Explore Mali, 10 days

Culture and History tour in Bamako

Tour Price : $3210 Duration : 10 days Languages: English, French, German, Bamanakan, Miniankakan

Day 1 Arrive In Bamako, Mali
International flight arrives in Bamako where you will be met, assisted and transferred to your hotel.

Day 2 Bamako
After breakfast, explore this capital city, Bamako, situated on the Niger, one of Africa’s great rivers which flow through Mali. The city was founded in 1640, but didn’t really start to grow until the French colonial period began in 1898. Mali is a country of many tribal peoples, each with your own exuberant styles of clothing and jewelry. There is nowhere better to see this colorful diversity than in the streets and markets of Bamako. Bamako has a large art and craft centre where sculptors, weavers, leather workers, jewelers and metal workers exhibit their wares and display their skills. Another highlight of your tour is the Grand Marche, or ‘Great Market’, where you can spend hours exploring the hundreds of stalls from carvings and cassettes, to fabrics, beads, brass and gold, the variety of goods is staggering. One area of the market is devoted entirely to traditional African medicines. Here you’ll find the freshly shrunken heads of birds, monkeys and crocodiles along with lizard skins and other gruesome treatments.
Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 3 Timbuktu
This morning take an early flight to legendary Timbuktu. Located near the River Niger, and at the terminus of the great trans-Saharan caravan route, Timbuktu became fabulously wealthy in the 16th century. Loaded with blocks of salt and other trade goods, huge convoys of camels would spend weeks crossing the unforgiving Sahara to reach Timbuktu. It was here that they would trade salt, pound-for-pound, with African merchants bringing gold and ivory along the Niger from the heart of Africa. Wander the dusty streets of Timbuktu, admiring such magnificent mud-brick structures as the Djinguiraiber Mosque, the Mosque of Sankore, and the Palace of Bouctou. See the houses of the various 19th century European explorers who used Timbuktu as a base.
Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 4 Mopti
This morning you leave the only place which has a name synonymous with "a place unreachable" Timbuktu, and fly to Mopti. Mopti city tour (you will see the fascinating mix of Malian cultures: Bambara, Bobo, Bozo, Dogon, Fulani, Tuareg, Songhaï and Hausa): visit the beautiful mosque, the fishing port and the bustling market, where you can shop for gold or silver jewelry, Tuareg leatherwork, or Fulani blankets of cotton or wool.
Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 5 Mopti - Djenne
Drive to Djenne, Timbuktu's ancient sister-city on the Niger. Visit Djenne on its weekly market day when Djenne is at its colorful best; see the magnificent Grand Mosque, the largest mud-brick architecture in the world and one of Unesco's World Heritage Sites.
Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner Overnight at Hotel

Day 6 Djenne - Dogon
After breakfast, drive to the fascinating Dogon Country. Visit the Dogon village Songo, renowned for its rock paintings and circumcision grotto.  Continue to Sangha, on the top of the Bandiagara escarpment. Visit the villages of Sangha, Ogols and Bongo; see the traditional women's house, the sacrificial altar of the Hogon (the Dogon people's traditional and religious leader. Visit a Dogon seer. Overnight in Sangha.
Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner 

Day 7 Dogon Country
Descend the Bandiagara escarpment to visit the villages of Banani (note the ancient Tellem cave dwellings in the cliff face), Ireli, Amani (visit the sacred crocodile sanctuary), and Tireli, where you may see a traditional Dogon Mask Dance. Climb up the cliff then continue to Bandiagara for overnight. Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 8 Dogon - Segou
After breakfast, drive to Segou, Mali's second largest city and former colonial administrative center. Admire the beautiful Sudanese-style colonial architecture, visit the port, the pottery market, traditional weavers and other artisans. Visit Sekoro, the former capital of the Bambara kingdom where you will see the tomb of King Biton Coulibaly.
Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 9 Segou - Sikasso - Bamako
Drive to Sikasso in Mali's green belt. Visit Sikasso where you will see the Mamelon (residence of the former kings of Sikasso), the Tata (remnants of a large palisade that encircled the city and for a time held off the French colonial army). This evening return to Bamako.
Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 10 Bamako - Final Departure
Today, you will complete your tour of Bamako and transfer to the airport for your departure flight.
Meal(s) Included: Breakfast

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