Ghana starts about an hour past Accra. Plan the days that need planning.
What the coast forts cost as a day out of Accra, how early the Kakum walkway fills, and what a run north to Mole really takes. Reviews of every tour you can book in Ghana.
The coast forts, the Aburi hills, Makola, and a kitchen in Accra.
The four bookings a first trip to Ghana is built around, with what each one costs and how long a day it takes.
01The coast dayThe Cape Coast Day TourCape Coast and Elmina in one run from Accra, with Kakum on the way back. The longest day most itineraries carry.
02The first morningExperience the Beauty, History and the Culture Of Accra in a DayJamestown, Makola and the mausoleum with a driver who knows which gates are open before the heat arrives.
03The hills dayBoti Falls, Umbrella Rock, Aburi Gardens & Cocoa Farm TourUmbrella Rock, the falls at Boti and the palm avenue at Aburi, an hour up the ridge from the city.
04Dinner you cookHome Cooking Class by Auntie KThe market stall first, then jollof and groundnut soup in a home kitchen in Accra.
Cape Coast and Elmina: what a day on the coast involves.
The two castles stand about eight miles apart on the Gulf of Guinea, and both are seen on a guided walk through the courtyards, the holding cells and the Door of No Return. Almost every operator runs them from Accra as one long day; some add the forest walkway at Kakum, some add the river at Assin Manso. The difference is distance, hours and price.
Six places to build the Ghanaian days around.
Forts on the Gulf coast, a rope walkway strung through rainforest, the Ashanti capital and its looms, palm avenues on the Akuapem ridge, waterfalls in the Volta hills, and the market city everything leaves from.
Ghana keeps its wild country in the corners.
A walkway strung between rainforest emergents at Kakum, the tallest waterfall in West Africa up in the Volta hills, baboons on the Shai plains an hour out of Accra, and elephants at the Mole waterhole a full day north.
Accra: Jamestown early, Makola loud, the museums cool.
Everything around Accra →
Start under the lighthouse in Jamestown before the heat, walk down to the fishing beach, then Makola for the noise and the fabric. The museums and the Nkrumah mausoleum are the afternoon, and the traffic decides the rest.
- 1Know Ghana in 4 hrs – Accra City Tourfrom $100
- 2Escape Accra City to Aburi Gardens and Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farmsfrom $170
- 3Accra City Tourfrom $150
Jamestown, Makola and the mausoleum
The standard city run, done in one morning with a driver. Enough for a first day in the country, and it leaves the afternoon free.
Jollof, groundnut soup, a home kitchen
Shopping the market stalls first, then the pots. Most classes end with everybody eating what they cooked at the family table.
The Volta estuary by boat
East of the city the Volta opens into a lagoon at Ada and boats run out for the day. The Shai Hills reserve sits on the road there.
The days out more travellers book than anything else in Ghana.
Every Ghanaian tour we have reviewed →The tours that carry the most travellers in the country, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
The Cape Coast Day Tour
Travel from Accra to Cape Coast Castle, Elmina Castle, and Kakum National Park in one long day. Your private guide, such as Moses, Portia, Eben, or Joe, handles the route, while admission, water, snacks, air conditioning, and onboard WiFi are included.
From · $155
Read our review →2
Experience the Beauty, History and the Culture Of Accra in a Day
from $80
3
The Cape Coast Tour
from $170
4
Cape Coast, Elmina Castle & Kakum Park Day Tour
from $110
5
Accra Detailed City Tour
from $80
6
Accra Guided City Tour Experience
from $45
7
Accra Guided City Tour Experience
from $70
8
Accra To Cape Coast And Elmina Day Tour
from $165
Kumasi is where the cloth is still woven a strip at a time.
The Ashanti capital holds the Manhyia Palace, a market big enough to lose an afternoon in, and the weaving villages north-east of town where kente comes off narrow looms in strips and is sewn together afterwards.
Everything in Kumasi →
Jollof, groundnut soup, and the beans that chocolate starts as.
A cooking day here begins at the market stall and ends at the table. The cocoa farms on the eastern ridge are the other half of it: pods split open by hand, beans fermented under plantain leaves, then dried on mats along the roadside.
What a day out in Ghana actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The country runs on long drives and private cars, so a day here costs more than a city walk elsewhere and covers a great deal more ground.
City mornings, market walks, the Aburi ridge and the cooking classes.
