The Gambia Travel Guide: Best Time to Visit, Costs, Visas

A Gambia trip belongs in the dry season, November to May, and 7 to 14 nights on the Atlantic coast with one or two trips upriver is what most visitors book. Those months are also the birdwatching season, when European migrants arrive and the country’s checklist of 621 recorded species is at its fullest. British, EU, Commonwealth and ECOWAS passport holders need no visa; Americans do, and everyone pays a US$20 airport security fee on the way in and again on the way out.

The Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, at 11,300 km² (4,363 sq mi), and it is shaped by one river. It runs almost 480 km (298 mi) inland along both banks of the River Gambia and is only 25 to 50 km (15 to 30 mi) wide, according to Britannica, with Senegal on every side except the Atlantic coast. That coast is where nearly all visitors stay, on a run of beaches and hotels from Bakau through Kotu, Kololi and Bijilo, about six hours’ flying from northern Europe with no time-zone change, because The Gambia keeps GMT all year and does not use daylight saving. The country calls itself the Smiling Coast of Africa, and the Gambia Tourism Board sells it on sun, beaches, birds and river trips rather than big game.

The Gambia quick facts

The Gambia quick facts below cover the details a trip actually needs, from currency and plugs to the emergency number and the tap water.

The table stops at the practical facts. Older guides still give the population as about 1.9 million, which is the pre-2024 estimate rather than the census count.

Best time to visit The Gambia

November to May is the time to visit The Gambia, because that is the dry season: sunshine every day, almost no rain and the coolest nights of the year. The Gambia has two seasons rather than four, and the two are described below.

• Dry season, November to May. Banjul records effectively no rain in March and April, according to Climates to Travel’s 1991-2020 averages. January is the coolest month, averaging 25°C (77°F), with nights near 17°C (63°F) and afternoons near 33°C (91°F). The harmattan, a dry dusty wind off the Sahara, blows from November to April and can cut visibility and irritate chests, as the US State Department notes.
• Rainy season, June to October. Rain arrives in June and peaks in August, when Banjul gets about 305 mm (12.0 in) in a single month out of an annual 841 mm (33.1 in). June is the warmest month, averaging 28°C (83°F). The rain usually falls in heavy afternoon storms rather than all day, the landscape turns green, prices drop and many coastal hotels close.

Sea temperature follows a different curve from the air. The Atlantic sits at about 21°C (70°F) in February and March and reaches roughly 29°C (84°F) in October, so the warmest swimming is at the tail of the rains rather than in the peak tourist months.

Birdwatchers should aim at the same dry-season window for a different reason. European migrants arrive from late October and stay until around April, which is when the resident and visiting species overlap.

How many days do you need in The Gambia

Plan 7 nights for the coast and 10 to 14 nights if you want to go upriver, because the drive inland is long and the river trips are slow by design. Most visitors arrive on a winter package of 7 or 14 nights, and the itinerary below is the one those trips build around.

1. Days 1 to 3, the coast. Settle into Kotu, Kololi or Cape Point, walk the beach at dawn, and take half-day trips to Abuko Nature Reserve, the Kachikally Crocodile Pool in Bakau and Bijilo Forest Park.
2. Day 4, Banjul and Serekunda. Arch 22, the National Museum, Albert Market in Banjul and the far bigger Serekunda market, then the Banjul-Barra ferry across the river mouth if you want the crossing itself.
3. Day 5, Makasutu and Tanji. The Makasutu Culture Forest for mangrove creeks and palm forest, or Tanji fishing village and its bird reserve for the smokehouses and the afternoon landing of the pirogues.
4. Days 6 and 7, Juffureh and Kunta Kinteh Island. A river trip to the UNESCO-listed slave-trade sites on the north bank, described in its own section below.
5. Days 8 to 14, upriver. Kiang West National Park and the Bao Bolong wetlands, then Janjanbureh, the Wassu stone circles and, if you have the time, the chimpanzee project in River Gambia National Park. Add a crossing into Senegal for Fathala or the Sine-Saloum delta.

A week on the coast with two or three day trips suits a first visit. The upriver half needs its own week, because the south bank road to Basse is a full day’s drive each way.

