Typical Mali Itinerary

Your guide, Doudou, will accompany you during the entire trip from arrival at the airport to departure at the airport. Additional local guides will accompany you when needed, and you will also have a driver in your own private 4x4 vehicle (typically a Toyota Land Cruiser).

Day 1

Arrive in Bamako, usually in the evening from Paris, and transfer to hotel.

Day 2

Depart early for the drive from Bamako to the World Heritage town of Djenné, crossing the Bani River on a ferry on the way. If arriving on a Monday, see the bustling market in front of the mosque, the world’s largest mud building. Overnight at Hotel le Campement, adjacent to the mosque and marketplace.

Day 3

Djenné: see the Koranic school, the classic and ancient mud architecture of the city, and women with their “bogolan” (mud-cloth) dresses. Visit the tomb of a young woman of the Bozo tribe (fisherman) who was buried alive (sacrificed to appease the spirits so that the new buildings would not collapse as the town was built). Drive from Djenné to Dogon country. Stop in Songho to see the Dogon village with a local guide, and the ancient paintings at the sacred grotto where boys stay for their circumcision ritual. Overnight in Sangha, the largest Dogon village.

Day 4

Walk around Sangha, visiting togunas (meeting houses), granaries with intricately carved doors, fetish places, altars, the hogan (village elder), and Ogotommeli’s house and hunting trophies, the menstruation house etc. Leave Sangha to continue touring Dogon country, hiking or driving (if hiking, baggage is transported by your car and will be with you each night), visiting ancient animist villages, see the Tellem cave-dwellings etc. in various villages. Overnight in the Dogon villages on the roof of the mud houses, or in simple rooms equipped with beds and mattresses.

Days 5 and 6

Continue tour of Dogon country. Option of seeing the famous masked Dogon dances at Tireli (at extra cost).

Day 7

End of Dogon country visit. Drive to Douentza; if time permits, visit the Dogon museum at Fombori (take flashlight). See The Hand of Fatima, and (time permitting) Hombori Tondo: the highest point in Mali. Overnight at Hombori or in Douentza.

Day 8

Drive through the desert from Hombori to Timbuktu, crossing the Niger River by ferry, glimpsing Touareg riding camels on the way. Transfer to Hotel Bouctou, tour the World Heritage Site of Timbuktu with a local guide: its 3 mosques, libraries, museum, artisans’ market, Independence Square, the gate to the desert, the houses of the various explorers (French, English, and German) who first visited Timbuktu, the Amed Baba center with its historic manuscripts. Overnight in Timbuktu.

Day 9

Leave Timbuktu early in the morning for a short drive to the port, then embark on private boat (a motorized “pinasse”) on the River Niger, traveling upstream towards Mopti. Meals will be cooked on board from fresh-caught river fish; accommodation is on the riverbank in tents with mattresses. See Bozo villages, hippos, and the life of the river. All your baggage can be taken on the pinasse, but any extra baggage (eg. souvenirs) can also be left safely with the driver in your 4x4 vehicle for later pickup.

Day 10

Continue the river trip up the Niger, sailing through the Inland Delta and Lac Debo. Visit Bozo villages. Possibility of visiting Niafunké, the home of the famed Malian guitarist, the late Ali Farka Touré. Second night under tents on river bank.

Day 11

Concluding river trip, rejoining your 4x4 vehicle and driver. Arrive in Mopti, a bustling port, the so-called “Venice of Mali” in the afternoon. Visit the mosque, the port, pirogue workshops, artisans’ market, the confluence of the Niger and Bani rivers. Watch the sunset over the Niger from the Bar Bozo overlooking the port. Overnight in Mopti.

Day 12

Drive from Mopti to Ségou. Stop at San to see the mosque. Continue towards Ségou (Mali’s 2nd city). Visit the port, the colonial mansions, women making carpets, see the making of millet beer (and sample it). Visit Ségoukoro, the original old city of Ségou, including the tomb and the royal palace of its founder Ségou, Biton Mamary Coulibaly, the mosque built by his mother, and other old mosques. Overnight in Ségou.

Day 13

Drive from Ségou to Bamako. Visit the town centre, the artisans’ market, the gris-gris (fetish) market, the National Museum and other sights. Transfer to the airport for the evening flight to Paris.