A country · 20 places · 3 regions

Sierra Leone, all of it.

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

Banana Islands · via Wikimedia Commons

Sierra Leone reads below in 3 chapters — Western Area, Southern Province and Eastern Province — in any order you like.

Chapter I · Western Area · 12 places

Western Area

A trio of forested islands off the Freetown Peninsula, reached by boat from Kent village. Snorkelling over reefs and shipwrecks, rusting slave-trade relics and simple eco-lodges make them a favourite off-grid weekend escape.

Banana Islands

Western Area, Sierra Leone

✦ November to April, when seas are calm · $

Bunce Island

Western Area, Sierra Leone

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

River No. 2 Beach

Western Area, Sierra Leone

✦ November to April · $

All 12 places in Western Area →

Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary, Sierra Leone

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter II · Southern Province · 2 places

Southern Province

This river island in the Moa River is one of the most primate-rich habitats in West Africa. Its rainforest shelters rare pygmy hippos and eleven species of monkey.

✦ November to April · $

Meet Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary All 2 places in Southern Province →

Chapter III · Eastern Province · 1 place

Eastern Province

A lowland rainforest along the Liberian border forming Sierra Leone's largest tract of Upper Guinean forest, now protected as a national park. Pygmy hippos, forest elephants and rare birds live within its dense canopy.