Field guide · 9 Cotton Avenue, Kokomlemle, Accra

You are eleven minutes' walk from every road in Ghana.

Kwame Nkrumah Circle is the country's biggest lorry park, and it is at the end of our street. From that one junction you can reach a slave castle, a rainforest canopy, an elephant, a stilt village and West Africa's tallest waterfall, for less than the price of a night out at home. This guide is built by the people who work here. Tell it what you're into and it will tell you where to go, which station to walk to, what to shout at the mate, and roughly what it should cost.

66 places, checked
6 ready-made routes
Fares from our gate
Works on one bar of signal

Step one

The year, month by month

Start here to decide where you can usefully go. There is no bad month, only different ones, and the rains rarely cancel a day: they arrive hard for an hour and then they leave. The row highlighted below is the month you are in now.

Month	Weather	Verdict	What's happening

Festival dates on the traditional calendar move each year, Homowo and Damba and the Akwasidae cycle especially. Ask at reception and we will find out the actual date for you.

Step two

What are you actually into?

Now the part that changes what you see. Pick as many as you like, or none, which shows everything. Every place below is scored against what you choose, and then against how far it is from this building.

How long have you got?

How are you travelling?

Pace

Show me the places

Step three

Where things actually are

The gold star is your bed. Rings are drawn at real distances from it, so you can see at a glance whether something is a walk, a tro-tro, or a night on a bus. Tap a pin.

1×

Tap a pin

Or pick an interest above

Every pin carries the fare, the station and the walking time from our gate. The faint rings are 2, 5, 10 and 20 kilometres out. Most of Accra's good stuff sits inside the second one.

Step four

The places

Order by

If you'd rather be told

Six routes that work

These are the loops guests keep coming back and recommending. Each one starts and ends at our gate, uses public transport unless it says otherwise, and assumes dorm beds. Open one to see it day by day.

Your list

My trip

Saved on this phone. Copy the link to send it to whoever you met at breakfast, or print it and carry paper, which is the smarter move once you are north of Kumasi.

Places: 0
Days needed: 0
Entry fees: GHS 0
Transport: GHS 0

Fees + transport: GHS 0

1 USD = GHS → $0

Entry fees and travel only. Beds and food are not counted. Ask at reception for today's rate, because it moves.

Before you walk out the gate

Ground rules

Ghana is one of the easiest countries in West Africa to travel independently. Almost nothing here is about danger; most of it is about not looking like you arrived yesterday.

Money

The currency is the cedi (GHS), written GH₵. It moves a lot, so check the rate the day you arrive rather than trusting a blog.
Cash is still king outside malls and hotels. Tro-tros, chop bars, markets, park gates and taxis are cash only.
Break your notes early. Nobody at a roadside stall can change a 200. Hoard 1, 2, 5 and 10 cedi notes. That is what a tro-tro fare looks like.
Mobile money (MoMo) runs the country. If you're staying more than a fortnight, register MTN MoMo with your SIM and passport; you can then pay for almost anything by phone.
ATMs: use ones inside bank branches or malls, in daylight. Ecobank, Stanbic, Absa and GCB take foreign cards. Withdraw at the airport arrivals hall before you step outside.
Tipping is not obligatory. Rounding up, or 10% in a sit-down restaurant, is generous and normal.

Tro-tro, in one card

A tro-tro is a minibus with a fixed route, no timetable, and a mate hanging out of the door shouting the destination.
It leaves when it is full. Not before. This is not negotiable and getting annoyed about it changes nothing.
Hand signals from the roadside: index finger down means "somewhere local"; a circling finger means Circle; pointing straight ahead means "along this road".
Pay the mate once you're moving. Say your stop when you get in. Fares inside Accra run roughly GH₵ 3–15.
To get off, shout "Mate, bus stop!" in good time, a block early rather than as you pass it.
Keep your bag on your lap. Sit near the front if you're carrying a big pack; the back row is where you get wedged.

