Ghana Destinations International
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Ghana
by bellfountain In my mind Ghana is the best, friendliest and most interesting country in West Africa and I urge you all to go!! I lived in Ghana for 3 years as a VSO volunteer and truely had the most life fufilling experience. The country is hot, dusty and can be very sweaty but all of that is more than compensated by the fabulous people who ... greet you and want to help you everywhere you go! White people are still a novelty - particularly the further North you go and you will quickly learn the local word for "white" - by the end of my trip I was more used to being called "Nasala" (Daagare) then my name!! The country can be difficult to navigate - particularly if you are in a rush so I highly recommend you change your body clock to "Ghana Time". Buses that are due to leave at 6am often keep loading til 10am... then take 4 extra hours to arrive... but that is part of the charm! Take time to talk to people (you often won't be able to prevent people thrusting their 3rd child onto your knee anyway) so you might as well enjoy it! The other major issue is always bargaining - try to keep an open mind and only really bargain if you are genuinely interested. Although no one likes to feel "ripped off" try to see the biger picture too... things are worth what you are prepared to pay and if you pay it that's your choice. Most Ghanaians (apart from possibly the tourist traps) aren't out to fleece you - they are just looking for the best price they can get to improve their own situation. And although I would never advocate Westerners randomly flinging cash at children - perhaps paying a few too many cedi's to a market stall holder won't kill you!!! All in all I would strongly recomend opening your travel adgenda and taking a trip to Ghana. And when it all gets a bit much book in a few days at Big Millies Backyard, Kokrobite to really chill and enjoy the fabulous hospitality!!!! Read the complete review |
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Ghana
by KTW If you want to visit Africa, then I recommend Ghana as "the" place to go, although I may be slightly biased. I first went to Ghana five years ago, I stayed for 6 months working with a volunteer organisation and I met my now husband. When my 6 months were up I returned home ofr a few weeks beofre repacking my bags and ... heading back for another year. Now We try to vist every 18 months for a few weeks at least. Before you leave - You need a yellow fever vaccination, and you may be asked to produce your certificate before entering Ghana. I also was given an arm full of other vaccinations such as Diptheria, Men C, Hep B and polio. Anti malaria tablets are a must. You will need a visa, the Ghana High Commision In England is in High Gate HIll London, if you are in a rush you can take your application in to the office and pick it up the next day, but the postal service is very good. It usually takes about 2 or 3 weeks and costs £30 for a 3 month visa. Flights to Ghana from the Uk are really quite expensive, you can expect to pay about £650 on BA. Lufthansa, ailittalia and KLM also fly there daily and although not direct there prices are often lower. My own advice would be to go with Ghana airways prices are often as much as £200 cheaper, they do recieve bad press for thier frequent long delays but if your a budget traveller like me I think its worth the risk, in all the times I have gone with them I have never been delayed more than 2 hours. Okay so I got you into the country, at Kotoko airport noone who is not travelling is allowed in, so if you have someone meeting you they will be waiting out side the main doors. I think this is a good thing as I always feel very safe in the airport, take your time and prepare yourself before you go outside as it can be very busy and a little unnerving if you are alone. Where to stay in Accra - Well it depends what you are looking for La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, and Labadi Beach Hotel are two of the nicest hotels in the capital but they are very very expensive. The Shangri La and The Golden Tulip are also very nice hotels but alot less pretencious then the above two, and also alot less pricey! For budget travellers The Pink Hostel In Asylum Down was always nice, rooms are about £15 but they are safe and a good introduction to the city. Once your settled if your planning on staying in Accra a while then look around your local area and you will find some incredible cheap localplaces. if you say you will be staying X amount of weeks the owners will probably do you a deal. Go with your gut feeling and consider how safe the area you will be staying in is. Okay so what are you going to do with your holiday. Buy yourself a Bradt guide to Ghana. In my opinion this is the best guide book there is. Accra is the capital city, in the south of the country, it is a coastal area. Whilst in the city you should make the most of Ghanas wicked night life, go to Papillon in Mamprobi and party with the locals, eat out in the huge number of restraunts they have, go to LA pleasure beach. You can always swim at La Palm Royal Beach hotel even if your not staying there, they charge you about £4 a day (this is loads in Ghana money but oh so worth it!). Experience a West African Market at Mokola, jsut wander round and see what they are selling, and go to the craft market