Dakar is a shopper's paradise, with virtually the whole city being a marketplace. Vendors can be seen peddling their wares in every direction. Your shopping experience starts the minute you reach the street with markets and road stalls on every corner. Put your wahale (haggling) skills to practice purchasing everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to woodcarvings, art and jewellery.
Immerse yourself in the hustle and bustle of the local marketplace to truly experience the cultural richness of this wonderful city.
Use this Dakar Shopping Guide to help plan your shopping tour of Dakar. See below for more information about the best places to shop and souvenirs you are likely to find. For more general information about shopping in Senegal see our Senegal Shopping Guide. And if all that shopping has worn you out, see our Dakar Restaurant Guide to find a great place to refuel your body.
Dakar Shopping Guide
Don't hesitate to hire an ambulant vendor to help you shop, because they usually offer the best prices, the easiest bargaining, and have human consideration. Being some of the harder workers of the country they really deserve the money you will pay them. Better to hire the real ambulant ones than to accept a hassling guy, whether it be for price, bargaining facility or genuine, real life quest and Care For Destination mentality. But of course ambulant vendors only have what they can carry so they can't have everything. So go ahead and go to the markets!
Kermel Market
Genuine and calm market in which well-off locals enjoy shopping for everyday fresh food needs or weekly fantasy inspiration. Kermel is really worth seeing, even (and above all) if you don't buy anything. Located in the heart of Dakar is the charming place sheltering Kermel Market. Sitting between the port and Sarrault Avenue, the markets are surrounded by some beautiful colonial houses. Here you will find items such as flowers, seafood, wooden sculptures, spices and cane baskets.
Sandaga Market
Your local connection tip: Absolutely genuine market in which Senegalese, Lebanese, Mauritanian, Chinese (especially at the North End of "Centenaire") and all West African people sell anything from food to electronics, including all kind of clothes (traditional, Western, fake, and nonsense), toiletry, plates, etc, and of course arts and crafts, creating a melting pot atmosphere. Very pleasant if you are able to escape from the huge hassling activity which is the most important business in this market, but this can be a good entrance test: if you manage to bargain your liberty where you want and wander if you want to, you will certainly be able to bargain for anything you wish to buy!
Sandaga Market is Dakar's largest and most traditional market. Inside the market place you can find a variety of fresh seafood, meat, fruit and vegetables and spices. Spilling out into the sunny streets you will be tempted by a selection of local arts and crafts, textiles, shoes, jewellery and electronics.
Village des arts de Soumbédioune
Your local connection tip: Meant for tourists, so if you are looking for a genuine market, don't even put a foot inside, but if you want to find quickly a wide range of arts and crafts without being hassled, it is worth going.
Located on the west corner of the bay of "Soumbédioune" and just seven kilometres from the city centre city is this art and craft village, created in 1961 by "la chambre de commerce" of Dakar and inaugurated in 1963, at the World Negro Art Festival by President of Senegal Leopold Sedar Senghor and Lyndon Johnson of USA. President Senghor was the initiator of the creation of the village, because of his fondness for African culture and his will to gather Africans for the custody of our cultural heritage.
Established on over 1.3 hectares, this complex gathers 1,700 persons from maters, companions and apprentices. Their activities encompass different artistic divisions from jewellery, fine leather goods, binding, sewing, wood carving, weaving, and basket work. All the shop owners of Soumbédioune are professionals and have certificates, proving the craftsmanship with which they create unique works of art.
It has also a night club called Kilimanjaro where great local artists perform and a bar/restaurant named "Le Soumbé".
Soumbedioune Fishermen Market
Your local connection tip: Definately worth coming, as a cultural scene, and if you want to buy seafood. Keep in mind that all Dakar families, from the poorest to the richest, prefer coming here to buy seafood than anywhere else. In function of the tide, of the month, etc, just ask us what will be the best time to go the day you intend to go there: don't go anytime, you would miss the reason why you came!
Next to the "village des Arts" is the seafood market, the only downtown market with direct, immediate sale from the sea. Myriads of pirogues (traditional boats) leave or come back everyday, and in the middle of the afternoon, most fishermen are coming back from the sea and their wives (not always as before, but still many of the selling women are) sell to customers.
Other Markets
Tillene Market, HLM Market, Colobane Market, Castor Market, Grand Yoff Market, ...
shhhhhhhht, don't tell the others: these markets are totally genuine, and if you don't go there with shorts, a swimming suit, backpacker bag or visible camera, local people WILL think you live here. We won't write anything on these markets: if you are smart enough to guess it is worth it, you will be smart enough to find them just by knowing the names... or you can just ask us!
To conclude, below are some special places meeting Caring For Destination aims: if you need something in the list please go there rather than any other place!
