Most of Ghana in a week.
Castle mornings on the coast, the canopy walkway at Kakum, kente looms at Bonwire and waterfalls in the Volta hills. What each day out is really like, and what it costs.
Seven days out that anchor a trip.
The coast run to Cape Coast and Elmina, the rope bridges at Kakum, zebra at Shai Hills before lunch, elephants at Mole if you have the days. These are the ones travellers reach for first.
The Cape Coast Day Tour
Cape Coast and Elmina castles plus Kakum canopy walkway from Accra, with admission, guide, WiFi, and snacks for $155.
From $155 per person
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Cape Coast and Elmina in one day.
Nearly every itinerary runs this road west: a pickup before seven, the two castles standing on the water at Cape Coast and Elmina, guides who work the sites daily, and Kakum inland in the afternoon. It is a long day and a serious one. Take the earliest departure offered, and eat before you leave.
Coast, canopy, or the city?
The drive west is the trip most people come for, and it eats a whole day. Here is what each of the three choices actually involves, and what a seat on it costs.
Two castles
The coast day
from $155 · 525 reviews
Out of Accra before seven and three hours west to Cape Coast Castle, then Elmina after lunch. Guided visits run about ninety minutes at each site and cover the dungeons, the courtyards and the Door of No Return. Most operators add Kakum on the way home, which makes it a twelve-hour day.
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Rope bridges
The canopy day
10 hours · from $110 · 144 reviews
Kakum sits an hour inland from Cape Coast: seven walkways strung between hardwoods forty metres up, about forty minutes end to end. Go at opening time for the mist and the birds. Paired with Elmina it still gets you back to Accra the same night.
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Stay in town
The Accra day
from $41 · 14 reviews
Independence Square, the Nkrumah mausoleum, Jamestown’s lighthouse and fishing harbour, then Makola when the traders are loudest. Four to six hours with a driver, lunch usually included, and no three-hour drive at either end.
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Kumasi still runs on cloth.
Bonwire has woven kente for four centuries and the narrow looms are still in the front rooms, strip by strip. Add the Manhyia Palace museum, brass casters at Krofofrom and a stool carver in Ahwiaa, and the Ashanti day fills itself.
Jollof, kelewele and a market run.
Ghanaian home cooking is taught in kitchens, not classrooms: groundnut soup with fufu pounded in front of you, red red with fried plantain, puff puff still warm. The good classes start at the market stall.
Beads, drums and kente.
Krobo glass beads come out of clay moulds at Odumase, kente comes off narrow looms a strip at a time, and an hour on a drum will leave your palms sore. Half a day each, and you carry the result home.
The hills start an hour out.
Aburi is thirty kilometres up the Akuapem ridge and several degrees cooler, around a botanical garden planted in 1890. Keep going and you reach Boti Falls and the Umbrella Rock, cocoa under shade trees at Tetteh Quarshie, and eventually Wli, the tallest waterfall in West Africa.
Pick a corner of Ghana.
Accra for the markets and the coast road out. Cape Coast and Elmina for the castles. Kumasi for kente and the Ashanti court. Aburi and the Volta hills for the waterfalls.
Which kind of Ghana day?
Pick the sort of day you want out of Ghana and the whole list sits behind it, priced and reviewed.
Six drives that start before seven.
The coast road west reaches Cape Coast in three hours and Kakum in four. North it is forty minutes to Aburi and two to Boti. Every one of these gets you home the same night.
Three days that work.
You cannot see Ghana in three days, but you can see the part everybody comes for. This is the order to do it in.
Day 1
Land and stay in Accra
Jamestown at street level, Independence Square, the Nkrumah mausoleum, then Makola while the traders are still shouting. Finish with grilled tilapia and banku near Osu.
Plan day one →
Day 2
West to the castles
The long one: Cape Coast Castle in the morning, Elmina after lunch, Kakum’s walkway if the light holds. Leave Accra by six thirty and expect to be back late.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Into the Aburi hills
Aburi’s gardens and the ridge road, cocoa under the shade trees at Tetteh Quarshie, Boti Falls and the Umbrella Rock if you started early. Cooler air the whole way.
Plan day three →
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