A working fishing port at a river mouth, with sheltered coves on either side. The quiet option.
Sassandra was a trading post before it was anything else — French, then briefly English, then French again — and a few colonial buildings still stand on the heights above the river. Today it is first and foremost a fishing port, and the day is organised around the boats: out before dawn, back in the morning, with the catch sold on the quay.
What brings travellers here are the coves either side of the town, sheltered by headlands and far quieter than anything closer to Abidjan. There are fewer facilities than at Assinie, and getting here takes most of a day's drive. That filters the crowd, which is exactly why the people who go tend to talk about it afterwards.
Poly beach and the small bays around the town are the reason to come: rock headlands, calm water between them, and often no one else.
Worth setting an alarm for. The pirogues come in, the fish is sorted and sold on the spot, and the whole town passes through in an hour.
Boat trips upstream take you into a different landscape entirely — mangrove, birds, and villages only reachable by water.
The country's first colonial capital, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the beach at the end of every street.
ExploreA spit of sand with the lagoon on one side and the Atlantic on the other — the country's weekend destination.
ExploreThe country's second port, and the way into the wildest stretch of the western coast.
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