The stations you'll use

Kwame Nkrumah Circle: 10–12 min walk from our gate. Everything inside Accra, plus Neoplan station for Kumasi, Techiman, Tamale, Wa and Bolgatanga.
Kaneshie: going west to Kokrobite, Winneba, Cape Coast, Takoradi.
Tudu & Tema Station (Accra Central): going east to Akosombo, Ho, Hohoe, Ada, Aflao.
37 Station (by the Military Hospital): Aburi, Madina, Legon, Koforidua.
For long distance, the coach companies beat tro-tros for comfort and safety: VIP and OA from Circle, STC from Circle and Tudu. Buy the ticket the day before for anything past Kumasi.
Take the day bus, not the night bus. You see the country and you avoid the one genuinely risky thing about Ghanaian roads.

Taxis, Bolt and Uber

Bolt and Uber both work all over Accra and are the easy default. The price shows before you accept.
Known trick: a driver accepts, then calls asking you to cancel and pay cash at a higher price. Decline and rebook. Reception will tell you the fair fare for any trip.
Street taxis have no meters. Agree the price before you sit down, and say the number out loud twice.
A shared taxi ("dropping" is the private one; the shared one runs a route like a tro-tro) is cheaper than either.
Airport to here is about 25–40 minutes depending on traffic. Ask us to arrange a pickup and you skip the entire kerbside negotiation.

Paperwork & health

Yellow fever certificate is mandatory. It is checked on arrival at Kotoka. No card, no entry.
Most nationalities need a visa before travel. Apply through the e-visa system or a Ghanaian mission. Visa on arrival exists but needs pre-approval; don't gamble on it.
Ghana is malarial year-round. Take the prophylaxis, use the repellent at dusk, sleep under the net.
Drink sachet or bottled water, never the tap. Sachets ("pure water") cost small change and are sold everywhere. Bite the corner off.
Pharmacies are good, everywhere, and cheap. Carry oral rehydration salts.
Emergencies: 112 for everything, 191 police, 193 ambulance. Reception is awake all night.

Phone & data

Buy an MTN SIM. Best coverage by a distance, and the only one you'll trust north of Tamale. Vodafone/Telecel and AirtelTigo are the alternatives.
Registration is required: bring your passport and get it done at a proper MTN shop, not a roadside table.
Data is cheap. A month of enough-for-maps costs less than one beer at home.
Nobody will phone you from MTN asking for a code. That is the country's most common scam. Never read a six-digit code down the phone.
Download offline maps for the regions you're heading to before you leave Accra.

Sense, not fear

Ghana is peaceful and Ghanaians are, as a rule, actively helpful to strangers. The risks are petty, not dramatic.
After dark, take a car. Not because of crime so much as because pavements, drains and street lighting are unreliable.
Don't walk on empty beaches alone, day or night. Beaches are the one place travellers get relieved of their phones.
Carry a photocopy of your passport; leave the real one in the locker by your bed.
Never photograph military posts, the airport, police, or the seat of government. Ask before photographing people. Most will say yes, warmly.
Solo women travel here comfortably. On a tro-tro, sit next to another woman; you will find yourself quietly looked after.

Haggling, properly

Fixed prices exist in shops and supermarkets. Markets, craft stalls and taxis are negotiable. Park fees, museums and tro-tros are not.
Greet first. Always greet first. Launching straight into a price is the rudest thing a visitor does here.
Ask the price, look mildly wounded, name about half, settle somewhere near two-thirds. Smile the whole time. It is a conversation, not a fight.
Walking away slowly is a legitimate move and often ends the negotiation in your favour.
Know when to stop. Arguing over two cedis with someone who makes them by hand is a bad look and everyone watching agrees.

