Sierra Leone

Some of the best beaches in West Africa and almost nobody on them

Sierra Leone is still shadowed by two things in outside perception: the civil war that ended in 2002 and the Ebola epidemic of 2014. Both are over, the country has been stable for two decades, and what it has instead is a coastline that would be famous if it were almost anywhere else.

The Freetown peninsula has a run of beaches, River Number Two chief among them, where white sand meets forested hills and there is essentially nobody there. Banana Islands and Turtle Islands offer basic accommodation and snorkelling. Freetown itself was founded as a settlement for freed enslaved people, and the Cotton Tree that symbolised that history stood until 2023.

Inland, Tiwai Island is a small river research station with one of the highest primate densities in the world, including eleven species. Outamba-Kilimi has forest elephants and hippos. Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary sits just outside the capital. Infrastructure is limited and roads can be slow, but Sierra Leonean friendliness is a consistent theme in every account.

Annual events and festivals

• Independence Day (27 Apr) — marks 1961 independence from Britain.
• Lantern Festival, Freetown (Eid) — enormous illuminated floats paraded through the streets at night.
• Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha (varies) — public holidays in a Muslim-majority country with a large Christian minority.
• Christmas and Easter (Dec, Mar-Apr) — public holidays, marked across communities.
• Freetown Music Festival (Dec) — a growing event drawing diaspora artists.
• Poro and Bondo society ceremonies (varies) — traditional initiation societies, largely private.
• Ode-lay masquerades (varies) — urban masked societies parading in Freetown.
• Sierra Leone Marathon, Makeni (May) — a charity event that has become well established.
• Turtle nesting, Turtle Islands (Sep-Feb) — several species come ashore.
• Bintumani and harvest festivals (varies) — rural celebrations in the north.