Niger Adventure Travel - Custom Safari Company Explore Africa


	Africa is a vast continent containing many different cultures, countries, traditions and geography. Let EXPLORE create a custom itinerary tailored to your specific needs and aspirations at any time of the year. Contact EXPLORE and let us help you create the custom trip of a lifetime!"

The Tenere Desert - This desert consists of hundreds of miles of spartan wilderness and undulating sand hills nearly devoid of vegetation, yet the scenery is unbelievably breathtaking in its expanse and mystery.
Wodaabe and Tuareg - These nomadic people of the Sahara desert celebrate in colorful festivals including singing, dancing and male beauty contests.
Mud Architecture and Fascinating Markets - Homes and mosques are made carefully out of mud and restored year after year.
Skilled Artisans and Silversmiths - Many of the artisans in Niger are thought to have magical powers.

Time to go:
The best time to go to Niger is in the cooler months between November and February.

The Cure Salé is one of the brightest and biggest celebrations in West Africa. It occurs just before the rains come, and is a time of socializing and catching up, as herders meet around the salt pans of Ingal and rest and wait for the blessed rain. One of the highlights of the Cure Salé is the gerewol festival held by the nomadic Wodaabé tribe; a race of tall, lithe, physically beautiful people, with elegant, feminine features...and that's just the men! In fact it's the Wodaabé men who participate in a male beauty contest that lasts for hours, and which involves hours of pre-concert preening, dancing, and face-pulling, for the benefit of the female judges. The gerewol takes place in September.
The other large festival celebrates National Festival Day, in mid-April, with a week of dancing, wrestling, and camel racing.
Republic Day at Dosso is celebrated at the beginning of August. There's a famous cavalry parade with both riders and horses in all their colorful finery.
In the city of Agadez, during the Islamic celebrations of Tabaski, the Tuareg celebrate with one of their favorite pastimes: camel racing. The cavalcade dashes through the narrow crowded streets of town to the square in front of the Sultan's palace.