Nouakchott Flights:
Flights to Nouakchott
Situated on the coast of Mauritania, the city of Nouakchott is the country’s capital and largest city. Nouakchott is not the most popular destination for tourists within Mauritania, but makes a good starting point for any visit, including beaches, a museum, markets, and several other landmarks.
The Nouakchott International Airport (airport code: NKC) is the main airport for Mauritania and is served by many airlines. All flights to Nouakchott coming in from Johannesburg will have two connections. Egyptair connects in Cairo and Casablanca, and South African Airways makes their stop-overs in Dubai and Casablanca. For another choice, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways both offer the same flight to Nouakchott through London and Casablanca. Most flights to Nouakchott from South Africa are around 30 hours long.
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The Tourist Attractions of Nouakchott:
Nouakchott isn’t readily recognised as a tourist destination though it’s the main entry point for any tourists visiting Mauritania. In the city itself you will find some good hotels and a fairly decent infrastructure too, that’s usually somewhat lacking in more rural parts of the country. Basing yourself in Nouakchott you can make use of the city’s amenities, then travel around to the countries other attractions. Mauritania is after all a popular destination for its national parks and there are five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in total to visit, most of which you can probably visit by arranging a tour from Nouakchott, leaving someone else to take care of all the logistical details for you!
Nouakchott is an expanding city, where new buildings battle for space with the encroaching sands from the Sahara Desert, blowing in from the east. The sand can be a real problem, and many streets will become sandy during windy periods so you might want to bring some protection for your eyes to avoid constantly having to wipe sand out of them!
There aren’t too many tourist attractions as such, but Nouakchott Museum is one of them. Here you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about the people and culture of Nouakchott and Mauritania, and about the history of the country.
The city is predominantly Muslim so there are mosques to see, but there’s also a catholic cathedral that was established when the French colonised the city, named the Cathedral of St Joseph.
Nouakchott has plenty of markets if you enjoy shopping, and there’s a variety of themed markets to choose from. Traditional handicrafts can be bought at several of the more general markets, while the Nouakchott Silver Market is the place to buy jewellery. If you prefer stores to markets there is a good shopping street popular with tourists in Nouakchott too.
On Nouakchott’s beaches you won’t find too many people sunbathing, but some of the outer beaches are attractive and have beachside hotels if you’d like to stay outside of the city centre. One of the beaches doubles as a fish market as it’s set aside just for the fishermen who arrive back in their boats and sell their catches fresh from the beach.
When Should You Visit?:
Nouakchott has a very dry and hot climate thanks to its position in the Sahara Desert. Rainfall doesn’t always occur, but when it does August is the time that it mostly falls, with a smaller amount coming down between July and October. These are the hotter months of the year when average highs get up to 34C, but even in the winter, between December and February temperatures still have an average high around 28 to 31C.