Saint-Louis
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📷 Jim Williams· CC BY-SA 3.0 igoSaint-Louis, the city where the sun's setting is a daily masterpiece.
About
Saint-Louis or Saint Louis, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, and 320 kilometres (200 mi) north of Senegal's capital city Dakar. It had a population of 254,171 in 2023. Saint-Louis was the capital of the French colony of Senegal from 1673 until 1902 and French West Africa from 1895 until 1902, when the capital was moved to Dakar. From 1920 to 1957, it also served as the capital of the neighboring colony of Mauritania.
Wikipedia →Summary excerpted from the Wikipedia article Saint-Louis, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text may be clipped or paraphrased to fit this page.
Why visit
Visit Saint-Louis for music, theater, and performance, archaeology and older urban layers, landscape, water, gardens, and nearby routes. Use Saint-Louis to connect cultural institutions with streets, food, public space, and nearby landscape rather than treating each stop separately. A good itinerary should stay selective. For Saint-Louis, choose the anchor first; the cafe, market, church, gallery, or evening event should follow from that location. In Saint-Louis, the route gains clarity when the spaces between formal stops are allowed to matter. When Saint-Louis opens onto beaches, hills, rivers, gardens, or nearby towns, add them only when they sharpen the trip.
When to avoid
Avoid the hottest late-dry-season stretch from March to June if you are heat-sensitive. The July-September rainy season can bring humid downpours and muddy roads, while coastal erosion and flooding sometimes affects low-lying areas near the river mouth. A route through Saint-Louis should follow the practical checks, not precede them. A day in Saint-Louis is easier when one backup sits close to the main route.
Hot dry season (Mar-Jun)
June through August are the period when heat, daylight, crowds, or humidity most affect a visit to Saint-Louis. Use Saint-Louis in hot months with the afternoon sun treated as a real limit. For Saint-Louis, the warm-season route should alternate shade, interiors, and outdoor stops rather than running straight through the heat. Use this season in Saint-Louis when the extra light or landscape access is part of the reason to go. The calendar matters in Saint-Louis, especially when festivals, holidays, and reduced performance seasons overlap.
Rainy season (Jul-Sep)
December through February are the cooler or wetter period in Saint-Louis. Use Saint-Louis in cooler months for walks, with cold evenings kept in mind. For Saint-Louis, ask how much the season limits walking, transport, and day trips, not just what the thermometer says. Use this period in Saint-Louis for close looking indoors, then add outdoor sections when weather and daylight cooperate. Outdoor time in Saint-Louis should stay flexible; check hours and spend on a ride when weather, darkness, or distance would otherwise dominate the plan.
The next week in Saint-Louis
7-day forecast from Open-Meteo. UV badges flag days when sun protection matters (3 and above is moderate; 8 and above is risk territory for unprotected fair skin within 30 minutes).
Today
Partly cloudy
27° / 19°
UV Very high
Sat
Clear
29° / 19°
UV Very high
Sun
Partly cloudy
28° / 19°
UV Very high
Mon
Partly cloudy
29° / 19°
UV Very high
Tue
Overcast
34° / 20°
UV Very high
Wed
Partly cloudy
33° / 22°
UV High
Thu
In May 16
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Air quality
No monitoring station within 25 km.
Weather
43° / 17°
Typical high / low
0 mm rainfall this month
Daylight
12.9h
06:36 – 19:27local
Year-round climate
Monthly highs, lows, and rainfall (long-term averages, NASA POWER).
Getting around Saint-Louis
Public-transit operators within 8 km of the city center. Click through to each operator’s site for routes, fares, and tickets.
Local transit operators
Operators and modes aggregated by TransitLand from individual transit-agency GTFS feeds. Route classifications (subway / tram / rail / bus / etc) come from each feed’s GTFS route_type codes.
Sister cities
Sources
This page blends public reference data, climate/elevation services, and personal notes. Travel requirements can change, so visa and entry details should be checked again before booking.
- Wikipedia →
Summary, canonical article, and some image fallbacks.
- Wikidata →
Population, area, image, coordinates, and linked identifiers where available.
- NASA POWER →
Monthly temperature and rainfall climatology.
- Open-Meteo historical weather →
1991-2020 temperature and precipitation cross-check for compact climate fields.
- Open-Elevation →
Coordinate-based elevation backfill.
- tz database →
Coordinate-based IANA timezone lookup.
- Site credits →
Global source notes, map tiles, flags, licenses, and attribution policy.