Things to do in Ghana
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Mama Mia's
Expats swear by the thin-crusted, wood-oven-cooked pizza here. The pleasant outdoor garden dining area makes everything taste better. Spaghetti and kid-friendly chicken fingers also served.
reviewed
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Manhyia Palace Museum
To get a feel for how a modern Ashanti ruler lives, visit Manhyia Palace and its museum off Antoa Rd, up the hill north from Kejetia Circle. The palace was built by the British in 1925 to receive Prempeh I when he returned from a quarter of a century of exile in the Seychelles to resume residence in Kumasi. It was used by the Ashanti kings until 1974.
On display is the original furniture, including Ashantiland's first TV, and various artefacts from the royals, including evocative photos of the time.More striking are the unnervingly lifelike, life-size wax models of the two kings and their mothers and of the most redoubtable queen mother, Yaa Asantewaa, who led the 1900…
reviewed
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Kakum National Park
Tucked away in this small pocket of rainforest are endangered forest elephants, colobus monkeys, 300 species of bird and a staggering 600 species of butterfly. However, the main attraction is the canopy walkway suspended 30m (98ft) above the forest floor. It makes for great viewing (or a trouser-wetting experience, depending on your point of view).
The walkway aside, a guided hike is a good way to learn about the rainforest flora and its traditional uses. Your best shot to see any wildlife is to get here when the park opens or take a night hike.
reviewed
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Centre for National Culture
A warren of stalls selling arts and crafts and known simply as the Arts Centre, this is the place to shop in Accra and the most visited site in the country. The level of aggressive hassling may make you want to keep your cedis in your pocket but if you have the patience and wherewithal, you can come away with good-quality handicrafts from all over Ghana.
reviewed
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D
Monsoon
Incongruously located above a fast-food court, Monsoon is Accra's most upscale restaurant. The menu includes interesting items like warthog filet and crocodile tail. You may get snooty looks if you're dressed for tro-tros (minibuses or pick-ups). A more casual cigar lounge and sushi bar is attached.
reviewed
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Lighthouse
For a great view of the city and the busy and colourful fishing harbour (haze and pollution permitting), climb to the top of the old Lighthouse near James Fort.
reviewed
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National Cultural Centre Complex
The National Cultural Centre Complex is set within spacious grounds and includes a model Ashanti village; craft workshops where you can see brassworking, woodcarving, pottery making, batik cloth dyeing and kente cloth weaving; a gallery and crafts shop; the regional library; the tourism office; and the small Prempeh II Jubilee Museum.
The craft workshops aren't always active, especially on Sunday, and it's all rather low-key, but the grounds are shady and it's an agreeable place to spend a few hours including lunch at the restaurant in the complex.
reviewed
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Mole National Park
It's not everywhere you can get up close and personal with bus-sized elephants. Face-to-face encounters with these beasts, plus roving gangs of baboons, warthogs, water bucks and antelopes - 90 species of mammals in total - are possibilities at this national park, Ghana's largest at 4660 sq km and best as far as wildlife viewing goes.
It consists for the most part of flat savanna, with gallery forests along the rivers and streams.
reviewed
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La Pleasure Beach
While most of Accra's oceanfront real estate is rocky and undeveloped, there are several sandy beaches. La Pleasure Beach, also known as Labadi Beach, is about 8km east of central Accra and easily reached by public transport. Unfortunately since the swimming area is so narrow it's a little claustrophobic on weekends.
reviewed
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Timber Market
If you're walking back to the centre along Cleland Rd, which becomes High St, you could take a detour along Hansen Rd to see the Timber Market. The fetish section is fascinating, with its animal skulls, live and dead reptiles, strange powders, and juju figurines.
reviewed
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Orangery
The Orangery is a pretty-looking place specialising in sweet and savoury pancakes, muffins, waffles and crepes. Nonbreakfast specialities include moussaka and seafood bouillabaisse.
reviewed
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Nourish Lab Smoothy's
These refreshing drinks, a combination of fruit and soft yogurt, are practically addictive because of the oppressive heat. Also serves sandwich wraps and salads.
reviewed
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Buku
Ghanaian, Nigerian, Togolese and Senegalese specials are lovingly prepared at Buku, where the stylish 2nd-floor open-air dining area is reason alone for coming.
reviewed
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Vic Baboo's Café
Vic Baboo's Café is where foreign travellers go for its extensive cocktail menu.
reviewed
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Okomfo Anokye Sword
Okomfo Anokye Sword TheOkomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital is the unlikely setting for this small museum housing the Okomfo Anokye Sword, an important Ashanti monument. The sword has been in the ground for three centuries and has never been pulled out. According to Ashanti legend, it marks the spot where the Golden Stool descended from the sky to indicate where the Ashanti people should settle.
