Batik Making at the Dak'Art Biennale Senegal doesn't play when it comes to art and culture — it is the creative capital of the continent. We arrive just as Dak'Art, one of Africa's most prestigious art festivals, is kicking off and turning the whole city into a living gallery. This morning we get hands-on with Batik — the ancient wax-resist dyeing tradition that has been in West African DNA for centuries. Your hands will be stained, your apron destroyed, and the piece you make will be completely yours. We eat together afterwards — thiéboudienne and cold bissap juice — while your fabric dries in the sun. Loud, colourful, real.

N'Gor Island Afternoon Swim A quick pirogue ride drops you onto a tiny car-free island where the only agenda is to decompress. The water is warm and clear. The vibe is easy. Swim, pedalo, or plant yourself in the sand with a cold drink and watch the sun go down over the Atlantic. No schedule. Just the ocean and good people.

Surf Lesson at Copacabana Surf Village This is a Black-owned surf school run by Senegalese surfers who grew up on these very waves. They are patient, hilarious, and genuinely gifted teachers. The Atlantic is going to humble you — you will wipe out, swallow some water, and laugh harder than you have in a long time. And then you'll catch a wave, actually stand up on that board, and feel something you won't be able to explain properly until you're back home trying to describe it to someone who wasn't there.

Dance Lesson & Live Music Evening Senegal gave the world Mbalax — Youssou N'Dour's genre, rooted in Sabar drumming, that gets into your body and doesn't ask permission. Before we go out, we learn the moves properly. A local dance instructor breaks it down for us — footwork, rhythm, the whole thing — so that when we step into the live music venue later that evening, we're not just watching from the side lines. The drums are live, the energy is real, and by now you actually know what you're doing. Come ready!

Your Day, Your Way with the Option to Give Back Rest is productive. Sleep in, hit the beach, explore on your own our team will put you on to the local spots that don't make the guidebooks. And if you want to do more, our Sacred Exchange is there. A chance to give something back to the community that's been welcoming us so generously to show up as more than visitors, and leave something of ourselves behind. Not charity. Exchange. Because we're not just passing through.

Road Trip to Lompoul Desert — Glamping Under the Stars We leave Dakar behind and drive north through small villages and open land until the city is a memory and the Sahara is right in front of you. The dunes at Lompoul are enormous, rust-red, and completely stunning. Tonight you're sleeping in a luxury Bedouin-style tent in the middle of all of it real beds, lanterns, and a long dinner with other guests as the temperature drops and the sky above you fills with more stars than you've probably ever seen at once. A sky so clear and so vast it feels personal. Around a bonfire, a djembe plays. There doesn't need to be anything else.

Morning in the Desert — Scenic Drive Back If you can get up before sunrise, do it. The desert at dawn is something else entirely the dunes shift from silver to gold to deep amber in a matter of minutes and you will just stand there. After a slow breakfast and time by the pool, we head back to the city.

Dak'Art Biennale Opening Evening Tonight is the official opening of Dak'Art and Dakar's creative community is out in full force. We move through installations, galleries, and outdoor exhibitions before sitting down to create our own piece with local artists guiding us. It doesn't have to be good. It has to mean something.

Gorée Island — UNESCO World Heritage Site You can't come to Dakar and not go to Gorée. This small island was one of the major departure points of the transatlantic slave trade the place where the Door of No Return got its name. We go together, with a guide who carries this history personally. We walk the same ground. We stand at that doorway. It will be heavy, and it should be. This is part of our story and we face it together, as a group.

Sandaga Market — Food Tour & Souvenir Hunt After Gorée, Sandaga Market meets you with colour, noise, and life in every direction incense, charcoal smoke, bolts of wax-print fabric, vendors switching between Wolof, French, and English mid-sentence. Practice your haggling, try your Wolof, and fill your bag. Hand carved masks, woven baskets, fabrics, spices. Buy something for your mum. Buy something just for you. This is the real Dakar.

Cooking Class with a Senegalese Family Thiéboudienne  the national dish, the real Jollof origin story, the meal that Senegal built its reputation on. Today we learn to make it from scratch in an actual family home, starting at the market where everyone has a job. The kitchen is small and hot and the best place you'll be all trip. We eat on the floor, from one bowl, with our hands if we're feeling it. We wash it down with Atay sweet Senegalese mint tea poured from a height into tiny glasses like it's a ceremony, because it is.

Sunset Horseback Riding at Parc de Hann We close the day on horseback, riding through the lush, tree lined paths of Parc de Hann as the city goes golden around us. It's a proper ride just you, your horse, and the park slowly unwinding in the early evening light. After everything today has been, this is exactly the pace we need.

Bandia Wildlife Reserve Our last adventure takes us to Bandia a proper African wildlife reserve where giraffes move through the acacia trees like they own the place, zebras graze without a care, and if you keep your eyes open, a white rhino will materialise from the bush. Every sighting hits different when you're this close. Take it in slowly.

Farewell Dinner Ten days ago you didn't know these people. Tonight you can't imagine not knowing them. The table is long, the food is good, somebody is going to say something that makes the whole table emotional, and numbers are being swapped before the night is over. We'll link again maybe Kenya, maybe Benin, maybe South Africa. Watch this space.