Dakar

A short, frequent ferry from Dakar's port carries visitors to the Île de Gorée, the city's most important and most atmospheric site — a small, car-free island of narrow lanes, pastel colonial houses draped in bougainvillea, and a quiet, reflective beauty that has made it a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Gorée was a trading post during the era of the Atlantic slave trade, and its House of Slaves (Maison des Esclaves), with its symbolic “Door of No Return”, is a memorial and museum that draws visitors from around the world to remember and reflect; the island also holds art galleries, a small history museum in an old fort, craft stalls and cafés among the ochre and pink façades. Spending a few hours wandering its lanes, climbing to the old gun emplacements for the sea view, and pausing at its memorials is a moving and essential part of a visit to Dakar — a place of both painful history and serene beauty.

Dakar's energy is found in its markets and its music. The huge, chaotic Marché Sandaga is the commercial heart, a sprawl of fabric, food, electronics and everything else; the elegant iron-roofed Marché Kermel sells flowers, produce and fish in a colonial-era hall; and Marché HLM is the place for the gloriously colourful wax and bazin fabrics that fuel Dakar's renowned fashion and tailoring scene (go with a guide, travel light and bargain good-naturedly). The city is, above all, a music capital — the birthplace of mbalax, the percussive Senegalese pop made world-famous by Youssou N'Dour (whose own club, Thiossane, is legendary), with live bands and DJs filling venues across the city most nights. Add the IFAN Museum of African Arts, the craft village and lively evening fish market at Soumbédioune where pirogues land the catch, and a buzzing contemporary art and design scene (the Dak'Art biennale), and Dakar's creative pulse is impossible to miss.

Set on a peninsula, Dakar is wrapped by the Atlantic, and the coast is central to its life. The Corniche, a coastal boulevard, sweeps along the cliffs and shore past the striking Mosque of the Divinity at Ouakam, tucked beneath the cliffs, and up to the colossal African Renaissance Monument, a 49-metre bronze statue on a hilltop with panoramic views over the city and ocean. The northern beaches of Yoff and the fishing community there, and especially the surf breaks around the village and island of Ngor at the peninsula's tip, give Dakar a genuine surf culture — Ngor's right-hand point break is famous, and a short pirogue ride reaches the tiny Île de Ngor for swimming and beach bars. The beaches of the city and the nearby Petite Côte to the south are popular escapes. The coast's colourful wooden pirogues, the surfers and the fishermen are part of Dakar's everyday character, and sunset over the Atlantic from the Corniche is a daily ritual.

Senegalese food is among the best in West Africa, and Dakar is the place to enjoy it. The national dish is thieboudienne — fish and rice cooked with tomato, vegetables and tamarind, a glorious one-pot feast; yassa (chicken or fish in a tangy onion-and-lemon sauce), mafé (a rich peanut stew) and fresh grilled seafood are everyday pleasures, eaten from street stalls to smart restaurants and traditionally shared from a communal platter in the spirit of teranga. Just outside the city lies one of the region's natural curiosities, Lac Rose (Lake Retba) — a shallow lagoon whose high salt content turns it shades of pink under the sun, where salt-collectors work and which was long the finish of the Dakar Rally. Beyond, Dakar is the gateway to Senegal's highlights: the faded colonial elegance of Saint-Louis to the north, the mangroves and islands of the Sine-Saloum delta, the great baobabs and the bird reserves. With its music, markets, beaches and warmth, Dakar is a rich and rewarding introduction to West Africa.