Home » Seasonal rentals in Senegal » Eco-Lodges

Eco-Lodges

Eco-lodges

First misunderstanding to clear up: in Senegal, a campement (eco-lodge) has nothing to do with a campsite. You don't pitch a tent. You sleep in a hut (case) made of banco (mud brick), wood or rendered masonry, within a small property of a few units run by a family or a village, with a shared table where you eat what has been cooked for everyone.

Yet the word covers quite varied realities, from the village campement run by the community to the small beachfront property set up for visitors, and the island hut you can only reach by pirogue. This page explains what the format involves, then goes through the four regions where our campements are listed: the Sine Saloum, Casamance, the Petite Côte and eastern Senegal.

Where the Senegalese campement comes from

The format has a history, and it begins in Lower Casamance. In the 1970s, as international tourism reached the coast in the form of large beach resorts, several villages built their own guest facilities: huts made of local materials, collective management, income shared with the community. This experiment in village tourism, among the first of its kind in West Africa, had a lasting influence on accommodation in the south of the country, and beyond.

Its mark is still recognizable everywhere: small scale, low huts in a garden, a welcome from local people, and part of what you spend staying in the village. At several sites, the campement even directly funds a protected area managed by the residents.

Village, family-run, tourist-oriented: the forms of the format

A village or community campement belongs to the community or operates with it. The guides are from the village, the income helps pay for the monitoring of an area, and people often come for what this local management protects: a forest, an animal population, a landscape.

A family campement is the most common format. A family hosts guests in a few huts, on the edge of the village or right in it, and the stay takes on the character of the household. Its simplest version is a homestay room, with a shared meal.

A tourist campement, as it is sometimes called in contrast to the previous one, was set up for visitors: huts on a beach or bolong (tidal creek), a straw-roofed paillote for meals, a jetty and a dedicated pirogue. The scale remains family-sized, but outings are more smoothly organized.

Add to these two special cases: the island campement, accessible only by water, where you arrive and leave at the pace of the pirogue, and the stopover campement, more functional, by the roadside, with parking and dinner.

What they have in common: a fan rather than air conditioning in most cases, electricity that is sometimes intermittent at night, variable phone signal, sometimes shared bathrooms, and meals included since there is no restaurant nearby. Compared with a lodge, which takes up the scattered-hut layout and adds amenities and service, a campement offers a human scale and a connection to the place.

Where to find campements in Senegal

Our ten pages cover four regions, and the region matters more than the campement itself.

The Sine Saloum brings together four areas, from the most island-based to the most inland. Campements on Mar Lodj sit on an inhabited car-free island, a short crossing from Ndangane. Campements in Toubacouta suit stays of four or five nights, with an outing into the southern delta every day. Campements in Fimela-Simal put Serer country at the center of your stay, and campements in Sokone offer an off-the-beaten-track delta, as well as a handy stopover on the road south.

Casamance, birthplace of the format, has four. Campements in Cap Skirring combine the great beach of the south with Jola (Diola) culture. Campements in Cachouane put you in a village at the river mouth, reached by dirt road or by pirogue. Campements on Ehidji Island take isolation all the way, deep in the bolongs. As for campements in Pointe Saint-Georges, they are bases for manatee watching, on a site managed by the village, with no guarantee of seeing one.

The Petite Côte has only one, but it clearly shows the difference between formats: campements in Pointe Sarène put you up in a fishing village, at the rhythm of dawn departures and late-morning returns.

Eastern Senegal, finally, offers the country's only hills. In the Dindéfelo community reserve, on the edge of Bassari Country, village campements in Dindéfelo are the only way to sleep near the waterfall and the chimpanzee forest.

In Dakar and the North, the format is not represented on the site. In the Lompoul dunes, you sleep in a tent: that is our camping section, an entirely different product.

Access: road, dirt track or pirogue

Access varies enormously from one campement to another. Some can be reached entirely by road: Pointe Sarène, Fimela-Simal, Sokone, Toubacouta. Others require a boat crossing: Mar Lodj from the Ndangane landing, Ehidji from Elinkine or Carabane, with no overland alternative.

Several sites give you a choice, and the travel times are surprising. In Pointe Saint-Georges, the dirt road from Ziguinchor takes about an hour and a quarter, while the public pirogue takes more like two and a half hours: more pleasant, it is no shortcut, but it becomes the default option when the rains damage the track. Cachouane can be reached by dirt road from Diembéring or by pirogue from Elinkine. Dindéfelo, finally, involves a full day on the road to Kédougou, then a laterite track.

General rule: as soon as a pirogue is part of the route, arrange the transfer with the campement before you set off, and leave some leeway on your return date.

Choosing your region for your type of stay

For a first trip, the Saloum is the gentlest introduction, a few hours from Dakar. For a weekend from Dakar, Pointe Sarène and Fimela-Simal can be reached without a boat crossing; Mar Lodj only requires leaving the car at the landing.

For a long stay, Toubacouta and Casamance reward time: you start to understand the delta on the third morning, and no one travels down to Cap Skirring or Cachouane for two nights. For diaspora families, family huts exist in most areas, but the islands and Dindéfelo are poorly suited to young children. For a work assignment, let's be clear: a campement is not an office. Sokone, on the road south, does however make a very good overnight stopover.

Seasons: what opens, what closes

The national high season runs from November 1 to May 31, and this is when most campements are in full swing: passable tracks, regular pirogues, migratory birds in the delta from November to April.

The rainy season (hivernage) varies in length and effect by region. It is longest in Casamance, from mid-May to early November, and arrives as early as late May in eastern Senegal, as detailed on our climate page. In Cap Skirring, the resort does not shut down: only two to four large resorts suspend their season, and independent campements stay open, with lower rates. In the more isolated villages and islands — Cachouane, Ehidji, Mar Lodj, Toubacouta — some campements scale back or close: confirm they are open before committing.

Eastern Senegal has its own calendar. A very hot end of the dry season, with frequent bushfires; a rainy season with difficult tracks, but the waterfall at full force.

Good to know & booking

Bring cash for your entire stay, as many campements do not take cards, as well as insect repellent, a headlamp, a power bank and your personal medication.

To book, you pay 20% of the total online as a booking fee, then the balance to the campement on the day you arrive, in cash in the vast majority of cases.

Free cancellation is possible up to 7 days before arrival between June 1 and October 31, and up to 14 days before between November 1 and May 31. Closer to the date, the booking is final once confirmed, but you can change your dates once up to 48 hours before, which covers many pirogue or dirt-road mishaps. If the campement cancels, you are offered an equivalent option in the same area, or a full refund of the fees. The resident rate, shown on every property, applies to those living in Senegal as well as to the Senegalese diaspora, on an account verified after a phone call.

The tourism promotion tax (TPT) is added to the displayed prices: 1,000 FCFA per person per night, paid on site to the property.

Who is it for?

Travelers who want to stay with people rather than in a facility, and who find half the point of the trip in the shared dinner.

Nature lovers — mangroves, manatees, chimpanzees, birds — for whom it is often the only way to sleep on site.

Modest budgets and long stays, as full board in a hut remains the most straightforward formula in the country.

Residents curious about a Senegal other than the coast. Less so those who need air conditioning or a reliable connection: a guesthouse offers a personal welcome with more comfort.

Frequently asked questions