Institut des Recherches Environmentales de Bossou (IREB) - Chimpanzees | Tourist Attraction

A good experience for me too ! But to note, there are only three chimps left, one went on her way to Liberia...

I phoned the director a few days ahead, he kindly asked that I call back the morning of my arrival date, which I did. I took a moto taxi from Nzerekoré (100,000 GNF). The night at the center cost 70,000, the room is fairly clean and there's 24h electricity. No running water but you have a big bucket and the well is 20m away. I ordered dinner in the morning, cost me 60,000 GNF, was OK. I brought my own breakfast. The excursion cost 500,000 GNF. I paid everything the day of my arrival.

I was lucky that there was a researcher on site when I was there, because this meant the chimps had been tracked every day for two weeks. Still some guides left very early in the morning to go look for them. Then me and another guide set off to go where they'd seen them. Took about an hour to walk, pretty intense and extremely muddy in some places, but I'm no athlete and I survived ;) We mostly saw one chimp, he was chilling in a tree pretty close by. We stayed with him for an hour, then came back.

The guys at the camp were nice and welcoming. A little confusing at times, like I had to ask several times who I had to pay, what time we'd leave in the morning and it wasn't always clear (and I'm a native French speaker...). So don't hesitate to ask questions until you understand what's happening, my experience is that they work in good faith.

Overall a cool experience :)

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Unlike the last commenter we had a great experience with the guides at the center. It took them three runs - two with us, one in the early morning without us - to find the Chimpanzees. Breathtaking experience, one came really close, less than 5 meters.
We camped on their parking and everything was nice and easy. And yes, they asked for upfront payment.

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Well…
We phoned the director 2 days ahead. He is professional and as long as he was there, things went great. Then he had to leave for a meeting and things got bad.
The rangers did not go to the forest to search the chimpanzees. They asked for immediate payment and noted our details on a piece of paper and not in the official book. The director had told us we would be picked up by a guide at 7, but until 8 nothing happened (except the guy asking for money). People in the village told us it’s far too late and the chimps are already awake and far away. It then got really annoying with the staff (we were 2 different groups of overlanders) and at the end they said they didn’t do anything because they were watching soccer and as Guinea won, all went to party and not to the forest to search for chimps. So they knew the chimps were gone but still asked for money. We all left very disappointed. Better go to see the elephants in Seredou.
Room is 70.000 but very dirty: dirty bedlinen, dirty bathroom, no plug working to charge anything, no running water.
Food IS possible, the director will organize it if you tell him beforehand. We payed 100.000 per person for half pension and got more than enough food!
Call the director and stick to him:

+224 628 13 82 02

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The centre is undergoing renovations but open for visitors. The rooms are very simple, simple mattresses on the floor or in a bed. No running water for now. Buckets also to shower and flush toilet. Rooms are 7,000GNF and the visit to the chimps is 500,000GNF of which half goes to community and half to guide. They do not provide any meals but can assist with getting beer or food from village.

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Be aware that sightings are much more difficult in the rainy season. One reason may be that having almost no tourists or researcher during the wet months, they don't keep track of the chimps' movements. It took us 7 hours scrambling in the hills to eventually spot two of them. Very shy, but we managed to follow them for a while and get within about 10m from them.
Back on the road we spotted a third one, on his way back to the hill. According to the guides, there's only 4 of them left in the area. The centre is planting trees to try and create a corridor for the chimps to be able to communicate and breed with the ones in Mount Nimba.
Facilities at the research centre are bad indeed, but the the staff is very friendly and helpful. They're currently renovating the centre, so it should improve.
Prices still the same.

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We had an amazing chimpanzee sighting- very close! Guides are professional. Well run place. Camping: as below, 50k pp, squat toilets (not spotless) but peaceful spot, undisturbed and with forest view. Chimpanzee visit: 500k pp. Highly recommend. Number below still works to call ahead - would recommend doing that and arriving the day before you want to see chimpanzees. Best wildlife sighting of our trip so far.

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Have the feeling that for 50 euros a person, they could at least offer one night to campers ... But no, they have to charge 50k FG for each person ! Guys, this is a rip off ! Facilities are really bad, this is not a real campground and they definetly take advantage of tourists... They found a cow to milk and they wont stop until the teets are dry ! I believe it s our responsabilty to say NO to a 11 euros fee night with so little accommodation... If overlanders are OK with such things, in 2 years it will be 15 € and in 5 years, 20€ ! People here dont know the value of money because too many people agree too easily to pay insane amount of cash in those countries.
I had a big talk with the guy there (unfortunatly, the boss wasnt there at the moment), and he prefered 100K for us to camp than 1 million for us to see the chimps. Oh well ! We do not like to get ripped off, so we left and will spend our money in another place. There is plenty of other places to see chimps in Africa, 50 euros is a LOT of money for us and those guys dont seem to know that... Our responsabilty !

