Best places to visit in Republic of the Congo: top cities, regions and sights

Rank by what you can actually book. Odzala-Kokoua is the headline, but it is sold as a lodge package with a charter flight and fixed departure dates, so it only works if you can fit those dates. Everything else — Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, the coast — can be arranged around it.

If the package dates do not fit, build the trip on Brazzaville plus Pointe-Noire and the coast. That is a shorter trip and still gives you the river capital, the Atlantic and the chimp sanctuary.

Brazzaville is the easiest place to start and the one you will fly through anyway. Two nights covers the Basilique Sainte-Anne, the Poto-Poto painting school, Marché Total in Bacongo and the rapids at the city's edge. Go to the rapids in the late afternoon and take a hotel taxi back after dark.

Pointe-Noire is the oil port and the coast base: beaches, the Côte Sauvage and seafood. Two or three nights is enough, and it works as the second half of a trip if you can fly home from here (check) or loop back through Brazzaville.

Dolisie is a rail and road junction in the south-west rather than a sight in itself — useful if you are moving overland, not worth a dedicated stop on a short trip. Ouesso, on the Sangha in the north, is the gateway for Nouabalé-Ndoki and only makes sense if you have booked that park.

Odzala-Kokoua in Cuvette-Ouest is the reason most people come. Packages split nights between Ngaga for gorilla tracking and Lango or Mboko for the bais and river. Departures are fixed and you fly in by charter, so the park sets your dates rather than the other way round.

Nouabalé-Ndoki in the Sangha is remoter and harder to reach, with bai viewing rather than habituated gorillas. Lésio-Louna, closer to Brazzaville in the Plateaux region, is a gorilla reintroduction site with Lac Bleu and can be done as one night. Both need operator bookings (check).

North of Pointe-Noire the coast gives you the Côte Sauvage, the red Diosso Gorges and Loango, the former royal capital and slave port with its memorial and museum. Tchimpounga, the chimp sanctuary, sits near the city and takes no overnight. Hiring a driver for a full day north is the usual way to cover these (check) rather than chaining them by public transport.

Conkouati-Douli, further north on the border side, adds lagoons, beaches and chimps and deserves two nights if you have them. It needs an operator booking (check).

Seven days is the minimum that includes Odzala: two nights in Brazzaville, four in the park, one back in Brazzaville around the charter. Ten days adds Pointe-Noire and the coast. Fourteen days lets you add Lésio-Louna and Conkouati-Douli as well.

Without Odzala, five to six days covers Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. Do not try to add the northern parks to a short trip — the flights and fixed departures will eat the days.

Fly between Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire rather than driving. Arrange the visa at an embassy well ahead of travel (check), and check current health screening requirements on arrival (check). Forest park departures are fixed, so lock the Odzala or Nouabalé-Ndoki dates first and build the rest of the trip around them.

June to September is the main window for most of the country; the forest parks also run December to March. Check the safety picture for the regions you plan to cross before committing, and carry travel insurance that covers the activities you have booked.