The sword is a symbol of the unity and strength of the Ashanti people and if anyone ever pulls it out, their kingdom will collapse. It's housed in a small yellow building with red Ashanti symbols on the outside walls. If entering the hospital grounds from Bantama Rd, veer to the right…
reviewed
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Prempeh II Jubilee Museum
Prempeh II Jubilee Museum may be small but the personalised tour included with admission is a fascinating introduction to Ashanti culture and history. Among the displays are artefacts relating to the Ashanti king Prempeh II including the king's war attire, ceremonial clothing, jewellery, protective amulets, personal equipment for bathing and dining, furniture, royal insignia and some fine brass weights for weighing gold.
Constructed to resemble an Ashanti chief's house, it has a courtyard in front and walls adorned with traditional carved symbols. Among the museum's intriguing photos is a rare one of the famous Golden Stool. The museum also contains the fake golden stool…
reviewed
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Armed Forces Museum
Fort St George and its Armed Forces Museum on Stewart Ave deserve a visit for the extraordinary collection of booty amassed by the West Africa Frontier Force, forerunner of today's Ghanaian army, with items looted from the Germans in Togo during WWI and, in WWII, from the Italians in Eritrea and Ethiopia and from the Japanese in Burma.
The fort, originally constructed by the Ashanti in 1820, was razed by the British in 1873 during the Fourth Ashanti War, and then rebuilt by them in 1896. The most interesting section relates to the British-Ashanti war of 1900, when the Ashanti, led by their queen mother, Yaa Asantewaa, temporarily besieged the fort, starving the British…
reviewed
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Kejetia Market
From afar, the Kejetia Market looks like an alien mothership landed in the centre of Kumasi. Closer up, the rusting tin roofs of this huge market, often cited as the largest in West Africa, look like a circular shantytown. But once you take a breath and step down into its interior, it's infinitely disorienting but also throbbing with life and commerce.
Watch your step, often over unused railroad tracks, in the narrow alleyways selling everything from foodstuffs, second-hand shoes, clothes and plastic knick-knacks to kente cloth, glass beads, Ashanti sandals, batik and bracelets. You may also see fetish items, such as vulture heads, parrot wings and dried chameleons.
reviewed
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Aburi Botanic Gardens
Just beyond the town of Aburi, the Aburi Botanic Gardens provide a welcome getaway from Accra's bustle. The gardens are well maintained and teem with exotic plant life from around the world. Two tall Brazilian 'monkey pot' trees are supposedly able to trap our tree-swinging ancestors - not that Aburi has too many wild monkeys to worry about.
The oldest tree is an approximately 150-year-old kapok facing the park's beautiful headquarters building. It's the only one the British didn't cut down when they were planting the gardens, which opened in 1890. The gardens are perched on a ridge 32km (20mi) north of Accra.
reviewed
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Magazine Area
Kumasi is made up of a collection of districts, each of which used to perform a specific role for the Ashanti king. The Magazine area in Suame district was originally where artillery was made; now, however, it's a vast used-car workshop where rusty old wrecks are miraculously brought back to life. Piles and piles of rusting engine parts line the sides of the roads and the air is filled with the chinking sound of metal hitting metal. It's worth a look as you pass through on your way north.
reviewed
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Kumasi Hat Museum
The top floor of the Nurom Hotel on Ofinso Rd is a monument to one man's obsession with hats. The owner, Chief Nana Kofi Gyemfi II, has assembled an amazing personal collection of more than 2000 hats from all over the world. Beginning with his first headgear, back in 1928, he now has an astounding, if dusty, collection of fedoras, sombreros, boaters, bowlers and much more. To get to the hotel, take any tro-tro heading north from Kejetia Circle to Suame Roundabout or catch a taxi.
reviewed
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Dakar To Ghana
- The Gambia, Togo, Senegal, Dakar, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Ghana, World
- Tours › Overland
by Intrepid
Not LP reviewed
from USD$5,360 -
Nomadic West Africa Eastbound
- Mali, The Gambia, Senegal, Dakar, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Accra, World
- Tours › Overland
by Intrepid
Not LP reviewed
from USD$3,775 -
from USD$1,905
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Tiawaah Restaurant
You may catch the staff sleeping at this modern restaurant on the third floor of the Aseda Complex, a block from the VanefSTC station. It has a wide selection of Ghanaian, Chinese and continental cuisine. KPS World Enterprise Coffee Shop is on the second floor of the same complex.
reviewed
