Mali Getting There & Away

Getting There & Away

By plane Air France flies daily from Paris-Charles de Gaulle to Bamako (and return). Royal Air Maroc fly less often - though more cheaply - than Air France, however they generally require you to connect in Casablanca in Morocco. There are also smaller companies, such as Point Afrique, who fly cheaply to & from Mali in the busy tourist season. Many African and pan-African airlines fly into Mali, for example: Air Senegal, Air Mauritania, Tunisair{1} Air Afriqiyah and numerous others. Some of these airlines also have feature connections to Mopti. The airport is about twenty minutes drive from the centre of Bamako. There are fixed rates for taxis to different parts of town: to find them, cross the roadway in front of the airport and go the the right-hand end of the block of kiosks. You will see a group of taxi drivers and a board with prices. As at December 2004, the price was 7500 CFA Francs (around USD$15). There is even well-hidden restaurant: follow the exit road past the barrier and you'll see it on the right, surrounded by trees, about 50 metres from the terminal building. They're very friendly and serve basic but filling and tasty snacks. By train There's just one train line between Bamako and Dakar (capital of Senegal), running once a week. See also this page for more info. By car There are several ways to get to Mali by car. From Europe one has to cross the straits of Gibraltar, Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania. There are no longer any problems crossing Western Sahara along the coastal road. You will need to have your car and passport information ready to hand over at the various checkpoint however. There is now tarmaced roads all the way from Europe to Nioro du Sahel (apart from 3kms at the border between Western Sahara and Mauritania). There should soon (within the next few months) be tarmac all the way to Bamako. Another option is to ship the car via a nearby seaport, for example Dakar in Senegal. There are no asphalted roads into Mali from Senegal so a 4x4 is strongly recommended. In the past the most-used road route was the asphalted road from the port of Abidjan in Ivory Coast. But since a rebellion in September 2002 the north of that country has been in rebel control. In April 2004, the road was in poor repair, and frequent rebel roadblocks made the journey risky. Most roadblocks could be passed with good humour and a 100F CFA "present", but the dangers of unsupervised young men with automatic weapons far from authority are obvious. It is also possible to ship to Ghana and then drive up through Burkina Faso. By bus It is possible to reach Mali by bus, from a variety of African cities. These include, but are not limited to: Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire, Accra in Ghana, Lomé in Togo, and Dakar in Senegal. There is public transport almost all the way from Europe to Mali be it buses or bush-taxis. The only exception is from Dakhla, Western Sahara, to Noudhibou, Mauritania where you can easily get a ride with a Mauritanian trader. By boat Mali has two large rivers that are navigatable at least part of the year, both of which cross into neighboring countries. The Senegal River crosses into Mali from Guinea in the south and follows a northwest course into Senegal. The Niger crosses into, appropriately enough, Niger. Note that large boats are only active August-November and do not continue far past the border due to rapids.