Le Djoloff Hotel

Le Djoloff occupies a beautifully restored 1930s townhouse in central Dakar Plateau, just off Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop. Its twenty rooms blend colonial architecture — high ceilings, tiled floors, shuttered windows — with contemporary African design, and the rooftop restaurant is one of the best places in the city to watch the sun go down. As a characterful four-star it's more boutique than business hotel: personal, design-led and quiet, with a bar, terrace, WiFi and air conditioning. The location is a real asset, putting the IFAN museum, Sandaga market and the Plateau's galleries and cafés within a few minutes' walk, and the Gorée ferry not much further. It draws design-minded travellers, creatives and anyone who'd rather stay somewhere with a sense of place than a chain tower. For style and location in equal measure, it's one of Dakar's most likeable addresses.