After decades of disaster, the West African country is finally ready to attract visitors—but will they come?
Bimbola Carrol ’s office pose in a historical edifice in Freetown , Sierra Leone , overlooking a highway in the northerly part of the urban center . Below , swarms ofmotorbikesand rattling kekehs ( Sierra Leone ’s variant of the tuk tuk ) slue through dear imported SUVs and bright colored , beaten - up hack — an ever - changing video display of the metropolis ’s socio - economical division .
“ How are you finding Sierra Leone ? ” Carrol , or Bims , as he ’s dearly known , asks me . Carrol owns and operatesVisit Sierra Leone Travel , a staple of the country ’s touristry sphere since 2000 .
“ It surely has a lot of potential , ” I say .
Photo by Jody Ray
Carrol roll his eye . “ There ’s all this talk about ‘ resiliency ’ and ‘ promise ’ and ‘ potential ’ , ” he articulate . “ Honestly , we ’re tired of hearing about it . ”
Carrol should know — he ’s seen and hear it all .
Carrol has curated tours and travelling software for every eccentric of client , from collective boards eager to see the state when they deliberate investing business here to teams working in the on-going leaning of NGOs headquarter in Freetown . He has also curated small retail package for local families who need to get off from the peninsula ’s exhaust - soak chaos and he is often consulted when phallus of thediasporareturn to visit their origin rural area .
Photos by Jody Ray
In 1991 , this small West African country the size of South Carolina was batter by a civil war that would last over a decade , a dispute that spawned nipper soldiers , lineage diamond , and last stereotypes of African warlords into global cognisance . Images of flamboyantly dressed African military commandos in dark shade and large , sparkling necklaces have been exacerbated by movies likeBlood Diamond , Lord of War , andBeasts of No Nation , none of which have avail Sierra Leone to become a sought - after travelling destination . “ That war decimated our touristry , ” Carrol says . “ Sierra Leone still struggles to free itself from all the electronegative perceptions . ”
A decade after the state of war , the country ’s forward motion in social and economic development was again contribute to its knees by a catastrophic Ebola outbreak that live over two eld and took more than3,500 lives . Carrol was there through it all . “ There was no tourism during Ebola that I can speak of . As a caller , we pivoted to supply services to medical professional and international press reaching . ”
Three age later , COVID-19 seemingly nailed the casket shut on any hopes that the country ’s nascent touristry sector would have anything to show for itself after three back - to - back catastrophes . But as the wallop of the pandemic ebbing , Carrol and others want to know : Will tourists come to Sierra Leone ?
Photo by Jody Ray
The trueness is , the countrydoeshave a lot of potential , and even Carrol agrees , as tired as he is of get a line about it . After all , the motto of his locomotion company is “ Visit Sierra Leone Before Everyone Else Does . ” The slogan suggest that the res publica is seemingly on the brink of a touristry undulation that , had it not been for a series of catastrophe , might have already transformed into the next vitrine bailiwick for international touristry and gentrification likeBali , Chiang Mai , or Medellín . Wrapped in the shibboleth is a horse sense of Bob Hope that travelers — and their wallets — are coming , and that the entire land is a generator of unseen wonderment that should be see before it becomes another hip destination where overprice drinks dominate crowded beach full of digital nomads . And the catchword just might be correct ; Sierra Leone has plenty to pop the question travelers , and even though its rich finish and innate wonder have go largely unobserved by tourists for years , it ’s only a topic of time before it becomes a sought - after destination .
A simple net search for thing to do in Sierra Leone will only divulge the obvious drawing card in Freetown : a visit to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary ; outings to one of the city ’s many gorgeous , untouched beaches ; or trips to Bunce Island , from which tens of G of Africans were once shipped to South Carolina and Georgia and drive into slavery .
But Freetown is more than the sum of its internet hunting result . For representative , it boasts three incredible museums : the Sierra Leone National Museum , the National Railway Museum , and theSierra Leone Peace Museum , the latter of which is almost always confused with the first . These museum retain the entropy take to sympathize the history of Sierra Leone and where it stand today , from the National Museum ’s collection of relics that antecede the rural area ’s independence from Britain in 1961 , to the Railway Museum ’s train railway car that once housed people seeking refuge during the state of war . The Peace Museum , established to devote homage to the civilians who were injured or killed at the hand of rebel soldier , is where visitors will begin to understand the country ’s recent history through its most brutal difference of opinion .
Photo by Jody Ray
Sierra Leone ’s best kept secluded is its state , outside of the capital city . Tucked away in the country ’s far east is Kono , a district that borders Guinea , where most of Sierra Leone ’s diamonds and minerals are mined . During the war , the territorial dominion was heavily looted and struggle over , but it stand today , with a giant diamond image at the shopping mall of its town public square .
