It’s just a 20-minute walk from the center of Dakar to the ‘Gare Maritime’ from where the ferries to Gorée leave. This is a well-organized service, with online timetables, clear ticket prices (unchanged for years so it seems, 5200 XOF for the return plus 500 tax), and a boarding area with plenty of seats and a French bakery. It's nothing like the Elephanta ferry I took a month ago from Mumbai – with its lack of signage, old wooden boats and the dirt all around. Just don’t forget to bring your passport here, as it will be checked when you enter the harbour area. If you want to sit at the ferry's top deck, enter via the back entrance and choose a seat on the right for the best Gorée arrival views (I sat on the left, staring at a Maersk containership). The crossing takes just 20 minutes.

The core zone comprises the whole island, which measures about 900x350m. Right off the boat, you walk underneath a Welcome to Gorée-sign that doubles as a Plaque. Check! There’s no shortage of UNESCO WH emblems on display around the island anyway, they are also present on every information panel and at the town hall (hand-painted). 

Gorée is a pleasant place to roam around on your own. There are no cars and no persistent sellers or wannabe guides. It has many picturesque small alleys worth checking out. Most buildings date from the late 18th and 19th centuries and were built by the Franco-African Creole, or Métis, community of merchants. These colourful buildings have been preserved well, at least in their facades. At the island's fringes, some are crumbling away, and squatters (handicraft sellers who started to stay overnight at the island and brought goats) have taken over the empty shells.

I found the two outermost points of the island the most interesting. At the southern tip, there is a gun battery dating back to WWII and the controversial Gorée-Almadies Memorial (a concrete construction added in 1999; ICOMOS got all hysterical about it for years but now seems to have given up). Walking up and down that area until the football field you'll have good views.

At the opposite end of the island, you’ll find the Fort d'Estrées. This French colonial structure has been turned into a History Museum. I was the only visitor here. After paying the 3000 XOF entrance fee, I was kitted out with an iPad audioguide in English to talk me through the 12 exhibition rooms. The museum highlights the history of the whole of Senegal (not only Goree) and I found it quite interesting. No overblown statements like Gorée being “the largest slave-trading centre of the African coast” are to be found here. 

I choose not to visit the “House of Slaves” elsewhere on the island, and overall, the appeal of the fabricated Slavery Site of Memory which was aimed at the African-American clientele seems to have faded away a bit in favor of the needs of the average French tourist. 

I returned to Dakar with the 2 pm ferry, after having arrived around 10.30. It takes 1.5-2 hours to cover the island in detail and visit the museum. Afterward, I had a decent lunch of grilled fish in one of the many restaurants on the island. You can also stay overnight, there are a couple of hotels.