Genuine "4 Tours In 1 Day" (south of Gambia)
Description
This tour entails four major trips that are offered by other tour companies separately. It is not physically demanding as one may think, so we decided to do them in one day to provide our customers real value for the money that they pay to us. It is not a constant drive the whole day, in every 30-40 minutes,we stop at a place of interest.
Tour Options
Itinerary
We walk through the Serekunda Market showing you some of the local products produced and sold in the Gambia. We explain as well what they are used for. You will see also vegetables, fish, dairy products and spices as ingredients for local dishes.
Kachikally Crocodile Pool is a traditional shrine. Learn the amazing history of the spiritual crocs and the story of fertility of the waters of the pond. Stroke the crocodiles and shake hands with them before we board our jeep for the next attraction.
Next we visit in Abuko the famous "cattle market". This is to learn all about cattle farming in The Gambia and how these cattle relate to the average Gambian farmer.
We drive to Lamin lodge for a 20 minutes break for coffee or tea coupled with some home made doughnuts. After the break,we visit the main oyster collection point and learn about its use in the community.
This time we are ready for the safari which takes us into nearly 20 small villages and hamlets in the west and south of The Gambia. Our main aim is to see the real Gambia and not tourist Gambia. Stop in one of the villages along the way and see how the locals live as a social family. A local school visit. We will be telling you about the three types of educations in The Gambia and making stops at different points for a detailed illustration. Now we head to the paradise beach for lunch. We will spend her 2 h 30 min so you can relax on free sun beds or go for a swim.
We drive about 22 kilometres to the Tanji fish market. Tanji is the biggest and busiest fish market in The Gamba. You will see the day’s catch come in and how fishes are being processed and preserved for exportation to other parts of Africa. You will discover and also see the role played by Gambian women in one of the major fishing industry. From the smoke houses of Tanji, we drive back home to our respective hotels with sound memories of the smoke houses of Tanji and the day as a whole.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
The tour starts at the front door of your hotel. We will pick you up at the time specified 1 day before the tour. At the end of the tour we drop you at the same place.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(54)
The tour has a remarkable variety of stops, showing a lot of what Gambia has to offer. ML is an excellent guide, knowledgeable and congenial. Everyting was well organized and explained.
We have always used Arch Tours when we visit Kololi and the 4 in 1 tour is the best day out seeing lots of great stuff throughout the region
A wonderful full day experiencing the real Gambia. When had an excellent guide and driver who was very knowledgeable. The day was very varied, and kept it very interesting.
A great day out to see the real Gambia. Our guide was great and very knowledgeable. A real experience and insight into Gambian life
The Gambia Tour. We did everything the excursion promised. Picked up at 8:00 a.m. and not back until 6:00 p.m. Fine good English speaking guide who can tell a lot about Gambia, history and everything we see. His name is L.M. Really great. Our driver drove neatly and safely, as far as possible in Gambia. We visited the Grote Markt, the crocodiles, the cattle market, drank coffee in a lounge, ate lunch on the beach where there was also room for swimming, visited a public school where we got explanations from the headmaster and handed out notebooks and pens. We visited a family and saw how they lived. We had brought treats for the children which was appreciated. We also visited the fish market finally. Very busy and chaotic, but what an experience. We had a nice impressive day and recommend L.M. Definitely as a guide during this tour.
If you are looking for a fully rounded, insightful, honest and humbling trip around Gambia, this is definitely for you. We were able to ask our guide ML absolutely anything. He was friendly and open. We found seeing everyday experiences at the market and places of work just fascinating. Be prepared to feel sometimes uncomfortable with what you may see, but this is the way it is. It is a trip well balanced with breaks at a lodge for very nice donuts and lunch at a beach. How else could you speak with a genuine Gambian mum trying to raise her family on really very little, or teachers trying to raise education standards. Keep it local by booking this with locals who can answer all your questions based on their first hand experiences. This is the real Gambia and this is the company who can show this to you.
I have been using Arch Tours for many years and without doubt they are the best tour company in the Gambia. Mr Conteh and his tour guides are extremely knowledgeable, polite, always on time. They were happy to swap dates around to suit our plans. We did three trips, all amazing. I can't praise them enough. This is the sort of Company who go the extra mile just to make sure you've had a great experience. Thank you and see you on the next trip!
Fantastic excursion so you really see what the country is like and how the people who live there actually live and work. Many things seen and the locals are the guide which makes it very nice.
Dawda is a fantastic guide! Very knowledgeable, friendly, and generous. Assan was the driver (a left-foot soccer star) who was fab too! I was so glad I booked this tour. Lots of different things to see and learn about. Highlights for me - touching the big crocodile, the museum, meeting all the happy, healthy children in the village, and then the fab seafood lunch and chance to swim at Rainbow Beach! I loved it all! Highly recommend! Five Stars!
If like me you like to deal with professionals this is the tour company to choose in Gambia. I started to communicate with the fantastic Mr. Conteh a month before our trip. Each e-mail was punctually and meticulously answered. This communication level continued once we arrived in The Gambia via WhatsApp. On one occasion I cancelled our trip mere hours before we were due to go as my wife got sick in the night. There were no complaints or recriminations and Mr. Conteh was quite happy for me to choose another date with no talk of extra payments. As it happened we booked 3 trips with Arch Tours. Kunta Kinteh Island, the 4 in 1 and the Banjul city tour. For Kunta Kinteh and the 4 in 1 we had the superb ML as our guide. What a wonderful and knowledgable young man. He made the day for us with his insights and his willingness to please. Both tours were fabulous. Kunta Kinteh island is very moving and everything worked like clockwork with the hotel pick up dead on time. ML guided us through all the steps with informative anecdotes as we crossed by ferry to Barra (Not a place I would want to go without an experienced guide) Our car was already waiting for us and took us to the village where we were transported on a small boat to the island. Here we learnt all about the history from a very passionate local guide. On our return after lunch and the slave museum ML had already checked the ferry on his phone and saw we had at least 90 mins to kill so rather than sit in Barra and wait he took us on an unscheduled stop to Fort Bullen (An anti slavery fort built by the British) which was also an excellent tour. The 4 in 1 was also a delightful day spent in the company of ML and a driver (So sorry I forget his name) We started at Serekunda market and ML found us a few places to buy the cooking spices we wanted to take home. The crocodile pool was great fun and ML explained the spiritual significance to the locals in great detail. We even got to "cuddle" Charlie the Albino croc. The visits to a family and a school were both interesting and heartbreaking when you saw the conditions and the hardship. Lunch was at the beautiful Paradise Beach. We ended the tour at Tanji fishing village. Wow! What an experience to see that industry up close. The tour to Banjul was my only gripe. It was interesting, but apart from the Arch 22 and a quick wander through the Albert market it wasn`t in the same category as the other two tours and I think it was slightly overpriced when you compare the costs of all three tours. I will state most strongly that this was by no means the fault of Dawda our guide. There just wasn`t that much to see IMHO So if you want a 5 star experience when visiting The Gambia I would start by dropping Mr. Conteh an e-mail LOL