Provincial Sierra Leone will enchant any naturalist , start up with the 1,000 - meter wage hike in Senikedugu or Mombo Waterfalls . Picket Hill and Sugarloaf Mountain are the two highest pot in the Freetown orbit , and both pull in local hike and camping enthusiasts who hanker to get away from asphalt and the vehicles that travel over it in nearby Freetown . In the deep southern part of the country , Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary sleep on an island in the centre of the Moa River that also provides sizable forest hikes and is abode to the pygmy hippopotamus , an animal that can only be found in this area , as well as 11 different species of primates including the rare and endangered Diana Monkey . Visitors can also keep an center out for over 135 different bird species , the Duiker cervid , and the woods - dwelling Bongo antelope .
recondite culturalists will apprise the provinces’masquerades , which play an extremely significant role in the life of the Mende and Temne people , the two largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone . During these masque , performing artist use carve wooden masks , music , and dance to broach extremity into the community or celebrate their accomplishment at various stages of life . These events occur throughout the class , but they are not always open to the populace , so it ’s best to reach out to a term of enlistment operator like Carrol to discover this side of Sierra Leonean civilisation .
Photo by Jody Ray
Back in Carrol ’s office , the power dead go out . Occurrences like these spur his defeat with the commonwealth of the res publica . During my visit , Sierra Leone experienced a major power outage that finally forced the DOE pastor to resign in disgrace . steady power outages are common for many developing countries , but these are issues that Carrol believes should have been worked out and fixed year ago , specially in Freetown . His concerns are doubled : that these electrical power system problems have dissuade holidaymaker from coming to the land , and that they indicate that Sierra Leone has not made the progression and gain it hop to after 63 years of independency .
hapless organization , state rottenness , and aid habituation are all thingscitedby business owners like Carrol that keep the state in a state of stagnation . It ’s so unsound he intend it has negatively affected entrepreneurship in the country , something he says is required to bring in more tourer .
“ No one thinks big here any longer , ” he says . “ Many mass here seem perfectly o.k. with the way thing are running now . ” He motions to the electric fan in his office that bar oscillating when the might went out , blades stagnant .
Photo by Jody Ray
His frustrations are echoed on local X ( formerly Twitter ) accounts , where democratic God Almighty , mostly base in Freetown , ploughshare meme around government ineptitude , societal complacency , and the estimate of escaping Sierra Leone for green pastureland . Despite this , the government ( through the support of the World Bank ) has made substantial investments in itsNational Tourist Board , an arm of the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs . Carrol says that while the tourism manufacture is reaping some benefit , it still has a long way to go .
“ We are seeing increase interest group from tour hustler , ” explains Carrol , “ but there are still challenge such as aviation access and the growth of some of our touristry sites . ”
Some of these challenge can be owed to the fact that Sierra Leone is geographically isolated , so it ’s quite uncommon to find backpacker even if they are “ just passing through , ” peculiarly in equivalence to other West African countries .
It ’s unmanageable to reach the capital itself , thanks to Freetown ’s locating on an almost island - comparable peninsula on the westernmost side of the country , along the Atlantic Ocean . Freetown International Airport is site inland on the opposite side of the Sierra Leone River , housed in a former British Royal Air Force base , so travelers stay in Freetown must take a 40 - minute ferry ride across open amnionic fluid to reach the heart of the westerly region .
Then there ’s the clime — tropic , with a class - stave average temperature of 78.8 level Fahrenheit , with season recognise more by rainfall than heat . Travelers to this part of the mankind may already know there is a squiffy season and dry time of year : May to November , and December to April , severally . Torrential rainfall during the plastered season has been exacerbated by clime change , resulting in dangerous implosion therapy and mudslides , which leaves just half the twelvemonth open to useable touristry .
diligence leader like Carrol are doing everything they can to pivot when necessary . Because there is n’t a steady current of visitors to the country , companies like VSL Travel are steadily concoct alone packages for all types of potential travelers .
And despite everything work against tourism in Sierra Leone , the country ’s people are at the pith of any successful sojourn .
“ There are many things people ca n’t really feel out about here unless they have a go at it someone , ” Carrol say . There are few traveller ’s guidebooks and articles devoted to Sierra Leone , but that does n’t have in mind there are n’t an copiousness of hidden treasure throughout its hinterland . Sight - visual perception is potential , especially if you hire someone to tug a automobile or motorbike to show you around . In fact , it ’s the drivers , ordinarily untested mankind , who ostensibly have unknowingly created an impromptu tourism sphere for the state .
Travelers to Sierra Leone will have an light time if they remain patient and allow the commonwealth to discover its more formal touristry ocean legs , but the honorable experience always seem to come from veritable , spur - of - the - moment opportunities , which Sierra Leone has in spades . Visitors must think to come with an open mind and be patient when things do n’t mould out exactly as planned , but perhaps there ’s something special to be had in jaw Sierra Leone , as Carrol says , before everyone else does .