The full-day standards: the coast forts, Kakum, Shai Hills and the Volta.
- 1The Cape Coast Day Tourfrom $155
- 2The Cape Coast Tourfrom $170
- 3Cape Coast, Elmina Castle & Kakum Park Day Tourfrom $110
The long runs north to Mole, private guides, and the homecoming itineraries.
- 1Ghana Heritage Tours – Beyond The Returnfrom $3,595
- 2Full-Day Accra Safari and Boat Cruise Private Tourfrom $285
- 310 Days Ghana Cultural and Heritage Tripfrom $3,500
Two Ghanaian seasons move the plan indoors, not off it.
The heavy rains fall from May into June, with a shorter run in October. From December to February the Harmattan carries Sahara dust down over the country and flattens the light for weeks. Neither stops a trip, but both are an argument for the days spent under a roof: kitchens, weaving sheds, the covered markets, the fabric halls.
Three things that happen in Ghana and almost nowhere else.
Beaches and game parks turn up all along this coast. A rope bridge forty metres up in the rainforest, the farm where the world’s chocolate begins, and a morning that ends with an Akan name do not.
The Kakum canopy walkway
Seven rope bridges hang between emergent trees above the rainforest floor, planked a single foot wide and slung off aluminium ladders lashed to the trunks. It was built in the early nineties and it still takes visitors across in small batches, which is why the queue, rather than the walk, is the reason to be at the gate early.
- 1Cape Coast, Elmina Castle & Kakum Park Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 144 reviews
- 2Cape Coast ,Elmina Castle and Kakum Full-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 62 reviews
- 3One Day Tour To Cape Coast, Elmina Castle, Kakum National Park★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 21 reviews
The cocoa farms of the eastern ridge
Tetteh Quarshie carried cocoa pods home to Mampong in 1876 and the crop went on to carry the country. On a farm morning you watch a pod split open, taste the sweet white pulp around the raw beans, and walk past the fermentation heaps and the drying mats every bar in the world begins on.
- 1Boti Falls, Umbrella Rock, Aburi Gardens & Cocoa Farm Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 72 reviews
- 2Experience Boti Waterfalls, Aburi Botanical Gardens & Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 38 reviews
- 3Escape Accra City to Aburi Gardens and Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farms★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 32 reviews
The outdooring ceremony
An Akan child is named on the eighth day, and visitors from the diaspora are received with the same rite: water and schnapps touched to the lips, a day-name for the weekday you were born on, and cloth from the family. It is arranged with elders beforehand and it takes a morning.
- 1The Ancestral Naming Ceremony and Home Coming Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 30 reviews
- 2Naming Ceremony and Heritage Homecoming Experience for Diasporas★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 15 reviews
- 3Traditional Naming Ceremony and Boat Cruise Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 15 reviews
Four Ghanaian bookings that will not wait.
Most of a week here can be arranged the night before from a hotel desk. These four cannot: they run on distance, on family calendars, and on a gate that opens once a day.
- 013 Days Grassroots Safari To MoleMole is a day’s drive north or an internal flight into Tamale, and the lodges beside the park are small. This one is planned weeks out.
- 02The Ancestral Naming Ceremony and Home Coming ExperienceThe ceremony is arranged with a family and an elder, and the cloth is made up beforehand. Nobody sets one up on the morning.
- 03Cape Coast, Elmina Castle & Kakum Park Day TourThe canopy walkway takes groups across in small batches from opening, and the coaches out of Accra arrive mid-morning.
- 042-Day Private Tour to the Mount Afadjato and Wli WaterfallsWli and Mount Afadja are four hours east of Accra, so the day starts before dawn and the transport is booked, not hailed.
By place — coast, forest and north
By kind of day — fort, forest, kitchen or road
Accra, the coast, Kumasi: the run almost everybody does first.
The newest Ghanaian tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Visit Aburi Garden, Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm & Waterfall
Read our review →
3 Days Elephants Safari at Mole Park with Round – trip flights
Read our review →
Full Day Tour with Traditional Naming Ceremony in Kumasi
Read our review →
Traditional Naming Ceremony For African Americans In Kumasi
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Historical Day Tour to Cape Coast, Elmina and Kakum
Read our review →
Private Slave Castles and Dungeons Tour in Cape Coast, Ghana
Read our review →
Private Airport Transfer to from ACC Kotoka by Business Car
Read our review →
The Door Of No Return/ Dungeon & cape Coast Castle
Read our review →