Which means of transport to use en Mauritanie?

Organize your stay en Mauritanie

From the airport to the city centre en Mauritanie

Individual private cabs are available at the airport to take you wherever you need to go. Allow around 30 minutes and MRU 1,500 by cab to get to the city center. No public transport.

The easiest way is still to pre-book the journey with your hotel, especially if you arrive late at night.

Public transport en Mauritanie

Minibus companies provide connections from one town to another, in particular from the capital to Nouadhibou, Atar, Rosso, etc. The main companies are : Première classe, El Moussavir, Essevir, Somacir, Prince, AMS...

Taxi-brousse. This is the means of transport that will get you around almost anywhere in Mauritania. Bush cabs cost between 100 and 500 MRU per 100 km. A detailed list of fares would be both pointless and exhaustive. Prices vary according to many criteria: road or track conditions, vehicle used (station wagon or 4x4 pick-up), season, seat occupied (the one next to the driver being more comfortable and therefore more expensive than those at the back).

With a driver en Mauritanie

If you don't like walking , cabs are an excellent way to get around Nouadhibou, Atar and especially Nouakchott. As the country's other towns are not very large, it's easy to discover them on foot. If you can't find a cab, you're really doing it on purpose. As soon as they see a pedestrian, especially a white one, they honk their horns and slow down to a crawl.

Generally speaking, in Mauritania, any vehicle can improvise itself as a cab! All you have to do is ask someone, and the magic happens to take you from one neighborhood to another within the same city.

The CarApp application, modelled on Uber or Bolt, was launched during the covid and is working well. The only requirement is to have a local Sim card. It uses geolocation to put you in touch with a community of drivers. Safety is assured, thanks to the comments available on the quality of the drivers, and speed: usually less than 5 minutes.

By car en Mauritanie

It's essential to rent a 4x4 to visit the country's places of interest, unless you have a car or travel by the public transport used by Mauritanians. As far as car rental companies are concerned, 90% are located in Nouakchott and it's a bit of a jungle to find your way around: many of them don't own any vehicles and only start looking for a car once they've found a customer. A little gumption and a lot of patience will nevertheless get you through. Daily rental of a 4x4 costs around MRU 3,500 with driver, excluding fuel.

Highway code. Mauritanians' interpretation of the highway code is sometimes confusing. This comment is not specific to Mauritania, but applies to most African countries. On the other hand, the state of certain roads should prompt you to exercise the most elementary caution. That's why, if you rent a car, we recommend that you also hire a driver. Traffic is not very heavy in Mauritania, even in Nouakchott, but getting through the streets of the capital requires a certain amount of practice. Mauritanians are excellent drivers, as collisions are extremely rare. In the bush, you need to be very careful of animals that may cross in front of your vehicle at any moment. Crossing villages requires the utmost vigilance, as children, not always accustomed to traffic, pay little heed to cars. Off-road driving, meanwhile, is reserved for the experienced, as the desert is full of pitfalls. Brittle regs, where your vehicle is put through its paces, follow immense stretches of sand. If you get stuck in the dunes of the Erg Ouarâne, don't expect to get off as easily as if you were on the Dune du Pilat!

Fuel. You'll find gasoline and diesel in every major town in Mauritania. If you're going into the bush, you'll need to plan well in advance: on some itineraries, you may need to carry spare cans, and don't forget that off-road driving, especially on soft sand, is particularly fuel-hungry. In mid-2025, a liter of petrol cost around MRU 56 (and MRU 50 for diesel) in Nouakchott. The further you drive from the capital, the more expensive it gets, except in Nouadhibou where it's cheaper.