Sierra Leone Itinerary Planner

Sierra Leone is compact on the map, but the distances feel longer once you are on the ground. The coast around Freetown sits a long way from Gola Rainforest National Park, where the air turns thick and green and the morning belongs to birdsong, and the far-flung hill country is another journey again. The planner keeps nearby places together, so you spend your energy on a rainforest trail or a warm afternoon on the sand instead of watching the miles roll by.

Pick your trip length, your interests and a pace, and the planner lays out a day-by-day route you can follow without zigzagging. First it groups places that sit close together, so you spend your hours on the trail or the beach instead of on a long, dusty ride back the way you came. Then it picks one sensible direction through those groups, so each day moves you forward and never sends you criss-crossing the country. Finally, each stop gets time based on its type and on how much is clustered around it. Take Freetown: with several sights nearby, it becomes a base where you stay a few nights, and the smaller spots around it turn into day trips. You head out in the morning light, then come back to the same bed, the same street food and the same evening sea breeze. A single remote stop with nothing around it gets a shorter visit, so the long days go where there is the most to see.