Sierra Leone

Freetown sits on a peninsula of beaches so good they seem implausible given everything the city has been through - and Freetown has been through a great deal. The war ended in 2002 and the recovery has been slow and real, the kind that shows in faces rather than statistics. The cotton tree at the centre of the city, under which freed slaves gathered when they arrived, is still there. The beaches - Bureh, Tokeh, River No. 2 - are among the finest in West Africa, almost entirely undeveloped, reached on roads that require commitment.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: Freetown's Creole kitchens, peninsula beach routes, Tiwai Island forest stays and the fishing villages where the day's catch determines the menu.