Almadies

The Almadies begin where the city stops: the point is the westernmost tip of the African continent, and you can have lunch on a terrace watching the swell hit black rock with nothing in front of you but the Atlantic all the way to Brazil. This is the district of embassies, company headquarters, gated villas, and most of the fish restaurants Dakar residents book for a birthday.

The neighbourhood grew around the old Léopold Sédar Senghor airport, whose aircraft crossed these roofs until 2017; since the traffic moved to Diass, you can hear the sea. What remains is wide avenues, a thoroughly car-borne life — nobody walks much in the Almadies, except along the corniche — and a nightlife concentrated on the route des Almadies, where terraces fill after ten and clubs after midnight.

Mornings are another matter. Surfers are in the water by seven at the Virage and Ngor breaks; fishermen pull their pirogues up the Virage beach beside the joggers; women set out mangoes and roasted peanuts at the junctions. The small Ngor market, five minutes away, covers fish and vegetables; supermarkets and duty pharmacies are on the VDN.

It is the most expensive part of Dakar, the best equipped, and the one where you feel least in Senegal if you never leave it. Twenty minutes away the Médina and its numbered streets begin, which is the best reason to hire a car or learn what a taxi should cost.

One thing to know before booking: there is no swimming beach in the Almadies themselves. The coast here is black rock and the swell hits hard; the sand is at Ngor and the Virage, five minutes away. The district is also the most congested part of Dakar during office hours, because far more people work here than live here. Finally, this is where most of the well-stocked supermarkets and duty pharmacies at this end of the peninsula are, which matters if you travel with children or an elderly parent.