Two to three days covers the main sights. Spend a morning at the National Museum of Mali, an afternoon in the Grand Marché and the streets around it, and an evening of live music in Hippodrome. Add a day for the bazin dyers of Badalabougou and a look at the Niger from the bridges.

Bambara is the everyday language of Bamako, spoken by about two-thirds of residents and understood by many more as a second language. French is common in offices, schools, signs and newspapers. Greetings matter here, and the all-purpose Bambara hello, I ni ce, opens most conversations in markets and shops.

The name is usually translated from Bambara as crocodile river. Some sources prefer crocodile's back or crocodile backwater instead. Crocodiles still appear on the city's emblem, where three of them are said to stand for the small streams, or marigots, that once ran through the town.