I was in 2008 last time in senegal. We visted also the island goree.

It was amazing and interesting, also shocked in the house of slaves.

For a european it is important to watch this. We always talk about second world war, but what the european nations done in africa is a bad story.

We have to remember.

This is a nice little place to stay along the coast in Saint-Louis (not in Dakar). It does not look like much, but is an acceptable and affordable place to stay. There is no a/c so it can be warm in the summer and there are shared bathrooms.

We stayed inside for one night. The main disadvantage was that the floor of the shared bathroom tended to be very wet after the first person showered.

For slightly cooler times of the year, I would definitely recommend the bungalows out in the back. They have a lot of character and one night we fired up the grill and bought some beers from the bar inside and had a real delicious cookout.

It is only a short distance away from the Hotel Mermoz. This hotel is much nicer, but also more expensive. However, spending money at their bar or restaurant entitles you to use of their pool. It is where we spent almost every afternoon.

Although I considered awarding it 4 stars, I can only give it 3 because it was not pink when we were there. It is apparently often a bright pink color, but it depends at least partly on the position of the sun and the salt content.

The lake is approximately 37 km outside of Dakar and has one of the highest salt content of all the world lakes. (I believe it is in the top 3.) Because of this, people come from other African countries to harvest salt and much of this salt is exported to Europe to salt roads during the winter.

It is interesting to see all the boats bringing in salt and the piles of salt drying along the beach. I don’t know if it is worth a special trip to brave the traffic coming in and out of Dakar, but is often combined with a day trip to Bandia Reserve.

To reach the island, we took a short ferry boat ride from Dakar. Although the ride is significantly more expensive for visitors than for locals, it is a reasonable price and we kept in mind that several of the shop owners do not live on the island and must take the ferry every day.

We were greeted by several people on the ferry boat and, although I believe they are genuinely friendly, most/all operate a shop on the island and are keenly interested in having you check out and hopefully purchase what they have to sell. Even people you don’t talk to will remind you to come see their shop because you talked to them on the boat.

The island is a nice place to walk around. Their is a beach area near the exit of the ferry that is pretty active, many restaurants, and a Catholic Church among other things. However, the majority of the item is filled with craft/souvenir shops. Artwork, beaded necklaces, and textile goods are spread all along the main path around the island. Some of it is very nice, but it also suffers from the common problem that from shop to shop you will see very little variation in what they have available.

We ate some quite decent Yassa and Maafe at one of the restaurants near the beach. The prices were a bit over the average for food, but the beer prices made up for it.

To reach Bandia, we took a day trip from Dakar. Therefore, the tickets, guide, and transportation through the park were already arranged. However, if you want to make your own way there, there is a little area before the entrance to the reserve where you can hire a guide to give you a tour. Our tour guide spoke clear English and told us many interesting things about the animals.

Since many of the animals are free to move about, there is no guarantee that you will see all the animals. However, I believe many of the guides have an idea of what area the different animals frequent. We saw a couple rhinos, a zebra, many giraffes, monkeys, ostriches, crocodiles, antelope, etc. It really makes an impression because we were driven right up close to many of the animals instead of just seeing them at a distance.

This was without a doubt the most expensive day of our trip, but it was well worth the time and money.

Keep in mind that, although the reserve is not very far outside outside of Dakar, the trip does take a while because of the unbelievable amounts of traffic entering and leaving Dakar.

Overpriced crowded and way too noisy.
The bar area is open to non diners and this can lead to a few problems with people wandering in to sit and drink at the bar leaving restaurant customers waiting while they chat to their friends behind the bar

Overpriced and not that good

Terrible place.
The service must be the slowest in the whole of West Africa

five

Great music venue - went there 3 nights and each night the performances were world class. Top musicians, great atmosphere. Highly recommended. But slap on the mosquito cream before you go.