Travel from Accra to Tamale

It would be great if anyone could recommend the best and quickest way to travel from Accra to Tamale.

With the new airline, Starbow ... launched on Monday

Otherwise with the new VIP buses, airconditioned & aircraft type business class seats, apparently very good & run on time

STC has passed its sell by date!

Kira

Do you want the best or quickest? Don't think you can have both. The best way is taking the ferry from Akosombo. It's a little slow, but extremely comfortable, since you can move around freely, and scenic. You have several opportunities to get off and walk around some of the villages for 20 minutes or so where the ferry stops to load/offload. Note that the ferry only leaves once or twice a week, you will need to sleep the first night on the ferry, and the second night in the city where it terminates. From there you take a short bus ride the rest of the way to Tamale. I did this is 2006, so info may have changed, but still one of my favorite journeys ever. You just can't beat a ferry ride up Lake Volta...

That ferry ride sounds really interesting. It must have been very scenic. Can you offer any more details about the ferry ride? What town did it end at? How much did it cost? How long did it take?

When I went in January, the ferry terminated at Yeji. Since Yeji is on the "wrong" side of the lake, we slept there and took a boat across to the other side the next morning (marked Makongo on Google). There was a bus there waiting to fill up and take off for Tamale. I don't remember what it cost but it wasn't expensive...I think the trip was about 24 hours. We left around 5 pm from Akosombo and got into Yeji the next day. Do bring a sleeping mat to catch some ZZZs on the deck of the ferry. By around 9 I would say most riders are sprawled out on the deck trying to sleep. There are a couple 1st class cabins with beds but you have to book them in advance, maybe in person. All of the stops are on the 2nd day of travel. I remember pretty good food being available on deck.

Stop at Kpong airfield on your way there!!!

http://bradtghanaupdate.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/flying-near-akosombo/

Kira

I'm a medical type person and travel companion is also a medical type person so the airfield and Medicine on the Move would be of interest to us. Thank you Kira!

You'll enjoy it I'm sure, mail them prior to going!!

Kira

One thing is for sure; you should not fly with FlyCityLink!

They are cheap, but we reserved our tickets with them and when we asked when we would receive the e-tickets, they made us pay $ 50 more before we could get the tickets. After objecting we paid the money, we had to because we had to take the flight. One week after we paid the tickets, we got an e-mail from some kind of traveling agency that our flight was cancelled all of a sudden and that we had to pay more for a flight with another company.

So FlyCityLink is very unreliable, don't fly with them!