The best things to do in Bissau are a morning walk through Bissau Velho, the walls of the Fortaleza da Amura, the Mão de Timba on the Pidjiguiti quay, the cloth stalls of Bandim market, the Praça dos Heróis Nacionais and the cathedral, then a boat out to Bubaque or Bolama. Allow two or three days for the city and longer for the islands. November to February is the dry season.
Bissau is a low, humid capital on the Geba estuary, and every road, boat and flight in Guinea-Bissau starts here. Founded as a Portuguese fortified trading post in 1687 and capital since 1941, it keeps a colonial core around the Amura fort and talks in Kriol.
The Portuguese grid between the port and the Amura fort, pastel façades going soft in the damp. Walk it in the morning, when the streets are quiet, and finish on the waterfront where the pirogues land.
The 18th-century Portuguese fort is still a working barracks, and it holds the mausoleum of Amílcar Cabral, the independence leader. The interior needs the army's permission; the walls and the view over the estuary do not.
On 3 August 1959 police fired on striking dockworkers here and killed about 50, and the PAIGC turned to armed struggle. A giant black fist marks the quay; stay to watch the fishermen bring the pirogues in.
Bissau's main market and its loudest: cloth, produce, fish, spices and secondhand everything, spread across open ground and alleys. The fabric stalls are the reason to come; the street food around them is lunch.
The colonial square at the top of the main avenue, closed by the Presidential Palace. Shelled in the 1998–99 civil war and derelict for years, the palace reopened in 2013 after an 18-month, China-funded restoration of its original façade.
Sé Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Candelária, built from 1945 to 1950 on the site of a 1935 church. Its 36-metre north tower carries the light that guides ships up the Geba estuary to the port.
A small collection in a 1948 colonial building: wooden masks and statues, baskets and cloth from the country's peoples. It takes under an hour and is the best preparation for the islands and for carnival.
Bubaque is the arrival island of the Bijagós, the 88 islands UNESCO inscribed in 2025. The scheduled ferry runs a short weekly timetable, typically out on a Friday and back on a Sunday, four to five hours each way.
The capital of Portuguese Guinea from 1879 until 1941, when a shortage of fresh water sent the government to Bissau. Its avenues and offices still stand, slowly going back to forest, two to three hours away by boat.
Carnival fills the streets on the Monday and Tuesday before Lent, with masks from every region: sacred ones, dancers in crocodile skins, and papier-mâché built by neighbourhood groups for weeks. The parades start in the afternoon.
Orango Islands National Park: five islands, and hippos that swim in salt water to reach its lagoons.
The marine park in the far south. Poilão takes about 5 per cent of the world's nesting green turtles.
Across a narrow channel from Bubaque, and home to several of the archipelago's small lodges.
A woodcarving school founded in 1976 and run by its students, who sell carvings and instruments to pay for their studies.
A weaving centre at the entrance to Quinhámel, 25 km west, where Papel weavers make pano de pente on hand looms.
The national football stadium, China-built and opened in 1989, with 20,000 seats. Go for a national-team match.
Seafood and grilled fish, and one of the city's longest-standing names for a proper dinner.
Belgian-owned, next to the Mavegro store; pasta, steak and seafood, but the pizza is what people order.
The small club under the Kalliste Hotel. Open every night, and full from Thursday to Sunday.
A garden hotel near the centre and a few kilometres from the airport, with an African-menu restaurant.
Mid-range rooms on Praça Che Guevara, an open-air pizza restaurant and live music most nights.
A natural park of mangrove channels below Cacheu's fort, running north to the Senegal border.
Freshwater lagoons near Buba, on the road south, and the country's best wetland for birds.
The largest surviving forest in the country, about 250 km south, with at least ten chimpanzee communities.
A river town behind one of the oldest Portuguese forts in West Africa, built for a slaving station.
An empty beach at the far north-western corner. The road is rough: plan an overnight and a 4x4.
The river port on the Geba where Amílcar Cabral was born in 1924; its colonial grid still reads.
The national holiday marking the assassination of Amílcar Cabral in 1973.
Masks from every region parade on the Monday and Tuesday before Lent.
The harvest and trading season that drives the whole economy.
Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, a public holiday with family meals.
Eid al-Adha, the feast of the sacrifice, kept across the Muslim districts.
The Pidjiguiti dockworkers killed in 1959, remembered at the quay.
The 1973 declaration of independence, the main national holiday.
A public holiday marking the 1980 coup that brought Nino Vieira to power.
The country's only international airport, about 11 km from the centre and roughly 30 minutes by taxi. Agree the fare before you get in.
Cheap, plentiful and unmetered, and many run shared, picking up along the way. Agree the fare first, and pay more to keep the car to yourself.
A short weekly timetable, typically out on a Friday and back on a Sunday, four to five hours. Tickets at the port; pirogue charters cover the rest.
Minibuses and shared taxis link Bissau with Quinhámel, Cacheu, Bafatá and Gabú. They leave when full, so start early.
Groundnut stew with tomato, onion and chilli, usually chicken, over rice.
Palm-fruit sauce, deep orange and thick with okra, for fish.
Palm oil, okra and whatever protein came in, simmered over rice.
The white stew: fish poached with onion and lime.
Small mangrove oysters, cut at low tide and grilled over charcoal.
Whole fish over coals with lime and piri-piri, the waterfront default.
Portuguese fried pastries with shrimp or fish, sold from trays.
Pressed from the cashew apple, the fruit the cashew nut hangs from.
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Guinea-Bissau