What a Gambia trip costs

The Gambia is inexpensive once you are there and the flight is the expensive part, which is why most people come on a package. Prices below are approximate and move with the exchange rate, which was about D86.5 to the euro on 5 September 2026.

The restaurant, beer and transport figures come from Numbeo’s Gambia page, last updated in April 2026, and its Gambian sample is small, so treat them as an order of magnitude rather than a quote. The gap between a tourist-strip restaurant and a local eatery serving benachin or domoda is wide: the local plate is a fraction of the figures above. Our travel on a budget guide covers the habits that keep the difference in your pocket.

Is The Gambia safe?

The Gambia is safe enough for ordinary tourism and the risks are petty rather than violent: it ranked 56th of 163 countries in the 2026 Global Peace Index published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, ahead of South Korea and every one of its West African neighbours. The US State Department places The Gambia at Level 2, “Exercise increased caution”, in an advisory issued on 16 January 2026, citing crime, unrest and inadequate health infrastructure. The 6 things to know are listed below, most likely first.

1. Petty theft is the common crime. The State Department names pickpocketing, bag and phone snatching and theft from vehicles, on ferries, on the beach, in markets and in hotels. Do not display cash or valuables, and avoid walking alone on beaches or after dark.
2. Bumsters approach tourists on the beaches. Both the FCDO and the US embassy warn about young men who offer to help or to guide you and then ask for payment even when nothing was agreed. The advice from both is the same: be polite but firm.
3. The southern border needs care. A separatist group operates in Senegal’s Casamance region, and the State Department reports sporadic fighting along The Gambia’s southern border. Stay on main roads and do not drive at night near or across it.
4. Same-sex relationships are illegal. The FCDO states that they “could lead to lengthy prison sentences”, the State Department gives the range as 5 years to life, and Gambian law criminalises men dressing as women with a 5-year term. LGBT travellers should read the full FCDO advice before booking.
5. Roads are the everyday danger. The FCDO calls driving standards poor and the roads severely potholed, with poor road and vehicle lighting after dark. Livestock and pedestrians on the carriageway are normal.
6. Photography has legal limits. It is against the law to photograph or film airports, military installations, embassies or government motorcades, and equipment can be confiscated. Ask before photographing people.

Medical care is the reason to buy proper insurance. The FCDO says medical facilities are very limited and evacuation costs can be very high, and the State Department says there are no trauma centres in the country and serious cases are evacuated to Senegal or Europe.

Entry requirements for The Gambia

Your passport decides whether you need a visa for The Gambia, and the rules below come from the Gambian government’s own entry-requirements page. Check them again before you book, because entry rules move.

• No visa needed: citizens of the United Kingdom, full members of the European Union, the Commonwealth and ECOWAS, plus countries with a reciprocal exemption agreement, for stays up to 90 days on holiday or business, according to the Government of The Gambia.
• The stamp you actually get: the FCDO says UK nationals are stamped in for 28 days on arrival and can obtain two further 28-day extensions from the Immigration Office in Banjul or a tourist police station in the Tourism Development Area. Plan on extending if you intend to stay longer than a month.
• Visa needed: US citizens, among others. The State Department says a visa can be obtained before travel or on arrival, and that a visa on arrival costs US$100-105 in cash, US dollars or dalasi only.
• Airport security fee: US$20, quoted by the government as D1,000, payable in cash on arrival and again on departure. Children aged one and under and transit passengers are exempt, according to the FCDO.
• Passport: valid for the duration of your stay, with one blank page for the entry stamp.
• Overstaying: a US$15 per month fine, paid in cash at the airport when you leave. Extensions are handled by the Department of Immigration in Banjul.
• Yellow fever certificate: the Gambian government’s page says all visitors must have one. The International Health Regulations requirement, as set out by the UK’s NaTHNaC, is narrower: a certificate is required for travellers aged 9 months or over arriving from a country with yellow fever transmission risk, or transiting such an airport for more than 12 hours. Carry the certificate either way.

Two more rules catch people out. Duty-free allowances are 200 cigarettes or 50 cigars or 250 g of tobacco, 1 litre of spirits plus 1 litre of beer or wine, and other goods to a value of D1,000. Travellers on last-minute bookings are let in but must present their passport to the Department of Immigration in Banjul within 48 hours to be issued a proper visa.