Manners that matter

Right hand only for giving, receiving, eating and waving. The left is considered unclean. This one is not optional.
Greet everybody. Shake hands moving left to right around a group. The Ghanaian finger-snap handshake will be taught to you, badly, within a week.
Ask before you photograph a person, a shrine, or a funeral.
Saturdays are for funerals: red and black cloth, brass bands, hundreds of people. They are public, they are festive, and being invited to one is a compliment. Dress dark and go.
Fridays are for wearing something Ghanaian. Buy a shirt at Makola and join in.
Being called "obroni" (Twi) or "blofonyo" (Ga) in the street is not an insult. It just means foreigner. Wave back.

Eat this, in this order

Waakye. Rice and beans stained red by sorghum leaves, with shito, gari, egg, spaghetti and fish, served from a bowl on a table by the road. Breakfast. Non-negotiable.
Banku & grilled tilapia. Fermented corn dough, whole fish, brutal pepper sauce. The national evening.
Jollof. Do not, under any circumstances, say Nigeria's is better.
Kelewele. Ginger-and-chilli fried plantain, sold after dark. The best thing in this country for the money.
Red red. Bean stew in palm oil with fried plantain. Usually vegetarian; ask.
Chichinga. Spiced meat skewers off a roadside grill, dusted with suya spice.
Fufu & light soup. Pounded cassava and plantain. Swallow, don't chew. Eat with your right hand.
Wash it down with sobolo (hibiscus, ginger, cloves), asaana, or a cold Club.

What to bring

A head torch. Power cuts ("dumsor") happen; so do unlit stairwells at waterfalls.
Real shoes with grip for Kakum, Afadjato and Wli. Flip-flops will humble you.
Long sleeves and trousers for dusk, and something warm for December–February nights in the north.
A dry bag if you're heading to Nzulezu, Ada or Mognori. Everything gets wet.
A refillable bottle and a filter, so you're not buying twenty sachets a day.
Modest clothing for mosques, palaces and villages: shoulders and knees covered, and take your shoes off when told.
Leave space. You are going to buy fabric, and then you are going to buy more fabric.

Costs, honestly

Dorm bed, tro-tros, street food, one site a day: roughly GH₵ 300–450 a day.
Private room, Bolt everywhere, restaurants, guided tours: roughly GH₵ 800–1,400 a day.
Street plate of food: GH₵ 25–60. Restaurant main in Osu: GH₵ 90–200. Large beer: GH₵ 25–45.
Foreigner entry prices are standard practice at national monuments and parks, usually three to four times the Ghanaian rate. It is posted at the gate, it is not a scam, and arguing gets you nowhere.
The big-ticket items are Mole (transport plus park fees) and any tour sold to you in Accra. Almost everything can be done independently for a third of the tour price.

Twelve words that change how people treat you

Twi is understood almost everywhere. Ga is Accra's own language. Use it in Jamestown and watch faces change. Ewe is the Volta Region.

TwiƐte sɛn?eh-teh SENHow are you? Answer: Bɔkɔɔ (baw-KAW-aw), meaning cool, fine.

TwiMedaasemeh-DAA-siThank you. Say it constantly.

TwiMepa wo kyɛwmeh-pa wo CHOWPlease / excuse me / sorry. Opens every door.

TwiƐyɛ sɛn?eh-yeh SENHow much is it? The four most useful syllables in any market.

TwiTe so kakrateh so KA-kraBring it down a little. Delivered with a smile, it works.

Ga · AccraOjekoooh-jeh-KOHGood morning, in the language of the city you're standing in.

Ga · AccraOyiwaladɔŋŋoh-yi-wah-la-DONGThank you. Worth the effort; almost no visitor tries it.

Ewe · VoltaŊdin-DEEGood morning. Pair with Akpe (ak-PEH), thank you.

EverywhereAkwaabaah-KWAA-baWelcome. You will be told this a hundred times. It is meant.

PidginChaleCHA-layMate, buddy, oh-come-on. Ghana's most versatile word.

PidginI dey comeee day come"I'm leaving but I'll be back." Confusing, and completely standard.

On the busMate, bus stop!MAH-tay, bus stopThe only way to make a tro-tro let you out. Say it early.