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Travel guide
Saly
4 days · 8 things to do
Best time to go: November to April
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Welcome
Saly, in a few days
Senegal's first beach resort, built on the sands of the Petite Côte from the late 1970s onwards, Saly lines hotels and holiday homes along about ten kilometres north of Mbour. The Bandia reserve and its giraffes are twenty minutes away, and the mangrove lagoon of La Somone is 15 km north.
- Day by day
- D1 Day 1 2 things
- D2 Day 2 2 things
- D3 Day 3 2 things
- D4 Day 4 2 things
- Worth sorting before you go
- Words that help
- The practical page
- Packing checklist
The trip
Day by day
Map of the sights (numbers follow the suggested order). It prints with the base map.
D1
Day 1
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Saly Portudal beach free · half a dayA west-facing strip of ochre sand divided by rock groynes built to slow erosion, where painted pirogues anchor in the crescents that form between them.
- Afternoon · Saly craft village free · about 1 hSome sixty workshops of woodcarvers, jewellers, tailors and glass painters, selling ebony masks, wax print and bazin cloth, Fulani silver and coloured sand pictures.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Le Saly Hôtel€95 a night
D2
Day 2
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Saly golf course · half a dayAn 18-hole course in the bush east of the resort, among acacias and baobabs, where the near-constant westerly wind changes how each hole plays.
- Afternoon · Mbour fishing port free · about 1 hOne of West Africa's largest artisanal fishing ports, where hundreds of painted pirogues land their catch straight onto the sand in the late afternoon.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Savana Saly€105 a night
D3
Day 3
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Somone Lagoon · about 2 hA 700-hectare lagoon, a community reserve since 1999 run by local women's groups, where replanted mangroves shelter pelicans, egrets, herons and passing flamingos.
- Afternoon · Popenguine Nature Reserve · about 2 hCreated in 1986, it protects red laterite cliffs, scrub savannah and over a hundred bird species, co-managed with local women's groups since 1988.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Les Flamboyants€90 a night
D4
Day 4
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Bandia Reserve · about 2 hA fenced 3,500-hectare reserve of baobabs and acacias, toured by 4x4 with a guide, stocked with giraffes, zebras, rhinos, eland, buffalo and impala.
- Afternoon · Joal-Fadiouth, the shell island · about 1 h 30Fadiouth, 35 km south, is an island built on centuries of piled-up shells, reached from Joal by a 400-metre wooden footbridge.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hacienda€65 a night
Before you go
Worth sorting before you go
📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
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Good to know
Flavours & local habits
🍽️ Worth tasting
- Thieboudienne: rice cooked in a tomato and fish stock, served with the fish and vegetables. The national dish.
- Yassa: chicken or fish marinated in onions and lemon, then slowly cooked down.
- Mafé: a stew in a thick peanut sauce, with meat and root vegetables.
- Pastels: small fried pastries stuffed with spiced fish, sold as a snack.
- Bissap and bouye: cold drinks of hibiscus and of baobab fruit.
⚠️ Best avoided
- Paying before agreeing the price: settle it first, and bargain with good humour.
- Drinking tap water, or skipping malaria advice before you go.
- Photographing people without asking first.
- Following self-appointed guides and insistent sellers: a polite, firm no is enough.
Getting by
Words that help
English ↔ Wolof
| English | Wolof |
|---|---|
| Hello | Salaamaalekum / Nanga def |
| Thank you | Jërëjëf |
| Please | Bu la neexee |
| Yes | Waaw |
| No | Déedéet |
| Excuse me | Baal ma |
| Goodbye | Ba beneen yoon |
| Do you speak English? | Ndax dégg nga angale? |
| I don't understand | Dégguma |
| How much is it? | Ñaata la? |
| Where are the toilets? | Fan la wanag bi nekk? |
| The bill, please | Adduna bi, su la neexee |
| Help! | Wóoy! |
| Cheers! | Santé! (everyday French) |
The essentials
The practical page
CurrencyWest African CFA franc (XOF)
BudgetAbout €78 a day, mid-range
Best seasonNovember to April
PlugC/D/E · 230V
Tap waterBottled only
TippingAppreciated
Emergency17 (police) / 18
EntryVisa-free for up to 90 days for EU, UK, US and Canadian passports, with proof of a return ticket and of accommodation to show at the border. Australian passports: visas have been issued free on arrival at Dakar airport but not at land borders, so check with a Senegalese embassy before you travel.
HealthHepatitis A, typhoid and yellow fever vaccinations are recommended; the yellow fever certificate is compulsory if you arrive from a country with transmission risk, and is often checked anyway. Malaria is present across the country: ask about prophylaxis.
Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/saly
Don't forget
Packing checklist
Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos via Pexels · Details are indicative, check before you leave.