Dakar and around — Gorée, Ngor and remembrance

Gorée, Africa's first UNESCO site

Twenty minutes by ferry from Dakar's harbour, Gorée Island became in 1978 the first African site inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Its car-free lanes, ochre colonial houses and the House of Slaves — built around 1780 and listed as a historic monument as early as 1975 — make it a universal place of remembrance of the Atlantic slave trade, to be visited with respect. Allow a full day, including the Estrées Fort and the artists' workshops.

The capital and its islands

On the peninsula, the African Renaissance Monument — 52 metres of bronze inaugurated in 2010 on Ouakam hill — towers over the ocean. The markets (Sandaga, and Soumbédioune with its sunset return of the fishing pirogues), the administrative Plateau and the Corniche's restaurants make up urban Dakar. Offshore: Ngor Island, whose waves are famed among surfers worldwide, and the tiny Madeleine Islands national park, a seabird sanctuary reached by pirogue.

The Pink Lake, eyes open

An hour from Dakar, Lake Retba — the "Pink Lake" — owes its fame to a colour produced by a micro-alga thriving in its hypersaline waters. Honesty owed to every traveller: that colour disappeared in 2022 after exceptional rains diluted the lake, and its return, observed since 2025, remains changeable with season and salinity. The site is well worth the trip for its dunes, salt harvesters and atmosphere — but the pink hue is never guaranteed on the day you visit.