# Dakar: map, what to do and when to go

Dakar is worth it for Gorée island, music that starts after midnight, and street conversation, which opens with greetings in Wolof. The capital of Senegal, at Africa's westernmost tip, sits on a peninsula with the Atlantic on three sides, and the region is home to about 4.2 million people.

Canonical: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/dakar/
Language: en. Extended author commentary and itinerary notes may remain in Portuguese. Dates below belong to individual sources; this is not live availability.

## Direct answer
- **Dakar: What bills should you carry to pay at stalls?** Many stalls have no change for a 10,000 F CFA note; break your big bills at the supermarket and carry 500, 1,000 and 2,000 F notes.
- **Dakar: Where is the airport, and how long does it take to reach downtown?** Flights arrive at Aéroport International Blaise Diagne (AIBD), in Diass, about 43 km from the Plateau: that's about 50 minutes by car off-peak and over two hours at rush hour.
- **Dakar: Île de Gorée?** 3 km from the port, a ferry of about 20 minutes with departures every one or two hours and a separate fare for foreigners (around 5,000 F CFA round-trip).

## Plateau, memory, and the port
Start at 8am at Place de l'Indépendance, before the heat, and head down to Marché Kermel, the 1910 iron market, while the fish is still coming in.
- Île de Gorée
- Musée des Civilisations noires
- Marché Kermel
- Place de l'Indépendance and Gare de Dakar

## The western tip of Africa
Climb the Mamelles in the morning to see the shape of the peninsula from above.
- Monument de la Renaissance africaine
- Phare des Mamelles
- Mosquée de la Divinité, Ouakam

## Medina, fabric, and music
Start with the 1964 Grande Mosquée and Marché Tilène, in the Medina, between 9 and 11am, when the market is full and the heat is still bearable.
- Musée Théodore Monod d'Art africain (IFAN)
- Grande Mosquée de Dakar

## Île de Gorée
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/dakar/#g-lugar-ile-de-goree
Plateau/Gorée Arrondissement
An island of about 28 hectares 3 km from the port, occupied by the Portuguese, the Dutch (1621), the English, and the French (1677), and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. The Maison des Esclaves, a house from 1776 restored in the 1970s, is the symbolic center of the memory of the Atlantic slave trade. The ferry leaves from the Gorée terminal, inside the port, and takes about 20 minutes.
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## Musée des Civilisations noires
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/dakar/#g-lugar-musee-des-civilisations-noires
Dakar-Plateau
Opened in December 2018 next to Gare de Dakar, with about 14,000 m² and a circular plan inspired by the impluvium houses of Casamance. It was built with Chinese financing and an announced capacity of 18,000 pieces; it's now one of the stages for the debate over restitution of African collections.
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## Musée Théodore Monod d'Art africain (IFAN)
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/dakar/#g-lugar-musee-theodore-monod-d-art
Housed in a 1936 building on Place Soweto, it's one of the oldest ethnographic museums in West Africa. The Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire's collection gathers masks, statuary, and textiles from across the region, with a strong Dogon and Bassari holding.
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## Monument de la Renaissance africaine
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/dakar/#g-lugar-monument-de-la-renaissance
Ouakam
A 49 m bronze statue unveiled on April 4, 2010, atop one of the Mamelles hills, built by the North Korean firm Mansudae. It's been contested for its cost and iconography since its opening; there's an internal elevator up to the viewpoint in the head, with a view over the whole peninsula.
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## Phare des Mamelles
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/dakar/#g-lugar-phare-des-mamelles
Ouakam
An 1864 lighthouse atop the city's highest cone, about 105 m up, still in operation. Access is a drive or walk up the slope, and the terrace works as a lookout bar in the late afternoon.
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## Grande Mosquée de Dakar
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/dakar/#g-lugar-grande-mosquee-de-dakar
Dacar
Opened on March 27, 1964 in the Medina, with Hassan II and Senghor in attendance, it has a minaret about 67 m tall and a Moroccan-inspired design. Non-Muslims don't enter the prayer hall, but the surroundings, Allées Papa Gueye Fall and Marché Tilène, are the neighborhood's functional heart.
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## Marché Kermel
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/dakar/#g-lugar-marche-kermel
A covered market, circular in plan with a metal structure, in a building from 1910 rebuilt in 1997 after the 1994 fire. It sells fish, flowers, fruit and crafts, and mostly runs in the morning; the Plateau's oldest cafés sit around it.
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## Mosquée de la Divinité, Ouakam
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/dakar/#g-lugar-mosquee-de-la-divinite-ouakam
Dacar · Up to half an hour
A white mosque completed in 1997, wedged between the cliff and Ouakam beach, just below the Renaissance Monument. The cove is used by Lebu fishermen, and the access is a walk down the slope, with the most photographed contrast in the city.
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## Îles de la Madeleine
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/dakar/#g-lugar-iles-de-la-madeleine
A national park created in 1976, the smallest in Senegal, about 4 km from the Corniche Ouest. It shelters wind-adapted dwarf baobabs and colonies of seabirds; the crossing leaves from Soumbédioune by pirogue and depends on sea conditions.
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## Place de l'Indépendance and Gare de Dakar
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/dakar/#g-lugar-place-de-l-independance
The colonial rectangle of the Plateau holds banks, ministries, and the former Chambre de Commerce; the 1914 railway station, restored in 2019, became the TER terminal. Across the avenue, the autonomous port handles most of Senegal's foreign trade.
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**Dakar: What bills should you carry to pay at stalls?**
Many stalls have no change for a 10,000 F CFA note; break your big bills at the supermarket and carry 500, 1,000 and 2,000 F notes.

**Dakar: Where is the airport, and how long does it take to reach downtown?**
Flights arrive at Aéroport International Blaise Diagne (AIBD), in Diass, about 43 km from the Plateau: that's about 50 minutes by car off-peak and over two hours at rush hour. The old Léopold Sédar Senghor airport, inside the city, no longer handles commercial flights.

**Dakar: Île de Gorée?**
3 km from the port, a ferry of about 20 minutes with departures every one or two hours and a separate fare for foreigners (around 5,000 F CFA round-trip).

**Dakar: What's the currency, and how do you convert it?**
The currency is the West African CFA franc (XOF), pegged at 655.957 F to the euro, which makes conversion predictable and immune to daily swings.

**Dakar: What's the best time to visit?**
The dry season runs from November to May and is high season: 18 to 27 °C, low humidity, steady trade winds and practically no rain. December to February are the coolest months, and at night the 17 °C on the Corniche calls for a light jacket. Between February and May the harmattan can bring dust from the Sahara and cut visibility for days at a time.


## In the Nilo app
- Plan these 2 days on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/guide/dakar/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-itinerary
- Mark your hotel on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/map/dakar/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-stay

## Full editorial guide (Portuguese)
https://nilopelomundo.com/llm/dakar.md