The official sources to check are the Gambia Immigration Department at gid.gov.gm and the Government of The Gambia at gambia.gov.gm, plus your own foreign ministry. Commercial sites that sell “Gambia e-visa” services are agencies, not the government.

Health and vaccinations for The Gambia

The Gambia is a high-risk malaria country and that is the health fact that matters most. The UK’s NaTHNaC service, which publishes TravelHealthPro, states that there is a high risk of malaria in The Gambia and recommends atovaquone/proguanil or doxycycline or mefloquine. See a travel clinic four to six weeks before you fly, because the tablets have to be started before you arrive and continued after you leave.

TravelHealthPro splits its vaccine advice into two lists for The Gambia.

1. Recommended for most travellers: hepatitis A, tetanus, typhoid and yellow fever. Yellow fever transmission risk exists in all areas of the country.
2. Recommended for some travellers, depending on activities and medical history: chikungunya, cholera, dengue, hepatitis B, measles, meningococcal disease and rabies.

Three other risks are worth naming. The FCDO lists schistosomiasis, so do not swim or paddle in fresh water in the river or its creeks. Dengue and chikungunya mosquitoes bite by day while malaria mosquitoes bite between dusk and dawn, so cover up around the clock. Tap water is not safe to drink, and the State Department warns that restaurants and hotels may serve it unless you ask for bottled, and that ice may be made from it.

How to get to The Gambia

You reach The Gambia by air to Banjul International Airport (BJL), or overland from Senegal. The routes are described below.

Flights to The Gambia

Flights to Banjul take about six hours from northern Europe, and the Gambia Tourism Board makes the point that there is no jet lag, because the country runs on GMT. The Gambian government lists Brussels Airlines, ASKY Airlines, Royal Air Maroc and Turkish Airlines as the international carriers serving Banjul and Dakar, and TUI fly Belgium also flies the Brussels route. The airport’s schedule swells in the northern winter, when charter and package flights from the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavia run through the dry season and thin out again for the rains. Compare dates and fares on Trip.com for flights to The Gambia once your dates are fixed, and read our long-haul flight essentials if this is your first six-hour flight.

Airport transfers are worth arranging in advance rather than on the kerb. Mid-range and upmarket hotels usually include one; if yours does not, ask your hotel to arrange a transfer before you fly, which saves finding a legitimate taxi at the end of a long flight.

Overland from Senegal

The road from Dakar to Banjul takes five to six hours, according to the Government of The Gambia, and shared taxis and sept-place seven-seaters run it daily. There is also a road link with Ziguinchor in southern Senegal and on to Bissau, for which a four-wheel drive is recommended. Since the Senegambia Bridge opened to light vehicles on 21 January 2019, the 1.9 km (1.2 mi) crossing near Farafenni has replaced the ferry that used to hold up the Trans-Gambia route for hours or days.

Getting around The Gambia

Most visitors get around The Gambia by taxi and organised excursion, because there is no tourist rail or coach network and self-driving is hard work. The 5 options are listed below.

1. Green tourist taxis wait at hotels and the airport, charge fixed published rates for named trips and are the simplest choice for a half day. Yellow taxis are the general-purpose ones, and the US State Department recommends yellow taxis over informal alternatives while telling travellers to avoid gelly-gelly minibuses and three-wheelers.
2. Shared taxis and gelly-gellys run set routes for a few dalasi and are how the country moves. They are crowded, they leave when full and the State Department advises tourists against them.
3. The Banjul-Barra ferry crosses the river mouth and is run by the Gambia Ferry Services Company, a subsidiary of the Gambia Ports Authority, which describes it as the busiest crossing point, operating almost around the clock with three vessels. Expect queues and overcrowding, and note that the State Department calls government ferries unsafe and unreliable.
4. River trips are the reason many people come. Pirogues and tour boats run out of the coastal resorts to Makasutu, Baboon Islands and the north bank sites, and upriver they are often faster than the road.
5. Hire cars are available and the paved south bank road runs from the coast to Basse, but side roads are unlit and unpaved, livestock wanders onto the carriageway and police checkpoints are routine. If you want your own vehicle, hiring one with a driver is the usual compromise; if you would rather drive yourself, compare rental car prices on DiscoverCars and read the FCDO’s road advice first.

