The Senegambia Girls’ Trip: Part 1

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I’ve always been a geography girlie. In third grade, my dad challenged me to learn the capitals of all 50 U.S. states. After a perfect recitation, I was rewarded with a $1 scoop of Baskin-Robbins ice cream (back when those $1 scoop Tuesdays still existed…). I even competed in my middle school’s geography bee—and absolutely tortured myself after missing the question, “What is the largest desert in California?”—I knew about the Mojave, unlike most thirteen-year-old Americans I bet, yet somehow still got it wrong and mentally flogged myself for a week.

In adulthood, especially during moments of ennui, I’ve found myself opening Google Maps, zooming into random regions, and lingering there—pondering borders, cities, and landscapes. That habit is how I first became familiar with South America beyond the behemoth that is Brazil.

And as an adult with actual spending money and the ability to explore more of the world, I’m eager to do more than memorize city names or niche fun facts about countries most of the Western world wouldn’t recognize. I find myself yearning to travel to more “exotic” places with whatever time off work I can scrape together. While I’m not pressuring myself to visit every country in the world, I’ve quietly adopted it as an unofficial goal 🙈.

In recent years, I’ve also been lucky enough to make friends who share my travel style—people who are flexible, curious, and excited by destinations that aren’t always top of mind. When you’re the kind of person who just wants to see as much of the world as possible with agreeable company, it helps. So when a friend casually suggests, “Senegal this December, guys?” you don’t hesitate. You jump all in, thrilled to check off your first visit to the African continent—especially when it wasn’t even on your radar for most of the year.

My friend Aneesa (the Expat Panda) was able to loop myself as well as friends P and M into the mix to plan a girls’ trip to both Senegal and The Gambia (Senegambia is also a term used to describe both countries, but Senegambia is not an actual country).

Since we would be venturing to West Africa, with none of us speaking fluent French (essential for most countries in West Africa), we were able to work with the Mowoki travel group company to help sort out our itinerary—including accommodations, activities, our driver, airport transfers, most meals, and even visas when necessary. The owner of the company, Jeremies, was even our guide for the entire 10-day trip. During the planning stages, I honestly didn’t know what to expect or how the trip would turn out, but knowing I’d be with friends I trusted eased my nerves in a way going alone wouldn’t have.

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Our trip plans began in August, with the actual trip being in December. My portion as 1/4 of a girls group amounted to around $2,240 USD for all of the essentials mentioned above, organized through Mowoki. Even then, the conversion rate led me to getting about $200 back in local currency when I arrived, which I used towards my Gambian visa (more on that experience later…). With flights, I was lucky that my go-to international airline (United) had a direct flight from IAD to Dakar, Senegal (the capital). Dates and times worked out in my favor, so there was no need to transit through Europe to get to the African continent…

Unfortunately, as of December 2025, United made the decision to cancel the route …the route launched in May 2025, so it barely lasted a year 😪. It is still possible to fly direct trans-Atlantically from JFK or Montreal, but the United decision hurts my heart because that’s one of the current airlines I’m loyal to lol.

The trip was taken in the last half of December, and so it aligned perfectly with days off from work. I flew into IAD from Austin the day before my flight to Dakar, just so I wouldn’t risk missing the flight to Dakar due to delays. I stayed overnight in Alexandria, VA, which was a separate, but cute little experience to have before venturing off to warmer temperatures and more tropical adventures.

My experience flying from IAD to Dakar was mostly smooth! I was upgraded to United Premium Economy, and felt comfortable for the 7 hour journey thanks to additional “Saks Fifth Avenue” branded blankets and seats with roomier leg room. We did have a 1.5 hour delay though—with limited flights a week, I guess the crew wanted to make sure EVERYBODY who was supposed to be on the flight and checked-in was on board.

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I landed in Dakar around 8am local time the next day. Walking into the airport, a part of me felt a sense of accomplishment before even stepping outside—I made it to Africa! The only reason I exclaim that so broadly is because it truly was my first time on the continent. But I knew that this trip would only be a sampling of what to expect, and many more trips will need to be planned to further explore this continent!

Immigration was a breeze (no visa needed for stays less than 90 days for US citizens), but waiting for my luggage to arrive was a chore. After about an hour, I was able to meet my driver outside the airport, which was thankfully arranged by Mowoki.

The drive to Dakar city from the airport was also a journey, and nothing too exciting to comment on. In fact, the wide open desert-like terrain reminded me of some parts of West Texas!

My destination was our first accommodation for the trip—BOMA Lifestyle Hotel. It was tucked away in the middle of a busy street, and even my driver had to make a long U-turn after missing it the first time. Despite arriving around 10am, I was able to partake in my complimentary breakfast, after checking-in, meeting Jeremies in-person, and catching up with Aneesa and M while P would be joining us later.

Knowing that the first day was essentially a travel day for everyone, our plans were minimal. After breakfast, all I remember doing was taking a nap and then having snacks with Aneesa and M before figuring out what our plans for dinner were. We just knew we were having a “welcome dinner”—but where and when? No clue.

