Ivory Coast

Abidjan is the beating heart of francophone West Africa — a city of nearly five million on the Ébrié Lagoon. The Plateau business district raises a high-rise skyline over the water, while Treichville, Cocody and Yopougon bring open-air maquis restaurants, Djoula markets, and music clubs where Coupé-Décalé and Zouglou — both Ivorian inventions — are still living traditions, not nostalgia. Don't miss the Cathedral of St Paul (Aldo Spirito's striking concrete sail), the Marché de Treichville and the National Museum of Ivory Coast.

Grand-Bassam (UNESCO World Heritage), forty kilometres east of Abidjan, was France's first colonial capital in Côte d'Ivoire (1893–1900). The Quartier France district preserves weathered colonial villas, the Maison du Patrimoine, and the National Costume Museum, set against an Atlantic beach lined with seafood restaurants. It's the easiest day-trip from Abidjan and the country's most evocative single combination of history, beach and cuisine.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace at Yamoussoukro, completed in 1989 under President Houphouët-Boigny and consecrated by John Paul II in 1990, is the largest Christian church building in the world by area, with a 158-metre dome modelled on St Peter's. Surrounded by sacred crocodiles in the outer moats, set in the wide boulevards of the official capital, the structure is one of the most surreal and unforgettable architectural sights on the continent.

Taï National Park (UNESCO World Heritage), in the south-west, is one of the last large blocks of primary lowland rainforest in West Africa — over 5,000 km² of dense, biologically rich forest. It is best known for its chimpanzee population, the subject of decades of scientific observation by the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation: these chimps habitually crack nuts with stone tools, a behaviour rare elsewhere in Africa. Pygmy hippos, leopards, forest elephants and over 250 bird species share the canopy. Access via the southern town of Taï with permits arranged in advance.

East of Abidjan, Assinie is the country's classic weekend coast — palm-shaded beach resorts, lagoon channels for piroguing, water sports and seafood restaurants beloved by Abidjan's expatriate community since the 1970s. Two hundred kilometres further west, San-Pédro is a port town with quieter beaches and access to the Taï National Park. Together they offer the country's most relaxed coastal counterpoint to urban Abidjan.

The mountains around Man in the west — Mont Tonkpi, the Cascade de Man waterfall, the Dent de Man peak — bring a completely different geography: green hills, dense forest and traditional villages of the Dan and Yacouba peoples whose carved masks are among the most celebrated of West African art. The famous échassiers (stilt dancers) and snake-handler ceremonies remain part of living village ritual, not staged spectacle.

Côte d'Ivoire produces around 40 % of the world's cocoa — every Ferrero, Lindt, Mars or Lavazza chocolate or coffee in your kitchen has roots here. Plantation visits and cooperative tours around Soubré, San-Pédro, Aboisso and the western cocoa belt show the full chain from flower to bean to fermentation, and the artisan single-origin chocolate scene that has emerged in Abidjan in the last decade — Mon Choco, Instant Chocolat — turns the country's defining export into a tasting destination. Coffee origin tours run alongside in the Man region.