Ghana is considered to be one of the safest African countries. That makes it a popular destination for volunteers and travelers with a working holiday visa. I was teaching English before I started my trip across the country. Like that I was able to settle in first, learn about the people and the culture and afterwards enjoy the beauty of the country even more. Ghana is the perfect place for your next adventure trip. Are you planning your stay there already or are you just looking for inspiration for your next holiday? Here are ten reasons why you should definitely travel to Ghana!
1. Culture and society
One thing that African countries have in common, is their great hospitality. You will be welcomed with open arms everywhere and before you know, you are part of a very special celebrating culture. Partys and gatherings are a big part of the Ghanaian culture. No matter if it is about a funeral or the weekly service at church. Instead of sitting quietly on their benches, people dance through the church to loud music and just celebrate life. At the end of service, we found ourselves dancing in a polonaise.
You will feel it everywhere in Ghana: that special joy for life. If it is in a spontaneous dance in the streets or in the kids that turn every little corner into a football field to practice every free minute of their days.
Of course there is also a shady side. To see, that even small kids in elementary school still get beaten with a stick if they don't act accordingly, was one of the less pleasant moments of my trip.
2. Ghana beaches
You don't think about paradise beaches when hearing the name Ghana? Well, change that. Here you will find some of the most stunning beaches on earth. If you have enough of big cities and sightseeing, go to end your holiday at one of my favorite beaches.
Akwidaa Beach
Who would have thought, that after a night on the bus and an one hour ride through the middle of nowhere by taxi, we would end up right in paradise? It was still dark, when we reached the Safari Beach Lodge and moved into our tent. When the sun went up, we were finally able to see it all: tents under palm trees, small cabins at the beach, white sand and turquoise water. Nothing else.
We stayed for three days and had the beach for ourselves the whole time. After that, it probably would have become a little boring, as the town is tiny and there is not much more to do than laying in the sun, read a book and play in the waves.
You want to go to Akwidaa too? Take a regular bus to Takoradi and from there a minibus to Agona. In Agona you can catch a Tro-Tro. Travel time? About half an hour.
Kokrobite
I wouldn't be able to say which beach I liked better, Akwidaa or the more touristic Kokrobite beach. Kokrobite is only one hour away from Accra and is considered to be the capital of the Rastafari. If there is plenty of two things here, it is pot and happiness. The most famous accommodation around is Big Milly’s Backyard. You can rent cabins or tents directly at the beach and party at night around the big bar in the middle of the place. There are countless vegan restaurants in Kokrobite. My favorite: Bah`Doosh beach bar.
3. Ghana national parks
Spotting elephants in Mole national park
Everyone who comes to Africa, dreams about watching wild animals in their natural environment. You won't see all of the big five in Ghana, but chances are good to at least see some elephants. In Mole you live in small cabins at the outskirts of the park and if you are lucky, you will be spotting elephants at the waterhole while sitting on your terrace. Two times a day, you can go on a safari by Jeep. We didn't only see many monkey families and a couple of antelopes, but also two elephants right in front of us.
Getting there
You will need a whole day to get to Mole national park. All the way up North, in Tamale, you take a bus to Larabanga, a small village, with nothing to see but a very famous mosque. From there you can get a taxi bike for twenty Cedis, that will take you straight to the park.
Kakum national park
Kakum national park is one of the biggest in the country and you can find it thirty kilometers away from Cape Coast. The entrance fee is six Euros but for that you wander on suspension bridges above forty meter high trees. Meanwhile you can watch parrots, monkeys and more than 500 different types of butterflies. It is obligatory to take a guide and you are not allowed to enter the park by yourself. The round way over the seven bridges takes about one hour.
Mesomago, next to Kakum national park, is the starting point for some safari tours through the jungle. The four hour walk ends at a tree house, where you can spend the night. Up in the trees you can hear the weirdest noises of all different kinds of animals. This experience alone would have been worth it to go to Kakum.
Tip: Take not only a sleeping bag, but also a mat to sleep on, so you don't have to lay on bare wood. It also would have been smart, to carry some snacks for the march back the next morning.
