Dakar-Yoff-Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport
Dakar, Senegal

K Haugen (Oregon, USA; living in Dakar) - February 17, 2010
DKR is a small international airport. Have your flight number, passport number, and local address ready when you get off the plane. You'll show your passport as you get on the bus to the terminal. Inside the terminal, go to the counter on the right and fill out a customs/entry/arrival form, then proceed through the passport control to baggage claim. Porters will offer their services at baggage claim, but it's optional. Collect your bags and proceed through the bag inspection (usually a cursory scan) and out the doors. You may be overwhelmed by drivers and people wanting to buy your currency. Hold onto your bags and kindly tell them 'No, merci!' or a little more direct: 'Deh-det, why! By-eel ko!" (Wolof for 'Hey no! Leave me alone.') And if that's not enough, "My-ma soo-ma jahm! Ah-na sa ta-ran-ga why!" (Leave me in peace! Where is your hospitality, anyway?). If someone truly harrasses you, don't be afraid to be loud - Senegalese tend to despise fellow Senegalese who make them look bad. If you don't have anyone meeting you, taxis are off to the right. Pick a friendly driver with a decent cab, have the name of your hotel ready and arrange the fare before you get in. You shouldn't have to pay more than 5,000 CFA (10,000 tops!) to get downtown, depending on how tired you are and how well you can bargain.

J Satt (UK) - March 14, 2008
Airport is fine until you get outside, you will be mobbed by people trying to "Help" be very wary. Have someone meet you or have the hotel you stay at pick you up. The only issue i have is the security on the way to departures it took me 3 hours to get through, good job my flight was late.

A Koopmans (Netherlands, Utrecht) - January 10, 2008
Make sure you know the name of your hotel before you try to get into the country. The passport inspector wouldn't let us through because we didn't remember the name. The confirmation paper was in our checked baggage, but we couldn't get to that until we had the passport stamped. Finally we just asked another passenger for the name of their hotel and copied that, then he let us through. Ridiculous!

B Lehmann (United States) - January 8, 2008
I recently got off the plane in Dakar in the middle of the night to transfer to a connecting flight. Even though I was flying business class, I almost got stuck there and felt very helpless as nobody seemed to care. If you can avoid getting off the plane at this airport, I'd say AVOID IT! It is complete mayhem!