Sierra Leone

Nestled on the southwestern edge of West Africa, Sierra Leone greets the traveler with tropical scenery of exquisite grade as well as a harmonious blend of ethnicities and cultures. The devastation of the 2014 Ebola outbreak will impact the country for many years, but Sierra Leoneans have proved themselves ultra-resilient people in the face of previous hardships (from slavery and colonialism to military coups and civil wars).

With its long, island-studded coastline, Sierra Leone serves up plenty of spots for seaside relaxation and recreation. The Banana Islands off the shore of Freetown, for instance, offer many fine beaches—not to mention sobering relics of slave-trade outposts. Handsome sand-and-palm shores are also easy to come by from the spirited capital of Freetown, an excellent base of exploration for any Sierra Leone visitor. Here you can also pay your respects to the colossal Cotton Tree, beneath which, so the story goes, freed slaves from America first established the town.

Inland, you can track down some fine examples of West African wilderness and wildlife via Sierra Leone’s protected refuges. The Loma Mountains Forest Reserve includes highland rainforest and the country’s most elevated peak, 6,390-foot Mount Bintumani, which you can reach on guided treks. Coastal tropical forest rich in birdlife awaits on the Freetown peninsula in the Western Forest Reserve. And in the rolling woodland-savanna country of the north, near the Guinea border, you can spot chimpanzees, baboons, colobus monkeys, and pygmy hippos in Outamba-Kilimi National Park. Other natural gems include Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary, which supports nearly a dozen species of primates, and Gola Rainforest National Park, a crucial patch of Upper Guinea rainforest on the Liberian border.

Perhaps most importantly, wherever you go in Sierra Leone—whether you’re angling or swimming on the coast, trekking in the Loma Mountains mists, or savoring a glass of palm wine in a Freetown bar—you’ll almost certainly be touched by the warm hospitality of the Sierra Leoneans.