Ségou

Segou or Ségou is a city in the Segou Region in Mali.

Culture and History

The first inhabitants of the city were the Bozos, a people living from fishing. Later there were also the Soninkes, the Malinkes and finally the Bambara people in the 16th century.

Segou is often considered to be the second city of Mali, and is certainly one of the most important ports in Mali.

In 2004 the region was inhabited by 1,887,100 people, of which nearly half younger than 15 years old.

Travel to Ségou - Visa Requirements

The city is about 240 kilometres from Mali's capital Bamako.

You can travel by river easily to Mopti, continuing on towards Gao, Wednesday's are your best bet.

Segou is on the main road therefore it is easy to get buses on the route between Bamako(CFa 2000) and Mopti(CFa 4500).

Tours and Getting around Ségou

You can easily walk around the centre of the town, but to reach some of the outlying hotels you can easily get a taxi.

Ségou tourist attractions and sightseeing

The most impressive architecture in Mali is to be found in the colonial buildings in the government district, however being government houses it's best not to take photos of them. The port is fairly small compared to Mopti but still worth a visit as part of a walk along the waterfront from the government district.

Ségou city tours

Visit the Craft centre along the Mopti road, it's in a distinctive bright orange mud building set next to large mud quarries. For CFa 500 you will be given a guided tour and explanation of how Bogoan clothes are made and even have the chance to try your hand at creating your own masterpiece. They also have a shop with work that is generally of a higher quality than on market stands.

Take a walk along the waterfront from the government district to the port.

Ségou souvenirs and shopping

Segou is famous for its bogolan (mud) clothes, the craft centre is the best place to buy these from (note that the prices are fixed), but there are also plenty of street vendors selling them. Opposite the Hotel L'Auberge are several small shops and stands selling a variety of traditional Malian art and crafts including masks, bogolans, carvings, Tuareg boxes.

Ségou Restaurants: cheap, moderate and expensive

The Hotel L'Auberge and Hotel Indépendance both have good restaurants.

Ségou nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs

Ségou cheap and luxurious hotels, youth hostels and lodging

• Hotel Indépendence, ☎ 232 04 62. A nice clean hotel, some of the rooms can be quite small. It has a swimming pool and the food is excellent. The only downside is that it's quite a way out of the town centre on the Mopti Road.CFa12 000 - 18 000.  
• Djoliba Hotel, [1]. hotel in Segou, center of town, quite, clean, friendly. Kids for free. Excellent food, big portions if wanted, also big variety of vegetarian food & pizza. Run by a German couple (german, french, english speaking).  
• Hotel l'Auberge, ☎ 232 01 45. Clean, friendly, a nice swimming pool, most rooms have aircon and a very good (air conditioned) restaurant! 
• Motel Mivera, ☎ 232 03 41. From CFa10 000.  
• Hotel Delta, ☎ 232 02 72.  

Get out

This page was last edited by Peter Fitzgerald. Based on work by Alex, Colin Jensen and Kasper Souren, Wikitravel user(s) G2tLD and Jonboy and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. - Content on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 license