Tag Archives: Dakar

NCL Dawn departed Côte d’Ivoire on 21 March 2025, and three days later we found ourselves in Dakar, the largest city in Senegal, as well as its capital. The city itself is home to nearly 1.3 million, but the populatoin of the metropolitan area is around four million. In other words, this is a major city. The capital is situated on the Cap-Vert, or Cape Verde, peninsula, which makes this the westernmost point of the entire African continent. And, while Abidan, Côte d’Ivoire was our least favorite cruise destination, Ursula and I both rated Dakar our second favorite after Cape Town. It’s just a wonderful, exciting destination. We had a full day ahead of us, and our tour guide rushed us to the ferry terminal for our first sight — Île de Gorée (Gorée Island)

The crowd lining up for the ferry was massive, and our guides had to do some real finagling to get us all aboard. If any of us missed this one, we’d be stuck for hours awaiting the next. Fortunately, bunched together and jostled by the throngs, we all made it. And so we set sail for Gorée:

As we approached this small island the first prominent feature we saw was Fort d’Estrées, which houses the Historical Museum of Senegal in Gorée. This fort was built by the French in the 1850s, and it still looks imposing today:

Other views taken from the ferry as we approached Gorée Island:

Finally making port, we disembarked from the ferry for a tour of this historic island.

Here’s a glimpse of the first sights to great us on Gorée Island:

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