Freetown cruise port guide

It may still be a bit of a rough diamond, but Sierra Leone’s capital is a true traveller’s gem. Lush rainforest and palm fringed beaches have been sadly overshadowed by Freetown’s turmoil, which has left its pock marked legacy on the city. Happily, this reputation is slowly receding. Expect to be greeted by warm welcomes and wide smiles. The city is slowly rebuilding after spats of fierce fighting in the 1990s. Today Freetown is a bustling metropolis, centred around the busy port.s While there may be an undeniable element of poverty to the city, this is more than out balanced by the unfailingly optimistic vibrancy and intriguing history that Freetown offers. This joie de vivre makes Freetown one of West Africa’s most dynamic cities; think bustling streets and gentle sign-song sounds of local dialect Krio. British philanthropists founded the ‘Province of Freedom’, which later became Freetown in 1787. This was a British crown colony and the principal base for the suppression of the slave trade. By 1792, over 1,000 freed slaves from Nova Scotia had joined the original settlers, called the Maroons. Another group of slaves rebelled in Jamaica and travelled to Freetown in 1800. Unsurprisingly, colonial reign has left its mark on the architecture of the city. British involvement is best viewed at the National Museum, and in the superbly preserved Victorian railway. The uplands around Freetown are verdant and home to the Western Area Forest Reserve (accepted by UNESCO as a tentative World Heritage Site).