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Best to arrive a day before as they could organise your tour. We saw them but at this period chimpanzés stay on the tree and not on the ground. Even amazing. we stayed 2 nights there 50000 FG p. person

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Love this. We saw Chimpaneez 3 meter away.
Guide did there best.

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Amazing experience! Camping there is an absolute treat and very relaxing as is. 50.000 pp, Bucket shower with water from the well and squat toilet.
Two guides and a guy from the centre took us into the forest at 7am. We walked and looked for three hours but no chimps, agreed to walk back to the village and try again in the afternoon. We were just done with eating when the research guy stormed out of his office saying we had to put our shoes on and run back into the forest cause his guys found the chimps. Very unreal and wonderful experience!! They were so close! The guys know them all by name and character and truly enjoy watching them too.
Tour is 500.000 gnf each, which is absolutely worth it in my opinion. Tipped the guys 30k each.
If you want to go and watch chimps in the wild and are by any chance crossing either the Liberian or Ivory Coast border here, do yourself a favor and go there. You will not regret it!

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Roads infos :
We tried 2 roads before find a good one.
- Road between Gbakole-Bossou is closed by the army, there is an English iron mine.❎
- Road between Gogota-Bossou was bad and muddy, trucks were stuck and blocked the road ❎
- Road between Lola-Meata-Gbenemou-Bossou was in a good state 👍

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Very nice experience.
We had 3 guides who know how to track Chimpanzes.
It was a rough walk across the "brousse".
It was Wednesday, market day, villagers were in town so Chimpanzes go in the fields to steal vegetables. They were more silent as usual because of this.
We started at 8am and back to the camp at 14.30pm.
We tipped 30k each guide.

Contact :
Paul Lamah, Directeur Adjoint
00224 628 13 82 02
[email protected]

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Sorry one last thing! We had 3 guides who worked really hard to find the chimps and we tipped them 20,000 GF each and also gave them some clothes and shoes we were wanting to donate to people who wanted them (we asked first and they seemed really pleased to take them!).

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Excellent place to see chimpanzees up close (between 3m and 5m away)! There are only 7 chimpanzees left in this area and IREB is trying to secure funding from aid sources to build the corridor between this part of forest with the other forests so that they can mate with other chimpanzee groups. A guided tour costs 500,000 GF (50 euros) per person as already mentioned and I think camping has gone up to 50,000 GF per person. We ended up paying 40,000 GF per person because we only took out the exact amount of money having looked on here, but the guy made us speak to the director of IREB on the phone who confirmed camping costs are now 50,000 GF per person. Lush grassy area to camp. Pit toilets and bucket showers. Our chimpanzee guided tour started at 7:30am and finished at 11:30am. We didn’t see them for ages and we lost hope, but luckily we found them on near ground level and were able to see them interact with one another for about 30 minutes. We got some excellent close up photos of them! Highly recommended!!

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40000guinea franc each to camp. 50euros each for guided track to see chimpanzees
Set up tent in grounds of institute or rent a room. Basic bucket shower and long drop loo for camping
Amazing experience getting very close to chimpanzees. One young male even threw sticks at us from the top of the tree. The rest were very calm and ignored us
Great setting right on the Liberia border and 5 minute stroll into village to buy eggs bread etc
The highlight of Guinea although the whole country is amazing

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Camping possible at the institute. 80000gf for two people and a truck. Very relaxed, friendly guys took us for a hike to see the chimps. 50e per person, set off at 7.30am, got back at 11. Be prepared to hike through the forest. We had four guys that all made effort to find the chimps. We tipped them 20000 gf each at the end. Great experience! Support eco tourism, there is not much forest left!

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Very friendly staff! Possibility to camp for 30.000 GF pP. The tour to the chimpanzees was amazing! 30min walk through the jungle and about one hour for fotos. Better wear good shoes! Tour-fees 500.000 GF pP.
Great experience!!

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Camping at the institut possible for 30 000GNF. Not sure if that's pP, as I came alone, but I guess.
Better bring GNF, they give pretty bad rate for euros.
I had only one guide and gave 20 000 as tip, he tried shortly to get more but then agreed.

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Tours are 500,000 GF each. EUR not accepted. We were allowed to camp on their grounds as we were going to do a tour but then they insisted on 40,000 GF the next day. Bucket shower, pit toilet. Potable water from well. We did not see any chimps despite walking around for over 3 hours.

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Research institute for local chimpanzee population. one of the only groups in the world that use and make tools. 30-45 min hike from the station to where we found the family of 8 chimps. amazing experience! you're guided by someone from the institute and a local from the village. epic photos and videos. good footwear need as the routes on the hill are steep and covered in wet leaves. 500k guinea francs or 50 euros that is split between the institute, village and guide. guides asked for tip at the end as an extra for food. I genuinely didn't have much guinea franc left, but they seemed happy enough with 30k gf each. absolute highlight of guinea, which says a lot!

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