Mali has spectacular landscapes that are sure to leave the travelers spellbound and a holiday in Mali is a perfect getaway for the adventure seeker. The travelers have a lot to see and experience in Mali by way of magnificent mosques, exquisite mud buildings, unique and rustic granaries, colorful and relaxed lifestyles of the people, camel treks from Timbuktu, the ghost town and excellent hikes along the stunning Bandiagara Escarpment. You can enjoy more if you happen to visit Mali during the peak season of December or April, when it is celebration time of cattle crossing and mask dancing festivals, respectively.
The best time for visiting Mali is November and December and this is the busiest tourist season. The months of October and February are bearable and the time when Mali should be avoided is the peak summers from March to June. The summers in Mali are extremely hot and dusty. Mali is a West African country bounded by lands on all sides. It is the world’s poorest country and is a developing nation. Despite all these drawbacks, it is a country worth visiting, owing to its superb sights, some of which are listed by UNESCO as world heritage sites. Mali’s world heritage sites include the Cliffs of Bandiagara, Timbuktu, Djenne and GAO’s Tomb of Askia. Bamako is the capital city of Mali and has an international airport with flights from France, Europe, New York and other African countries.
Bamako has a single train line and it has one train once a week plying to Senegal’s capital, Dakar. Mali can be reached by car via many routes and one has to travel through the Straits of Morocco, Gibraltar, Mauritania and Western Sahara. Mali is easily accessible by bus from different African cities. The two main rivers of Mali, River Senegal and River Niger, are navigable during certain times of the year and you can use the waterways as well to reach Mali. The internal transport is in the form of flights, boats, buses, cars and private taxis.
It is advisable that the tourists take a guided tour in Mali. You will not find extremely well developed facilities all over the country; this is however compensated by the beautiful sights, you will get to see some really unique customs and strange farming methods in the Dogon countryside at Bandiagara Escarpment. It is one of the greatest African cultures with excellent, primitive type of woodcarving and supreme mud architecture in fantastic setting. The visitors can take pleasure in boat cruises along the Mopti town. You can see the fabulous mud mosque at Djenne and enjoy shopping at the traditional Monday market. A must see sight is the arresting archaeological site of Jenne-Jeno.
Segou is also an interesting township with green environs, great mud structures and colorful weekly market. Take camel rides to the camps of “Tuareg” and see the Blue Men in Timbuktu. You can get rich insight into the lifestyles and culture of the people of Mali at Bamako by visiting the National Museum, which is stuffed with tribal handicrafts.
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