Distances look small on the map and are slow in practice. Banjul to Basse is a full day, so build the upriver leg around one or two overnight stops rather than day trips.

Best places to visit in The Gambia

The coast, the river and the stone circles are the three things The Gambia does that nowhere else does in the same way. The places are listed below, coast first, in the order most trips take them.

1. Kololi, Kotu, Bakau and Cape Point. The tourism development area, a run of Atlantic beach with the hotels, restaurants and the Senegambia strip behind it. Bijilo Forest Park and its monkeys sit at the southern end, and the Kachikally Crocodile Pool, a sacred site with a small museum, is in Bakau.
2. Banjul. The capital is small and worth half a day: Arch 22, built in 1994, the National Museum and Albert Market. Serekunda’s market, inland, is far larger and less geared to visitors.
3. Abuko Nature Reserve. The country’s oldest protected area and its easiest wildlife walk, a short drive inland, with forest trails, monkeys, crocodiles and a long bird list.
4. Makasutu Culture Forest. Mangrove creeks, palm forest and savannah in one private reserve on the Mandina Bolong, usually visited as a day trip with a boat ride and a lunch.
5. Tanji and Kartong. A working fishing village with smokehouses and a bird reserve, and further south, close to the Senegalese border, the quieter beaches and the Kartong bird observatory, where Bradt Guides counts more than 375 species recorded in the immediate area.
6. Juffureh, Albreda and Kunta Kinteh Island. The UNESCO World Heritage property called Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites covers seven locations at and near the river mouth, including the island fort, the Portuguese Chapel and CFAO building at Albreda, the Maurel Frères building at Juffureh, the ruins of San Domingo, Fort Bullen and the Six-Gun Battery. UNESCO describes them as testimony to the African-European encounter from the 15th to the 19th centuries and to the beginning and the end of the slave trade. Alex Haley’s novel Roots made Juffureh famous; the site’s significance stands on its own regardless of how the genealogy in the book is judged.
7. Kiang West National Park and the Bao Bolong Wetland Reserve. Facing each other across the river about two hours inland, with tidal creeks, mangroves, savannah and the Tubabkollon Point escarpment for river views.
8. Janjanbureh and the Wassu stone circles. Janjanbureh, the old colonial river town on an island, is the base for Wassu. The Stone Circles of Senegambia are a UNESCO World Heritage property of four groups: Wassu and Kerbatch in The Gambia, Wanar and Sine Ngayène in Senegal. Between them the four cover 93 stone circles among more than 1,000 monuments spread along 350 km of the river, with burials dated between 927 and 1305 AD. The pillars stand about 2 m (6.6 ft) tall and weigh up to 7 tonnes.
9. River Gambia National Park. The Baboon Islands, home to a long-running chimpanzee rehabilitation project. Landing on the islands is not permitted, so this is a boat trip.

Birdwatching in The Gambia

The Gambia is one of the easiest places in Africa to see a lot of birds in a short time, and it is a large part of why people come back. The country’s checklist runs to 621 species in an area smaller than Northern Ireland, because the habitats change fast, from Atlantic shore to mangrove creek to dry woodland within an hour’s drive, and because European migrants layer over the residents from late October to April.

Bring binoculars rather than a long lens you have to carry all day. Abuko, Tanji Bird Reserve, Kotu Creek, Bijilo, Kartong and the Bao Bolong wetlands are the sites most trips string together, and trained local guides work out of the coastal hotels and each of those reserves.

Where to stay in The Gambia

Stay on the coast between Bakau and Kololi for a first trip, and add one or two upriver lodges if you go inland. The 4 areas are described below.

• Kololi and the Senegambia strip: the busiest concentration of hotels, restaurants and bars, and the easiest base if you want company and choice.
• Kotu: quieter, right on the beach, with Kotu Creek and its birds at the end of the road.
• Bakau and Cape Point: older resorts, the botanical gardens, the crocodile pool and a shorter run into Banjul.
• Upriver: Makasutu, Tendaba, Janjanbureh and the Bao Bolong area have lodges and camps rather than hotels, and they are the point of going inland.

