Public transportation in Gambia

No self respecting tourist would ever use anything but a tourist taxi; they are safe, reliable and always available, they will also relieve you of some of that huge wad of cash you can't spend in your all-inclusive resort.

Avoid yellow cabs like the plague, they often have other passengers, maybe why they are known as shared taxis - they are impossible to find (anywhere near a tourist hotel) unreliable (they sometimes take detours to drop of other passengers)i, dangerous (they are not green and sometimes look a little down at heel and expensive - you din't negotiate the price at the start of the journey, did you?

Then there are the minibuses, can't for the life of me remember what they are called, but they can't be missed often they'll find you - that's what the young guy hanging out the door opening (who  needs doors, its warm in Africa) is there for. They cost less than shared taxis usually run a fixed route and allow close contact with the local population - very close contact.

Longer distance someone will always find you a 4x4 with a driver or a fancy tourist launch, they are both likely to be safe and costly, or one might try the local buses. They are reliable but do break down, they are not particularly comfortable but full of life and they are cheap as chips. For the adventurous try haggling for a pirogue ride upriver, if anything goes as far as Georgetown you'll be able to say you travelled the only way that used to be possible!

Thanks for your help Edislaw

Armand

Hi Armand,
Thanks for bringing this subject. I think lots if people are missing out if they only go by private car.
I only take public cars, very rarely private, or town trips as they call them there, because I have very little money. However, I love travelling this way, most of the time (though my spine is so wrecked with arthritis I think when I go back I won't be moving far), the ambience is fantastic, the conversation and adventures often highly amusing, the radio or cassette often in a league of its own, and occasionally it is very annoying when you get a flat tyre and end up stuck for hours by the side of the road, but that's when friendships, however temporary, are made. You can travel just about anywhere, though my experience is limited to going up to Dakar, and down to Gunjur and Kartong, then on to Casamance or as far across as Brikama regularly. Which is not far. A few times I have squashed in with an incredible amount of people and headed for Guinea, but I also fear those days are over for me, that one is HARD!!! (17 bodies in a small peugeot station wagon for just under three days) The fares are really cheap, and you can usually manage to carry a bit of stuff with you. I have no idea how the drivers manage to eat. From time to time there is no petrol for sale and things grind to a bit of a halt. Luckily there are shops everywhere where you can get a piece of bread and a boiled egg or a tin of sardines if you are feeling fancy and you can't get any where. I think it is fantastic and I really miss it here, I live in country Victoria Australia when not in West Africa and it is really hard to get any where if you don't own a car. I hate it. Do try it, it is fun. But the roads are not safe.  Especially if the president comes charging around a corner with his entourage, everyone must pull over pronto or be in trouble. Definitely it is not safe, but then what is, other than sitting at home? You just get used to it. The cars are delapidated. The vans, which are called cars, are also delapidated and often the seats have been pulled out and benches welded in to fit more people in, and are very uncomfortable. Fares are about 15 cents per section. A section is getting shorter these days, fair enough, but to get from say Bakau to Banjul is about 25 cents. From Senegambia to Brusubi 50 cents. To Gunjur from Bakau, in 3 cars, (2 changing of cars) is about a dollar.

The gelli gellis are cheap and run along fixed routes. The yellow taxis also follow fixed routes unless you negotiate a 'town trip'. The green tourist taxis are the only ones allowed to pick up at the airport and hotels; they are supposedly better insured but somehow, I doubt it. They cost more.

Hello Gwyn,

Thank you for this sharing of information !

Priscilla

Have travelled to Gambia or you are planning to travel there?