Introduction to tourism in Ghana

WELCOME  TO  GHANA !

AN INTRODUCTION TO TOURISM IN GHANA

We believe that a tourist is hidden in all of us, expatriates, and that is one of the reasons we love living abroad (except those doing it for the money only...). Indeed, you are abroad every day when you leave the office (well in the office too maybe!) so each evening and week-end is an opportunity to enjoy this foreign land and do things that are different than at home.

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We advise to own the full range of guide books available in Ghana. It will both let you have the largest possible amount of information and allow you to recoup it. It is always interesting to see how differently each travel writer covers an area or subject. Furthermore, things change quickly in Ghana and each guide book is updated and published at a different time. Lastly, there is always a large amount of general and detailed information in guide books that are useful to residents for daily life.

To have it all, buy:

• Bradt Ghana Guide, the best                      
• Lonely Planet West Africa                          
  Buy only the Ghana Chapter and read the Ghana introduction
• Rough Guide West Africa                          
• In French, Le Petit Futé Ghana                  
• In French, Editions du Jaguar Le Ghana Aujourd'hui  (difficile a trouver)
• In German, Peter Meyer Verlag Ghanar

Also Ghana: Culture Smart! the essential guide to customs and culture.

Should you know of other guide books in other languages, kindly inform us at feedback@accraexpat.com 

Here is a nice account about a 2009 road trip in Ghana by Marie McCarthy: Travels in Ghana.
Bird lovers may want to buy "Field Guide to the Birds of Ghana" from the authors of "A Guide to the Birds of West Africa".

A good local Tourism Guide that is extensive and full of pictures is the "Ghana Official Tourist Guide - 2012/2013 edition" (with map) available at selected bookstores, hotels and supermarkets for GHS 42.00. Learn more here.

Another one that will give you an idea of hotels available around Ghana is a booklet named "Destination Ghana Select Hotels and Resorts Directory 2010" that presents hotels per region. Distribution seems limited so finding it is quite difficult. You may ask your travel agent or hotel if they have a copy.

Online

A search on Internet about tourism in Ghana will show a number of results from which some valuable information can be found.   
- Official Visit Ghana website
- Official Ghana Travel website
- Ghana Tourism Board from the Ministry of Tourism,
- The west coast of Ghana, between Takoradi and the Ivorian border is simple the best for beach lovers. See the dedicated website,
- The tourism page of Ghana Nation lists numerous links,
- We advise to regularly check the updates from and traveler letters to Bradt Ghana Guide on Ghana News and the update blog from the author of Rough Guide West Africa,
- You will see many videos of varied quality about tourism in Ghana when doing a search on YouTube,
- CNN's Inside Africa added a page on Ghana in February 2012.

Recommended travel itineraries and other information can be found here.
Hostel World proposes a selection of budget accommodation in Accra.

Should you have interest in the region just east and west (the West Coast) of Takoradi, we invite you to read the nearly twenty accounts in our Blog of the week-end trips taken by Flash from the UK during his posting in Ghana.  

Here is a page titlled 10 Things you probably did not know about Ghana.

...and your fellow Expatriates

Remember that expatriates are a great source of information as well. The foreign community in Ghana is large and diversified, not dominated by one national group, like the French in Ivory Coast, so the accounts of domestic trips you can hear are very varied.

Listening to other’s experiences in Ghana is always great learning and a good source of tips. When meeting and talking with another expatriate, go beyond the usual “where are you from”, “what do you do” and “how long have you been here”...!
Join over 1750 expatriates of accraexpat.com group on Facebook where Members sometimes exchange about tourism and places to visit. Like our page too (where you can see pictures of events).

Beside detailed and practical information about domestic tourism, always ask expatriates who have experience with Ghana what they think of the country, its people and what general advice they can give you. What you will be told will generally be very interesting as such and this diverse information put together will help you benchmark your own and evolve in your knowledge of and opinion about Ghana.

Enjoy discovering your new home country and share your experience. Indeed, your feedback is always appreciated - please write to feeback@accraexpat.com. We could publish it in the Blog!


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From Bloomberg - November 2019