Many coastal hotels close during the rains, so check the season before you fix dates. Sofie books hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs through Booking.com for The Gambia, because its filters turn a long list into a short one that meets her criteria, and she uses Vrbo when an apartment suits the trip better.

What to eat and drink in The Gambia

Gambian food is built on rice, groundnuts, fish and slow-cooked sauces, and domoda is the dish to try first. The 10 dishes and drinks are listed below, with the Gambian name first.

1. Domoda: the groundnut stew widely called the national dish, made with meat or vegetables in a peanut and tomato sauce and served over rice.
2. Benachin: rice cooked in one pot with fish or meat, tomato and vegetables, the Wolof “one pot” that is also known as Jollof rice.
3. Yassa: chicken or fish marinated in lemon and onion with mustard and chilli, then grilled and served with rice.
4. Superkanja: okra stew with palm oil, fish or meat, thick and long-cooked, usually eaten on a Saturday.
5. Afra: grilled meat, chopped up with onion and a mustard or chilli sauce, sold at street grills after dark.
6. Chura gerte and chere: sweet groundnut porridge, and steamed millet couscous served with sour milk.
7. Akara and tapalapa: deep-fried black-eyed pea fritters, and the dense Gambian bread that looks like a baguette and turns up at every breakfast.
8. Base nyebe and plasas: black-eyed bean stew, and a leaf sauce of cassava or sweet potato leaves cooked with palm oil and fish.
9. Wonjo, bouye and ginger juice: hibiscus, baobab and ginger drinks, sold cold in bags and bottles at every market.
10. Ataya and JulBrew: the three-round green tea ritual that takes an afternoon, and the Gambian lager brewed at Kanifing.

Palm wine appears in the villages and gets stronger the longer it stands. Tipping is not compulsory but is expected of visitors, and our tipping in The Gambia section covers who and how much.

Money, cards and tipping in The Gambia

The Gambia runs on cash, and the currency is the Gambian dalasi, quoted at about D86.5 to the euro on 5 September 2026. The 4 money rules are listed below.

1. Carry cash. The US State Department says credit cards are accepted only at major hotels and a few restaurants, and only when the internet connection is working. Assume you are paying in dalasi.
2. Use bank ATMs only. The State Department advises avoiding ATMs other than those at banks, and warns to be extra vigilant when using them.
3. Change money at banks or licensed bureaus. The Central Bank of The Gambia has prohibited foreign-currency dealing outside the licensed banking system, and penalties apply to unlicensed changers as well as their customers. Street rates that look better are not worth the risk.
4. Bring small notes and keep the airport fee separate. The US$20 security fee is payable in cash both ways, and a visa on arrival, if you need one, is cash only too.

There are no restrictions on the currency you bring in or take out, according to the State Department. US dollars, euros and CFA francs are accepted in some places, but change is a constant problem, so break large notes when you can.

Public holidays and festivals in The Gambia

The Gambia’s public holidays mix fixed civil dates with Islamic dates that move each year, and the fixed ones are the easy half. The civil holidays are New Year’s Day on 1 January, Independence Day on 18 February, Good Friday and Easter Monday, Labour Day on 1 May, Africa Day on 25 May, Assumption Day on 15 August and Christmas Day on 25 December.

The Islamic holidays are the ones to check before you book. Koriteh (Eid al-Fitr) ends Ramadan and Tobaski (Eid al-Adha) is the larger of the two, with Mawlid, Ashura and Laylat al-Qadr also marked. All of them shift roughly 11 days earlier each year against the Gregorian calendar, so a Tobaski that fell in July one year falls in late June the next. During Ramadan, daytime eating and drinking in public is limited outside the tourist areas and working hours change.

Revolution Day on 22 July, which marked Yahya Jammeh’s 1994 coup, is no longer a public holiday after he left office in January 2017. Guides that still list it, or that describe parades at Arch 22 every July, are out of date.

The cultural event with the clearest standing is the Kankurang. UNESCO proclaimed the Manding initiatory rite a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005 and inscribed it on the Representative List in 2008, as a shared Gambian and Senegalese element. The masked figure appears at initiations and at village festivals rather than on a fixed tourist calendar, so ask locally rather than planning a trip around a date.

