Know Before You Go — Essential Travel Tips for Senegal & The Gambia

Practical advice on dress, customs, money, health, and local etiquette.

This is Shindy’s little advice column. You are getting advice from the trenches here! To get the whole scoop on my very first (and mostly unprepared) visit to Senegal, check out my Blog Post on that trip. I am not going to talk about visas and travel advisories – check your country of origin websites for those.

✈️🌍 Traveling from Abroad

• Check that your passport has at least six months until expiration to be on the safe side.
• Be sure to get your 💉 Yellow Fever vaccine way ahead of time and keep the vaccine certificate in your passport. The Yellow Fever vaccine is essential for admission into Senegal.
• Although airport exchange rates in Dakar are not competitive, you will need local currency as soon as you exit the airport. Plan to change at least the equivalent of $100 USD to get you comfortably to your hotel or other accommodation in Dakar and to grab a meal if you are hungry. Our drivers and guides at SHIMA Travel Tours will help you to secure more favorable rates once you settle in.

🍽️😊 Tummy Comfort

💬🗣️ Language

As in many countries around the world including countries in West Africa, many people speak upwards of three languages. In Senegal, Wolof is the official language. All Senegalese speak Wolof, regardless of their indigenous language. French is used widely in business and education. You may encounter someone who does not speak French fluently, but everyone speaks Wolof. English, however, is NOT widely spoken in Senegal. This is where SHIMA Travel Tours provides a special advantage for our clients. Our guides are indispensable for English speaking travelers – and translation apps can enhance museum experiences for visitors who do not speak French.

👕🧕Dress

My experience of Senegalese is that they are pretty chill people, and Senegalese “Teranga” (hospitality) is sincere. In my experience, Senegalese are courteous, warm, and kind to each other and by extension to visitors.

The Senegalese sense of beauty, color and elegance in dress is deeply rooted. I love watching the men in their gorgeous traditional outfits and the women and girls – WOW! I saw women selling fruit on the side of the road in three piece outfits that I would buy in Harlem USA for a fancy occasion.

Senegalese “live and let live”. There is a mixture of traditional and western dress worn everywhere. However, on my first visit, I did not consider that the population is 90% muslim and I packed my suitcase like I was going on a purely Caribbean vacation. Don’t do that.

• Prioritize comfort and modesty. Modesty is especially important for visiting religious sites and some traditional cultural areas. This does not mean that you have to be covered from head to toe at all times, however, if I had packed a few light cotton or silk scarves and a few long dresses on my first trip to Senegal, I would have felt better and more comfortable for some excursions – particularly when we were traveling without a guide. A few garments that cover arms, shoulders and knees should be in your suitcase.
• It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your fun, cute outfits as well. My natural tendency is to summery outfits. I still brought a few summer outfits on my second (work) trip, but it felt great to also have beautiful, colorful African and Senegalese dresses at the ready – for example when I was lucky enough to attend a Senegalese wrestling tournament in the village of Marloj in the Sine Saloum Delta
• If you intend to enjoy nightlife in Dakar know that your fellow revelers with be very stylish and the styles will run the gamut – be yourself and have fun.
• Senegal has lots of beaches, hotels with pools and waterway excursions – you can wear swimsuits at the appropriate time and for the appropriate activity. However, don’t lose sight of modesty when you are not in the water. One huge exception is Saly which has a much more western vibe on the beaches.
• Don’t pack your suitcase to the hilt. Leave room in your suitcase for new outfit purchases. Chances are you will not be able to resist purchasing some finely crafted outfits before you leave and you don’t want to have to buy an extra suitcase.
• At some times of the year and in some regions it can get quite cool. Be sure to check the weather and pack at least one light jacket or sweater. Another alternative is to visit Sandaga Market on your Tour-of-the-City and get a stylish, locally made hoodie.

🚗 Road Trip Essentials

For tours outside of Dakar there are a few items that I found to be very useful for comfort and enjoyment – particularly on long road trips:

• Water, food, snacks, fruit. SHIMA Travel Tours provides a bottle of water for each client and local snacks for every trip, however it is advisable for you to plan ahead and think about what you like to have on long road trips and prepare it ahead of time. There are many opportunities to stop and buy seasonal fruits from markets and fruit stands along the way.
• Bathroom breaks: There are many places along the way during long road trips where we can stop for bathroom breaks. A word to the wise: walk with your own toilet paper or tissues, wet wipes, hand soap (the small hotel sized soaps are perfect), hand lotion and hand sanitizer. Some stops will have all of those amenities, some have a hodgepodge, and some have none. SHIMA makes sure that we stop at places with clean toilets but we recommend that you have your toiletries bag at hand with the essentials.
• Have local currency on hand: For some trips you will have the opportunity to stop at regional craft and produce markets. Sometimes the rest stop is at a pastry and ice cream shop with irresistible delicacies. Walk with twice as much local currency as you think you will need to make purchasing easy.

📸 Photographing People

Don’t do it. Mamadou – SHIMA Travel Tour’s Managing Partner/Owner and Senior Guide and Driver firmly discourages our clients from photographing people without their explicit permission. He is adamant that Senegalese do not wish to be photographed by random tourists. They are very leery about where their image might end up. There are lots of beautiful people: elegant, gorgeous… and the temptation to photograph them is strong – but please be respectful and resist the urge. Follow your guide’s advice in this area. There may be times where the guide says it’s OK to ask someone to take a picture with them but only then should you whip out your phone/camera to photograph people.

This does not apply if you are being photographed by someone in your party in a public space and other people happen to be part of the background in the photograph.

🧾💵 Border Crossings

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✉️ Contact

Contact Us
📩 info@shimatraveltours.com
(+221) [77 791 65 88]
(+1) [347 416 1416]

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