West Africa Travel Guide

This blog is a free resource filled with information that we have gathered from living and traveling in West Africa. We’d love to have you on one of our trips but from one traveler to another, we are just happy to see people visiting the region.

The blog is also a reflection of our travel philosophy. It’s possible to have quite the adventure in West Africa, but we are a bit tired of reading travelogues that make it seem like walking down the street in your average West African city is a death defying experience. We’d like to think that the advice provided in these pages will help you discover West Africa on its own terms, with an eye to the simple things that make this such a great place to visit. 

If you would like to contribute, please get in touch with us on the contact page. For more stories from the road, follow us on Instagram, Youtube and Patreon.

Join our Patreon and Get Unlimited Travel Assistance

If you join our Scoot West Africa Patreon and sign up for the Chauffeur or Grand Chef membership options, you will get unlimited West Africa travel planning assistance from us for as long as you are a member. The Patreon is also where we share a number of stories and adventures that can’t be found on our other channels.

Sun Protection in West Africa

Sun Protection in West Africa

I was blessed with pale skin and a bald head. In other words, a nightmare for West Africa. After years of neglecting sun protection, I ended up with a basil cell carcinoma, a kind of skin cancer. Needless to say, I take the sun a bit more seriously now. Here is what I...

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Exploring the Gambia River

Exploring the Gambia River

We are writing this right in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. No one is doing much traveling in West Africa, let alone the rest of the world. That said, Gambia's tourism sector had already been ravaged by the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook. Once we are all able to...

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Exploring the Niger River in Mali and Guinea

Exploring the Niger River in Mali and Guinea

When it comes to African rivers, the Congo and the Nile tend to split time in the spotlight. But the Niger -- the 3rd longest river on the continent -- deserves just as much attention. Bubbling up from the highlands of Guinea, and flowing out into the Atlantic Ocean...

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Crossing from Gambia into Casamance the “Back Way”

Crossing from Gambia into Casamance the “Back Way”

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and in this case, there is more than one way to enter Casamance from Gambia. Most people take the Trans-Gambian highway, which starts up in Kaolack, Senegal. This highway, also known as the N4, crosses the Gambia in the middle...

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