Gambia Travel Guide

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The Gambia may be mainland Africa’s smallest nation, but it offers a much-varied landscape, featuring sandy beaches, lush tropical forests, swamps, marshes and large areas of wooded savannah. The River Gambia, one of Africa's great waterways, dominates the country, and The Gambia’s parks, reserves and riverbanks are a major draw for ecotourists: they harbor monkeys, crocodiles, a small population of hippos and well over 500 bird species.

Visitors keen to experience West African music and rural culture may choose to travel off the beaten track, spending time in simple up-country villages. But, for many, it is The Gambia's idyllic cocktail of sunny days, warm welcomes and relaxing Atlantic beach resorts which lures them to this little slice of Africa.

Geography

The Gambia, situated on West Africa's Atlantic coast, is a thin ribbon of land, at no point wider than 50km (30 miles), running east-west on both banks of the River Gambia. The Gambia is bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and on all other sides by Senegal; it is the smallest and westernmost mainland African nation.

The country is predominantly a low plateau, which decreases in height as it nears the Atlantic coast. The plain is bisected by the river, and is broken in a few places by low flat-topped hills and by the river's tributaries. In the west of the country, near the coast, the river banks are backed mainly by mangrove swamps, while in the inland area, which extends from central Gambia to the eastern border, the river is lined by steep, red ironstone banks covered with tropical forest.

Away from the river, find wooded, park-like savannah, with large areas carpeted by a variety of trees such as baobab, silk-cotton, mahogany and oil palm. On the coast, the river meets the Atlantic with impressive sand cliffs and 50km (30 miles) of beaches, the best of which are broad, palm-fringed and strewn with shells.