on the beach road where you can buy hand carved figerines and drums and materials. Try and get up early one morning and go to the fish m,arket at James town to see the fishermen pull thier boats backin sell thier fish its amazing and you can get ohh soo yummy fish too! Accra is a huge culture trip, give yourself a few days to come to terms with it, and you will love it. Its noisey, vibrant and friendly. When in Accra remember your personal safety, Accra is a relativly safe city, but its still a city and muggings do happen. Rest assured if anyone sees you in trouble people will come to your rescue, but just be responsible. You can get around in Accra really quite easily, theres Trotros which are kind of like busses but not, they are noisey, sweaty and uncomfortable but you have to experience one. Taxis are never in short supply, barter before you get in and dont forget you may have to knock it down quite alot. Tell your taxi driver, while smiling, that your not paying any obruni prices, this measn white man in local dialect, he will probably laugh and get the message! Never pay more than you agreed, you will get your taxi drivers that go, ohh theres so much traffic you have to pay more, Dont be fooled he knew how much traffic there was going to be when you got in! From Accra head out and visit Cape Coast and Elmina see the forts which were central to the slave trade, and visit the beautiful beaches round there. Elmina is a fishing town and is quite magical you see some great sights there. Kokrobete is a beach half way between Accra and Cape Coast, Big Millies Back Yard is a well know stop over for back packers and volunteers that need a break from the city. Its a quiet and relaxed location, with basic accomodation and bucket showers. The beach is beautiful and the food you can get from the restraunt is yummy and not too expensive. Watch your valubles on the beach though. Kumasi is Ghanas second city, and home to the Ashanti king, and the golden stool. You have to go here! Kofuridua is a favorite place of mine, you can visit the falls here and even swim under some, climb the hill to umbrella rock and take in the lush scenery. Also once a week (cant remember what day!) there is a bead market in the town and its well worth a visit. Ho and HoHoe are further east from Kofuridua and offer more waterfalls and scenery, not my favourite place in Ghana but worth a peak! Mole is a national park in the very north of the country, where you can see soem big game, its along way from Accra but worth it. Whilst in the area you can visit Larabanga and other surrounding points of interest. As you can see I could go on all day! Theres so much to see and take in in Ghana. The people are some of the friendliest I have come across in all of Africa. Some genral advice - You need to barter for pretty much everything, but some things like toillete roll have a fixed price! When bartering do it with a smile and make a joke out of it, thats the best way to get results, dont be insulted when people mention high prices they are just trying to make a living, but dont pay them either, pay what you think is fair. If your not staying in a posh hotel its worth remembering that the electric supply can be a bit iffy at times, but "light off" can be fun,no one goes anywhere so all your neighbours will congregate on the street corners and chat, go join them! Water can also go off, especially in the dry season but never for very long, and the locals will tell you what to do, someone may give you some water but you should offer to pay for this as the water rates are quite high in Ghana. White people are still quite rare in Ghana (although less so all the time), you will get stared at, "white man where are you going", obruni, bruffunuo (not sure if thats spelt right) are local language for white man. It can become frustrating but my advice is to learn to say How are You, Im fine, in Twi and Ga. Then just smile and and say it to them. The other option is to ignore it when its doing your head in, but mostly people just want you to say hello. When you go in to a shop to buy something, its polite to say Good Afternoon/morning before you say what you want to buy. The local currency is Cedis, you cant get them outside of Ghana. You can cash travellers checks in the main banks and forexs but they do get a lower rate than cash, however if you lose you travellers cheques you can get them replaced - its your choice. Theres no nedd to bring dollars, as the exchange rate for pounds and dollars is really quite similar. Credit Cards and cash cards are of limited use (unless your going to be living it up at a 5*hotel!) and a friend of mine was the victim of credit card fraud after only using it in the bank in the city centre. I suppose they are good for emergencies. If your going to Ghana enjoy, go with an open mind and an open heart and you will fallin love with the country and the culture. Read the complete review |
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Ghana
