The Paris-Dakar Rally, an annual road race, makes its way across West Africa in January and will create large crowds and heightened security in cities where it stops for the night. It will also command most hotel rooms, making accommodations difficult to find. Participants are due to spend the night of Jan. 12 in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, Jan. 13 in Bamako, Mali and Jan. 16 in Nouakchott, Mauritania.
