What it is
An island of about 45 hectares, 2 km off Dakar, reached by a 20-minute public ferry from the port. It has no cars. Colonial-era houses in ochre and red run down to two small beaches. The Maison des Esclaves, a house built in the 1770s, has been a museum since 1962. Fort d'Estrées, a nineteenth-century artillery fort, holds the historical museum. Gorée was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978.
Why go
The island was a European trading post from the fifteenth century and passed between Portuguese, Dutch, English and French control. It is the memorial site for the slave trade in Senegal and receives heads of state, diaspora groups and school parties. The Maison des Esclaves is shown with holding rooms on the ground floor and a seaward opening called the Door of No Return. One point is worth knowing before you go: historians differ sharply over how many captives were shipped from Gorée itself, and the figures given by some guides are far above the academic estimates. The island's standing as a memorial does not depend on the number, and the historical museum at the fort handles the wider trade carefully.
When to go
Ferries run through the day from the Dakar terminal and the timetable is published there; check the last return before you cross, and buy the return leg with the outbound. Early boats are quieter. Allow three to four hours. Some visitors stay a night, which empties the island completely after the last ferry.
Most people stay Day trip, or 1 night.