by chris-afrika First of all this review is a translation of my review on the german dooyoo site. Due to the fact that I'm german there are propably a lot errors. Please send me an Email if you find one and i will corect it. But now read and enjoy. For all of you how don’t know where Ghana is, have had the same problem half a year ... ago, in short where it is. Ghana is in the western part of Africa and there at the southern coastline. The neighbouring countries are Burkina Faso in the north, Togo in the east and the Ivory Coast in the west. The 0 meridian passes narrowly east of the capital Accra which is 5,5° north of the equator Why Ghana? Because I had only 3 weeks time a flight to southern Africa seemed to long and eastern Africa has got to much tourism. So it had to be western Africa. In western Africa there are only two english speaking country which are stable, unfortunately I can’t speak french. Because Gambia is nowadays a main tourist destination there was only one target left Ghana. What is absolutely necessary to-do before travelling to Ghana? 1.) How want to travel to Ghana needs a visa from the Ghanaian embassy. You can get one for single or multiple entrance. It is valid for a period of three months. While the multiple entrance visa is more expensive you should know if you want to leave Ghana and enter again. 2.) For entering Ghana you need a yellow fever immunisation. At least for this reason you should visit a tropical doctor. But normally you should visit a tropical doctor before every Journey in to the tropes. My doctor although highly recommended a Meningokoken immunisation because the risk of infection had been very high in my travel season. If it is the first visit to a tropical doctor the visit should be at least a month before the journey. There are immunisations which can’t be taken on the same day and there are immunisations which need a reiteration with a distance of a few weeks. 3.) You should although know that the majority of the travel money you have to take with you in cash. Changing of traveller checks is only possible in big cities and even there time consuming an often with difficulty. Also the costs for changing are extremely high. I was told that it would be possible to get many from a credit card but that it would be very expensive and extremely difficult. I didn’t tried. If you want to change cash, that is really simple in the forex exchange Offices. You don’t need a passport and get your money in minutes. But that is although only possible in big cities. You can’t even change money in a bank in smaller cities. If you are not leaving the big cities you shouldn’t change to much money. If you change for example 100 €, you end up with a plastic bag of money. No chance to hid in a belt or a neck pouch. 4.) How want to plan his travel route in Ghana ahead, I quit this for Africa a long time ago, should now road conditions vary a lot in Ghana. The moment you leave the main roads between the big cities you end up driving 30 km/h even with a local driver. You can hardly call it a street. And the next moment you can speed up to 100 km/h. How to get trough Ghana? I think there are a lot of possibilities: 1.) With the tro-tro the local bus. If you want take the busses you need a lot of courage to enter one. And the high number of accidents didn’t really increase the confidence. That is why I didn’t take this way. 2.) With the big busses. One the main routes a good way of travelling. But only possible on the main routes. 3.) Hitch hiking I was told does work in Ghana but you need a lot of passion. Maybe if you are a white feller you are interesting enough. There are not a lot of withies in Ghana 4.) Rent a car with driver. One of the more expansive but therefore fast ways of travelling. You although have got the ch ance of renting a car without driver but that is not cheaper and if you have seen the Ghanaian way of driving you probably prefer to be driven around. What is important about that is you always have to bargain. Even if like in may situation your deal was arranged by a German family member. They always try to get more. I had to pay 20 € plus petrol and always paid the petrol myself. Even there they try to get a bit more money. Accommodation! There is every level of accommodation even if the really luxury hotels are only in Accra and Akosombo. My cheapest accommodation was in a ecotourism project in Larabanga (1,50 €), the most expansive in Cape Coast (10 €) where after 3 occupied hotels in a more touristy town at 9 a clock in the evening I didn’t want to search any longer. The quality range I had was from a small room with only a more or less clean bed a chair and a fan to a doubleroom with aircon, minibar, tv, bathtub and toilet. Now in short what to see in Ghana? There are the partly famous fortresses and castles at the coastline, the Ashanti Kingstown Kumasi, the Mole nationalpark, the mosque in Larabanga and the now second biggest (was the biggest when I was there) manmade lake of the world at Akosombo. But the most interesting to see are the peoples and markets of western Africa. More of this either on the German dooyoo if you are speaking german or maybe in a few weeks if you ask for after translating in to english. Read the complete review |
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City: Tarkwa / Destination International / Country: Ghana / World Region: Africa |
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City: Larabanga / Destination International / Country: Ghana / World Region: Africa |
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City: Ho / Destination International / Country: Ghana / World Region: Africa |
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City: Cape Coast / Destination International / Country: Ghana / World Region: Africa |
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