Culture, etiquette and everyday customs

Greetings come before everything else in The Gambia, and skipping them is the one mistake visitors make most. The 5 customs that matter are listed below.

1. Greet before you ask. A handshake and a run of questions about family and health opens every interaction, including a purchase or a request for directions. Going straight to the point reads as rude.
2. Dress modestly away from the beach. Women should cover thighs and shoulders in towns and villages; swimwear belongs on the hotel beach and nowhere else.
3. Ask before you photograph. The State Department’s guidance is explicit on this, and photographing airports, military sites, embassies and government convoys is illegal.
4. Do not give a thumbs up. It reads as an obscene gesture rather than approval.
5. Expect time to be elastic. Transport and tours run late as a matter of course, and pressing for punctuality does not speed anything up.

Requests are usually made indirectly rather than head-on, so a conversation that seems to be going nowhere may be leading to one. Saying no politely and early is easier than saying it late.

What to pack for The Gambia

Pack light cotton clothing, sun protection and mosquito cover, because the heat is constant and the malaria risk is high. The essentials are listed below.

• Light, loose cotton clothes, plus long sleeves and long trousers for evenings, which is when malaria mosquitoes bite.
• Comfortable walking sandals for the beach and closed shoes for forest trails.
• Mosquito repellent lotion or spray, used morning and evening.
• A reusable water bottle and a Steripen to treat water rather than buying bottles all week.
• A universal adapter, although type G plugs mean UK devices need nothing.
• Sunglasses, a hat and high-factor sun cream, plus binoculars if the birds are any part of why you are going.
• Small-denomination cash, because change is scarce, and a modest daypack rather than an obvious camera bag.

Modest clothing does double duty here. It covers you against mosquitoes in the evening and it is what village etiquette expects during the day.

Staying connected in The Gambia

Your home SIM will roam expensively in The Gambia, so buy data before you land or on arrival. The 3 options are listed below.

1. A local SIM from Africell, Comium, QCell or Gamcel, bought at the airport or in Serekunda, which is the cheapest data.
2. A travel eSIM installed before you fly, which works from the moment you switch your phone on; our eSIM for travel review explains how they work.
3. A portable hotspot. Sofie carries a portable hotspot and buys day passes outside the EU and as a backup when her phone plan runs low on data. If you would rather not carry a second device, an Airalo eSIM installs on the phone you already have and does the same job.

The code HARRY5578 takes €3 off a first order. Calling home is the other half of the question. Our guide to cheap international calls covers the apps and services that avoid roaming charges altogether.

Travel insurance for The Gambia

Travel insurance for The Gambia has to include medical evacuation, because the country cannot treat a serious injury. The FCDO says medical facilities are very limited and evacuation costs can be very high, and the US State Department says there are no trauma centres in the country and that severe accidents require evacuation to Senegal, Europe or the United States. Private clinics treat fee-paying patients only and usually want payment up front.

Evacuation cover is the part that matters, and the rest is a bonus. Insurance also covers the ordinary failures, a cancelled leg, a lost bag, a stolen phone. The insurer Wonderful Wanderings uses is SafetyWing, whose SafetyWing Nomad Insurance plans can be bought before you leave or while you are already travelling. Our guide to the best medical travel insurance compares what the policies actually cover.

A short history of The Gambia

The Gambia’s history is the history of a river that Europe used as a road into West Africa. The 4 periods that explain what you see are listed below.

1. Before Europe. The river valley sat within the Mali Empire’s reach, and the stone circles upriver, with burials dated between 927 and 1305 AD by UNESCO, are the physical trace of the societies that built along it.
2. The trading forts, 1456 to the 19th century. UNESCO records that Portugal acquired the island in the river from local rulers by 1456 and began building a fort. The island then changed hands between Portuguese, Courlanders, Dutch, French and British, and the fort, the trading houses at Albreda and Juffureh, Fort Bullen and the Six-Gun Battery together record both the slave trade and its suppression.
3. British rule to independence. The Gambia became a British colony and protectorate and gained independence on 18 February 1965. The Senegambia Confederation with Senegal was dissolved on 30 September 1989.
4. Jammeh, Barrow and the Commonwealth. Yahya Jammeh took power in a coup on 22 July 1994 and left in January 2017 after losing the 2016 election to Adama Barrow, who was sworn in at the Gambian embassy in Dakar on 19 January 2017. The Gambia had withdrawn from the Commonwealth in October 2013 and rejoined on 8 February 2018.

