A country · 17 places · 6 regions

Republic of the Congo, all of it.

17 curated places across 6 regions — photographed, mapped, and noted with the season each is best in.

Brazzaville · via Wikimedia Commons

The 4 biggest regions — Brazzaville, Kouilou Department, Cuvette-Ouest Department and Sangha Department — read below as chapters, with 2 more waiting past them.

Chapter I · Brazzaville · 6 places

Brazzaville

The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Brazzaville is a striking brick church built in the colonial era, its warm red walls and pointed forms making it a recognisable landmark of the capital. Serving the Catholic archdiocese, it has hosted decades of worship, ordinations and national commemorations. The building's design combines European ecclesiastical models with the local use of fired brick, giving it a distinctive presence among the city's institutions.

Sacré-Cœur Cathedral, Brazzaville

Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo

✦ June–September

Basilica of Sainte-Anne

Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo

✦ June to September

Case de Gaulle

Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo

✦ June–September

All 6 places in Brazzaville →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter II · Kouilou Department · 3 places

Kouilou Department

Congo's most ecologically varied park runs from Atlantic beaches and lagoons through savanna to forested mountains. Nesting sea turtles, humpback whales offshore, and a chimpanzee sanctuary on the lagoon give visitors an unusual mix of marine and rainforest wildlife.

✦ July to September for whales; November to March for turtle nesting

Meet Conkouati-Douli National Park All 3 places in Kouilou Department →

Chapter III · Cuvette-Ouest Department · 2 places

Cuvette-Ouest Department

This property is an excellent example, at an exceptionally large-scale, of the process of post-glacial forest recolonization of savanna ecosystems. It is therefore ecologically significant as a convergence point of multiple ecosystem types (Congolese Forest, Lower Guinean Forest and Savanna). The broad range of age classifications across the forest succession spectrum contributes to the park’s highly distinct ecology, incorporating a broad range of remarkable ecological processes. It is one of the most important strongholds for forest elephants in Central Africa, and is recognized as the park with the richest primate diversity in the region.

Forest Massif of Odzala-Kokoua

Cuvette-Ouest Department, Republic of the Congo

✦ June–October · $$

Odzala-Kokoua National Park

Cuvette-Ouest Department, Republic of the Congo

✦ June to September · $$$

All 2 places in Cuvette-Ouest Department →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter IV · Sangha Department · 2 places

Sangha Department

A pristine block of lowland rainforest with no history of logging or settlement, where researchers habituated western lowland gorillas at Mbeli Bai. Forest clearings draw gorillas, forest elephants, and sitatunga into the open, offering some of Africa's most reliable rainforest wildlife viewing.

✦ December to February or June to August, in drier windows · $$$

Meet Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park All 2 places in Sangha Department →