From the verdant ridges of the Guinea Highlands in the north, to the shimmering cityscapes of Yamoussoukro and Abidjan in the south, the country of Ivory Coast is one of western Africa’s most enthralling and intriguing.
Since the early 2000s tourism here has been on a lull, edged into the backseat by the outbreak of civil war. But, while international warnings against travel in the westerly provinces are still in place, visitors are slowly but surely returning to this land, unable to resist the wealth of natural gems and authentic African culture that it represents.
Indeed, in the wild north it’s still possible to glimpse of some of the most traditional tribespeople left in the whole region, from the Senufo, who spill across the Suppire-Mamara into Mali, to the wood-carving farmer Dan people nearer to Liberia.
Other ‘must sees’ include the UNESCO-attested Parc National de Tai (home to one of Africa’s best arrays of primate mammals) and the curiously colonial political capital at Yamoussoukro, where Ivory Coast tourist guides can point travellers to the oddly industrial-chic replica of St Peter’s in Rome.