The Freetown peninsula beaches, the Banana and Turtle Islands, Tacugama's chimpanzees, Tiwai Island and the Gola rainforest. Every destination in Sierra Leone, with honest notes on access, cost and safety.https://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations/3906599604.xml?limit=10/images/0/28147885/Flag_of_Sierra_Leone-2y6lmzCIrRuSgcD80PqU4A.pngThirty kilometres of Atlantic coast below a forested mountain range, with beaches most Europeans have never heard of. Beach by beach down the peninsula: what each one is like, how to get there, where the sea is safe, and what it actually costs.https://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/freetown-peninsula-beaches-a-complete-guidehttps://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/freetown-peninsula-beaches-a-complete-guideA river comes out of the forest and meets the Atlantic across a bar of pale sand. It is the picture people have of Sierra Leone, and it is run by the village rather than a resort. What to do there, what to expect, and why the ownership matters more than the view.https://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/river-number-two-beachhttps://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/river-number-two-beachThree small islands off the tip of the Freetown peninsula, with clear water, a ruined church, cannon in the undergrowth and the remains of a slave-trading settlement. How to get there, where to stay, and why a day trip is the wrong way to do it.https://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/banana-islandshttps://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/banana-islandsRescued chimpanzees in rainforest twenty minutes above Freetown, at a sanctuary that has survived a civil war, Ebola and a landslide. What you see, how to visit, why the eco-lodges are worth a night, and why this is a conservation project rather than a zoo.https://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/tacugama-chimpanzee-sanctuaryhttps://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/tacugama-chimpanzee-sanctuaryA city built on a steep hillside above one of the finest natural harbours in Africa, founded by people who had freed themselves from slavery. What to see, how to move around a capital with one road through it, and what nobody tells first-time visitors.https://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/freetown-the-capital-on-the-mountain-and-the-seahttps://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/freetown-the-capital-on-the-mountain-and-the-seaA twelve-square-kilometre island in the Moa River in south-eastern Sierra Leone, run by the surrounding villages, with one of the highest densities of primate species recorded anywhere on earth, and one of the last strongholds of the pygmy hippo.https://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/tiwai-island-wildlife-sanctuaryhttps://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/tiwai-island-wildlife-sanctuaryNearly 700 square kilometres of Upper Guinean rainforest on the Liberian border, with forest elephants, pygmy hippos, chimpanzees and hundreds of bird species. Part of a transboundary peace park with Liberia. What is there, how to visit, and why the forest is still contested.https://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/gola-rainforest-national-parkhttps://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/gola-rainforest-national-parkSierra Leone's oldest national park, on the Guinean border, where forest gives way to savannah. Hippos in the rivers, elephants that cross from Guinea, and almost no visitors. What is there, how hard it is to reach, and what condition it is in.https://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/outamba-kilimi-national-parkhttps://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/outamba-kilimi-national-parkBo is where the interior begins. A working Mende town with a nineteenth-century school that educated the country's leadership, a busy market, and the base every traveller uses for Tiwai, Gola and the east. What it is, what to do, and why you will end up here.https://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/o-sierra-leones-second-cityhttps://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/o-sierra-leones-second-citySierra Leone's third city sits where the forest and the diamond districts meet. It is the gateway to Gola and Tiwai, a serious market town, and the place where the country's hardest questions about minerals and land are asked. What to see and what to know.https://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/kenema-and-the-eastern-provincehttps://sierraleone.africanindependence.com/destinations-item/kenema-and-the-eastern-province