Home » Seasonal rentals in Senegal » Hotels with a Pool » Hotels with a Pool for Rent in Toubacouta

The Saloum Delta has one baffling feature: you are surrounded by water you cannot touch. Dozens of saltwater channels, mudflats, sandbanks that appear and disappear — and not a single place to get in the water. The bolongs (mangrove creeks) are muddy, salty and swept by tidal currents. You navigate them; you don't swim in them.

Add the fact that the rhythm of the day is set by the tide rather than the clock, and you have the reason for a pool here. This page lists the hotels in Toubacouta, at the gateway to the Saloum, that have one.

We are a Senegalese company and we put you in direct contact with the properties. The resident rate is shown on every property.

The tide decides, the pool fills the gaps

Here is how a day in Toubacouta really works. You want to explore the mangrove tunnels: you need water, so a fairly high tide. You want to watch the wading birds feeding on the mudflats: you need a low tide instead. Bird Island is reached in the late afternoon, when the migratory birds return to their roosts. Each of these outings has its own window, they do not follow on from one another, and they shift by about fifty minutes every day.

The result is a schedule full of gaps. You get back from an outing at 11:00, the next one leaves at 16:30, and in between it is hot, there is no shopping village nearby and the delta's water is off-limits for swimming. These gaps are not dead time if you have a pool: they become the natural rhythm of the stay, the one every delta regular ends up adopting — head out early, rest at midday, go out again at dusk.

There is a second effect, specific to this place. Hotels in Toubacouta are expedition bases: jetty, pirogues, boatmen. You therefore spend far more time there than in a city hotel, since everything leaves from and returns there, and you also take your meals there, as there are no independent restaurants. A property with a pool then becomes a place to live for five days; one without is a mooring point between outings. On a long stay — and the delta rewards those who stay — the difference is considerable.

Finally, a practical point few people anticipate: you come back from the bolongs covered in salt, sometimes mud, and often soaked. Rinsing off in a pool on the way back from the jetty, before you even return to your room, is part of the real comfort of this kind of stay.

What "with pool" means here

• Pool between the garden and the jetty — the most practical layout: you set off, you come back, you jump in. It is the most common format among hotels in the area.
• Pool overlooking the bolong — the most sought-after combination: you swim while watching the mangrove and the birds, which has no equivalent.
• Shaded pool — under the mango or kapok trees in the grounds. Decisive from March to June, when midday becomes oppressive.
• Pool and meal plan — the two go together as there are no independent restaurants: the meal plan is included in the rate shown when the hotel only sells half or full board, and dining tables are usually by the pool.

Three things to check on the listing: shade, the depth and whether there is a section suitable for children, and the distance between the pool and the jetty — in large grounds, they are not always side by side.

Where it is

Toubacouta is a village of about six thousand people on the banks of the Bandiala, in the Fatick region, at the gateway to a delta that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a recognized wetland of international importance. The general page on hotels in Toubacouta details the outings, the Fathala reserve and access from Dakar.

As far as the water is concerned, remember that pirogue trips and kayaking depend on the tides, that birdwatching happens at dawn and dusk, and that swimming in natural waters is not the done thing in the delta.

When the pool is most useful

From March to June, the heat rises sharply over the delta at the end of the dry season and the midday lull drags on. This is the period when you feel the difference between a hotel with a pool and one without every day.

From November to February, nights are cool and days pleasant; the pool is used mainly by children and for rinsing off on the way back from the jetty. From July to September, the rainy season (hivernage) brings humid heat and lots of insects; the pool is still welcome, but this is the season when several properties run at a slower pace. As everywhere here, long weekends, school holidays and the end-of-year holidays are when availability gets tight, and rooms overlooking the pool go first.

Good to know & booking

Half a day by road from Dakar via Kaolack and Sokone. Bring insect repellent — this is mangrove country and the evening outings are exactly when the mosquitoes come out — and binoculars, which transform the birdwatching trips.

To secure your dates, you pay 20% of the cost of your stay online; the balance is paid to the hotel on arrival, meal plan included where applicable. Pirogue trips, transfers and the Fathala reserve are generally paid separately, on site — ask for the details before you arrive so you can plan your cash, as the nearest ATMs are in Sokone or further away.

Cancellation is free up to 7 days before arrival from June 1 to October 31 and 14 days from November 1 to May 31; after that, the booking is final. If the property has to cancel on its side, we offer an equivalent option or refund the booking fee in full. The resident rate is shown on every property for people living in Senegal and the Senegalese diaspora, on an account verified after a phone call. The tourist tax — 1,000 FCFA per person per night — is not included in the rates shown: it is collected on site by the owner, not by Senegal Rent. The amount is given for information only.

Who is it for?

Stays of four nights or more: that is how long it takes to understand the delta, which means four midday lulls to fill. Families, because children surrounded by water they cannot swim in do not cope well with three days of it. Birdwatchers and photographers, whose program is built around dawn and dusk and who need a comfortable in-between. Travelers coming from March to June, when the heat becomes a real constraint. And Dakar residents on a long weekend, for whom the hammock and the pool are as much a part of the program as the pirogues.

If you are coming for two nights in January with a packed schedule of outings, the pool will matter little — and the hotels in Toubacouta without a pool are often more affordable, as are the campements (eco-lodges) in the area, which let you stay longer on the same budget.

The scene is always the same around 13:00. The pirogue is moored, everyone has salt on their skin, it is thirty-four degrees and the next outing is not for another four hours. Nobody talks. You can hear the birds in the mangrove, someone gets into the water, and the afternoon goes by without anyone noticing.

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