warm from being roasted. All these are in the city centre:

How locals move

Getting around Dakar the local way

  • Get inA state-owned ferry runs between Dakar and Ziguinchor in Senegal's Casamance region (below The Gambia).
  • Get inThe Joola, one of the former ferries on this route, capsized in a storm while overloaded in 2002, regarded as the second deadliest maritime disaster in recent history.
  • Get inThe Aline Sitoé Diatta, built in 2008, is the current ferry.
  • Get inThe ferry runs overnight and takes around 16 hours in each direction.
  • Go nextSine Saloum Delta — Just north of the border with Gambia, the Delta has amazing mangrove forests that you can tour by pirogue (a motored canoe).
  • Go nextNegotiate a fair price with a guide, and remember that once you get into the Delta, it's difficult and expensive to get around any way besides by pirogue.
  • Go nextThe overnight ferry from Dakar to Ziguinchor is affordable and comfortable.
  • Go nextDetails on the ferry: The boat leaves from Dakar on Tuesdays and Fridays at 20:00 and from Zig on Thursdays and Sundays at 15:00, arriving 15–17 hours later.

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

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia Commons.