A country · 17 places · 3 regions

Guinea-Bissau, all of it.

17 curated places across 3 regions — photographed, mapped, and noted with the season each is best in.

Bubaque · via Wikimedia Commons

Guinea-Bissau reads below in 3 chapters — Sul Province, Bissau Autonomous Sector and Norte Province — in any order you like.

Chapter I · Sul Province · 5 places

Sul Province

The main gateway island of the Bijagós archipelago, connected to Bissau by a weekly ferry and small boats. A single sandy town gives way to forest paths and the long surf beach of Bruce at the island's southern tip, with simple lodges in between.

Bubaque

Sul Province, Guinea-Bissau

✦ November to April, during the dry season · $

Orango Islands National Park

Sul Province, Guinea-Bissau

✦ November to April, in the dry season · $$

Orango Island

Sul Province, Guinea-Bissau

✦ November to May · $$

All 5 places in Sul Province →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter II · Bissau Autonomous Sector · 4 places

Bissau Autonomous Sector

The sleepy Portuguese-Creole capital of Guinea-Bissau, where the crumbling colonial quarter of Bissau Velho meets a lively port on the Geba estuary. Its February carnival, with papier-mâché masks and island drum troupes, is the country's biggest celebration.

✦ November to April; carnival falls in February · $

Meet Bissau All 4 places in Bissau Autonomous Sector →

Chapter III · Norte Province · 2 places

Norte Province

A historic river port that was one of the earliest Portuguese trading posts in West Africa and a hub of the slave trade. Its old fort still stands above the mangrove-lined Cacheu River.