Eventually, we did find out where we were going for dinner. It was a venue none of us could have imagined, but it definitely gave us an “exciting” preview of what was to come on our trip in Senegal:

We were seated on the rocks of a beach behind an amusement park known as Magic Land, and attempted to make ourselves comfortable in plastic beach chairs as Jeremies explained what was on tonight’s menu—basically the lifeblood of Senegalese cuisine, fresh fish. I was assured there would be a veggie option for me, and that would be cooked and served in a traditional way as well.

In the meantime, the next couple of hours (yes, you read that right) included some unusual, frightening, and downright hilarious antics. We quickly got used to the persistent solicitation from vendors selling everything from hot tea to books, musicians trying to get us to get up and dance to some Afro drum beats or serenade us with “I love yous”, and even witnessed a fight between two young boys (!!) because one boy thought the other was stealing his customer (this was the frightening one, just because I’m sure one of the boys got hurt falling HARD on the rocks…).

It truly was dinner with a show, yet we were still waiting for the dinner part…

At least it was worth the wait?

My friends somehow managed to tackle two (!!) similarly-sized plates of fish, along with what I had pictured above! Needless to say, we did not finish our meals but we left with our bellies and hearts full. The amount of laughter we had that night was equivalent to a 30-min ab workout!

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The next day was the start of our real adventures for the trip. We began with a half-day excursion to Gorée Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site that once played a central role in the 15th- to 19th-century slave trade. Despite its heavy history, the island is visually stunning, with colonial architecture, soft pastel buildings, and bursts of colorful bougainvillea throughout.

We had a mini tour of the island with a local guide, who was a wealth of knowledge when it came to the history of the island. For the first half of our walk, we saw the “good, innocent” parts of the island—baobabs, sand art, colorful artwork, buildings artistically shaped like ships…

The buildings were indeed picturesque and Instagrammable:

But when we finally reached the House of Slaves, that’s when the truth came to light about what this place really was.

As we walked through the rooms, it was difficult to comprehend that while slave traders lived comfortably on the upper levels, hundreds of enslaved men, women, and children were crammed into spaces no larger than closets. Learning that young girls, in particular, were subjected to abuse and were only spared once they became pregnant was horrifying. The entire experience was deeply unsettling, but confronting this history directly is necessary to prevent the dangerous path of history repeating itself.

On that note, we were grateful to witness one of the most historical sites in Senegal, and it also served as a humbling reminder that sometimes travel brings on discomfort, and that’s when you know the journey that you are on really means something.

After Gorée, we continued on to visit the iconic Mosque of the Divinity (Massalikoul Djinane Mosque)—this stop was much more humorous than expected?

This was my second time visiting a mosque, and my first time with (appropriate) covering. I visited a mosque in Cologne, Germany with a friend once and don’t recall covering my hair (I think I was able to tie it in a ponytail) and I was wearing a long dress but stopped short at my knees. No one was bothered there, and I was probably more self-conscious of not wanting to offend anyone.

Here however, my friends and I were given the VIP treatment. The imam met us in the parking lot—as soon as our van door opened, there he was, with plenty of covering options for us to choose from 😂. From there, we walked through the prayer hall (men’s side) and could not believe how beautiful the interior was:

The amount of detail just had me like 🤩 the entire time. The imam spent the entire time with us, walking us through all the open rooms and again, treating us like VIPs. It seemed…strange?

We would soon find out there was a reason why we were receiving such princess-like treatment. We later learned that our guide had told the imam that the four of us were “well known in the English-speaking community”, and the imam had shared he ran a lively TikTok account for the mosque. The next night, Aneesa and I were curious and did some stalking and found out that we indeed ended up on the mosque’s TikTok! At one point during our visit, the imam popped out his phone to take a video of us, and not knowing how to react, we all blankly stared at the camera and that is what ended up online for his community to see.

I guess you could say we went viral in Senegal?

After the mosque visit, it was finally time to eat! While we were managing throughout the day with snacks, we stopped at Phare des Mamelles for a late lunch since it was supposed to offer scenic views of the city.

While the views were great, the food was not. At least for a vegetarian like me. I’d soon realize that Senegalese cuisine is not the best for vegetarians, and many of my meals outside of the breakfast hour would require some customization. This restaurant did not have a proper vegetarian meal, so I was left picking at a plate of vegetables…I even had to beg for proper sauce. My friends also knew we would need to eat something else later, and fortunately, everyone was excited about the prospect of Indian food since there was a restaurant just outside BOMA.

We did right at Rasoi, where we indulged in spring rolls with sauce, paratha, and delicious hot chai.
To think that I had only been in Senegal for two days at this point and to have seen so much already? I was excited to continue on our adventure, though like with any trip, there were fun, memorable moments and those that felt mentally draining.

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I plan to conclude my recap of the Senegambia trip with a reflection drawn from my personal observations and conversations, as the experience left me thinking about how I might use what I learned to help deepen others’ understanding of this region of the world—more to come!

Have you ever visited West Africa?