Tourism arrived in the 1960s and has been a mainstay ever since, alongside farming and fishing. The groundnut, which gave the country its cash crop and its national dish, is still the plant the economy grew from.

The Gambia travel FAQ

When is the best time to visit The Gambia?

November to May is the time to visit The Gambia, the dry season, with almost no rain, cooler nights and the European migrant birds in place. June to October is hot, wet and much cheaper, and many coastal hotels close.

Do I need a visa for The Gambia?

British, EU, Commonwealth and ECOWAS citizens need no visa for stays up to 90 days, according to the Government of The Gambia, although UK nationals are stamped in for 28 days at a time and extend at the immigration office. US citizens do need a visa and can get one on arrival for US$100-105 in cash.

Is The Gambia safe for tourists?

Yes, with ordinary caution. The Gambia ranked 56th of 163 countries in the 2026 Global Peace Index, and the US State Department rates it Level 2, “Exercise increased caution”, for crime, unrest and health infrastructure. Petty theft, beach hustlers and the roads are the practical risks.

Do I need malaria tablets for The Gambia?

Yes. The UK’s NaTHNaC service classes The Gambia as a high malaria risk country and recommends atovaquone/proguanil, doxycycline or mefloquine. See a travel clinic four to six weeks before you fly.

How many days do you need in The Gambia?

Seven nights covers the coast and its day trips, and 10 to 14 nights lets you add the river, Kiang West, Janjanbureh and the Wassu stone circles without rushing.

Is The Gambia expensive?

No, once you are there. Food, transport and drinks cost a fraction of European prices, and the flight is usually the largest single line in the budget, which is why most visitors come on a package.

More Gambia reading on Wonderful Wanderings

The Gambia articles on Wonderful Wanderings sit alongside this hub. Browse all Gambia posts for the full list, and read tipping in The Gambia before your first restaurant bill.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 5 tips below come from the Gambian government, FCDO, US State Department and NaTHNaC pages checked for this guide in September 2026, and every one of them costs money if you get it wrong.

1. Plan the stay around the 28-day stamp rather than the 90-day rule. The Gambian government says British, EU, Commonwealth and ECOWAS passport holders need no visa for up to 90 days, while the FCDO says UK nationals are stamped in for 28 days and extend in 28-day blocks at the Immigration Office in Banjul or a tourist police station in the Tourism Development Area. Overstaying costs US$15 a month, paid in cash at the airport as you leave.
2. Put US$40 in cash aside before you leave home. The airport security fee is US$20 on arrival and US$20 again on departure, cash only in dollars or dalasi, with children aged one and under and transit passengers exempt. An American buying a visa on arrival needs a further US$100 to 105, also in cash.
3. Book a travel clinic four to six weeks before you fly. The Gambia is a high-risk malaria country and the recommended tablets, atovaquone/proguanil or doxycycline or mefloquine, have to be started before you arrive and continued after you leave. Carry a yellow fever certificate whatever your route, because the Gambian government asks every visitor for one even where the international rule would not.
4. Confirm the hotel is open before you book a rainy-season bargain. Prices fall from June to October and many coastal hotels shut for the rains, with August alone bringing about 305 mm (12.0 in) of the annual 841 mm (33.1 in).
5. Report to the Department of Immigration in Banjul within 48 hours if you booked at the last minute. Late bookings are let in at the airport, then have to be regularised in the capital to be issued a proper visa. A commercial “e-visa” website does not replace that step, because those sites are agencies rather than the Gambian government.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the booking habits in this post, from Booking.com and Vrbo for hotels and guesthouses to her portable hotspot and SafetyWing insurance she travels with, are hers. The team covers The Gambia for independent travellers, including the coastal hotels, the river and birdwatching trips, airport transfers, car hire, packing gear and travel insurance worth booking, and updates this page when prices, dates and entry rules change.