Getting Around Senegal
- Country Senegal
- Guide Flight Planning
- Reviewed 29 October 2026
- Length 1 min read
Credit Lisa Coulaud, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Last reviewed 29 October 2026
The car rapide is on every postcard of Dakar, hand-painted in yellow and blue with a blessing over the windshield. Many of them, like many taxis, are also not roadworthy by the standards you are likely used to at home. A guide that shows you one and does not tell you the second part is not much of a guide.
Driving yourself
Check that your home license is accepted for the length of your stay. An international driving permit is useful even where it is not required, because it provides a translation for traffic officials. Anyone staying longer must get a Senegalese license.
Conditions call for care: drivers make sudden movements without signaling, speeding is common, and driving after dark is more dangerous because roads are poorly lit and some vehicles have no lights at all. Penalties for drink driving are severe.
Getting around without a car
- Pre-arrange your airport transfer through your accommodation or an authorized operator.
- There are bogus taxi drivers at the airport who will pretend to know you and then overcharge. If someone is collecting you, ask for identification.
- Many taxis and cars rapides are not roadworthy by the standards you are used to. Choose accordingly.
- Avoid long road journeys after dark wherever the trip can be done in daylight instead.
- Roads in the Casamance are of low quality, and journey times there are longer than a map suggests.