4. Go in a Tro-Tro
Well, there is no way to get around that experience anyways when traveling Ghana. Tro-Tros are like shared taxis. Vans, comparable to the colectivos in Mexico and the cheapest way to get around. They transport everything, that needs to be transported: live chicken, huge bags of grain and fruits. Of course there are no time tables or official stops. You just have to wait by the road and lift your arm, to get picked up. Tro-Tros are incredibly unsafe and often engaged in accidents. One of our drivers was even completely drunk. Also, they are not really waterproof and during a heavy rain, there is a lake in there after not even a minute. They are better for short rides within a city than for longer ones overland.
5. Life in Ghana
The most interesting experience for me, was living with a Ghanaian family under the simplest conditions in a village close to Kumasi. If you wonder how life was 200 years ago, you should stay with locals in a remote area. Every morning we had to go to the well, to pull up a bucket full of water. Just enough to shower, wash your laundry and the dishes. What is done at home in five minutes, took us a whole afternoon in Ghana.
You will learn to love the water bucket though, once you are in a big city and there is no water coming out of the tap.
6. Reggae at the beach
One of the biggest reggae festivals of the continent takes place at the beach in Accra once a year: the reggae beach nite. Every Ghanaian under thirty goes there, if they have a ticket or not. We didn't have one, as we learned about the festival on very short notice. It turned out, that this wasn't a problem. We were taken by a boat to the other end of the beach, walked the last bit through smelly, knee high water and passed some police men and their dogs, together with hundreds of other party people. The festival itself was less spectacular than the way there. Drinking and partying until sunrise and swim in the sea afterwards.
Note to myself: Never go swimming with too many Ghanaians at the same time. None of them was able to swim, so they used me as a buoy most of the time.
7. Learn history
Who doesn't love these places where you can feel the vibe of another century? There are many places like that in Ghana. Cape Coast Castle in Cape Coast takes you back to the time of slavery. You can visit the old dungeons, where caught slaves had to wait until they were shipped off to America. Today they only catch fish here. Even Michelle and Barack Obama visited the town in 2009.
8. Makola market
Arriving in Accra, the Makola market will be one of the first things you see and it will make you feel a little overwhelmed immediately. I have seen many big, crazy and noisy markets all over the world but Makola cost me a lot of nerve. I think no one can tell how big it really is and once you are in there, you don't get out anymore that easily. It is a big and never ending labyrinth. You have to be careful to not touch any of the animals, hanging around in the sun everywhere, dead but in one piece and covered in flies. The smell is literally breathtaking.
If you got used to your surroundings, it is a great place to buy fresh and exotic veggies and spices - and there is a lot to see. If you wanna see the Ghanaian culture in action, Makola market is the place to go.
9. Street vendors
I bet you have seen many people in other countries, waiting at the side of the road to sell snacks or fruits through the window of your car. Ghana takes that to another level. There is nothing you can think of, that doesn't get sold there. You just realized you are lacking fresh underwear? Don't worry they will give it to you through your window, even on a highway. As well as toys, rims or bed frames. During a bus ride, vendors jump into the buses, sell some of their stuff and jump out again.
10. Muslim North
More than eighty percent of Ghana's population are Christian, the rest is Muslim. As Muslims live only in the North of the country, you get the feeling to have changed countries once you arrive in Tamale.
Larabanga mosque
There is one super pretty and famous mosque in Larabanga, close to Mole national park. A picture of that mosque was the only one that I had seen of Ghana before going there. It is not worth to do a tour, even if at least ten people will come up to you to convince you otherwise.
It is really recommendable to pay attention to what you are wearing when you travel the North of Ghana. I only made the mistake once, to go in shorts to the market and I am glad that I wasn't able to understand all the bad words that especially older women were yelling at me. Even if people don't take it too seriously in more touristic places: since then I prefer long skirts and dresses when traveling Arabic or other Muslim countries.
Are you convinced now to visit Ghana? Take a look at my route through Ghana and all my travel tips.
