We decided to write the kind of guide book that would let visitors benefit from our inside knowledge and experience. A guide that is:
• Up-to-date on prices, names and numbers
• explains clearly how to get from A-to-B
• includes only the best attractions and accommodation
• that also explains what Ghana and Ghanaians are really like
• with extended culture, costs, health, preparation and dangers sections
• and includes our insider’s tips throughout every section
The stressful nature of transport in Ghana
After almost 4 years of living and travel in Ghana, I believe the most challenging aspect of travel for the independent traveler is transport. This is because there are no up-to-date printed or online timetables for any one transport company. Also, transport services are scattered all over cities and are virtually never signposted other than directly outside the establishment.
Planning ahead of your day of departure has traditionally involved traveling across traffic-jammed cities to a bus station, asking them when their services leave, attempting to buy a ticket for the next day, going back to stay somewhere for the night, then returning the next day to catch the bus. There are no online booking or reservations. There are no phone reservations. You have to physically travel across cities and take your chances. This costs time and money, not to mention energy expended in the hot and sticky day-time temperatures and being stuck in Accra’s smoggy, endless traffic jams for hours. Lonely Planet rated Accra as one of the world’s top 10 worst cities—which is not really a surprise for those who’ve had to get around without any kind of transport map or explanation.
No more stress. OK: a lot less stress. (Nothing will ever be totally stress-free in Ghana.)
The Insider’s Guide to Ghana takes that hassle and guess work out of transport and planning.
The cost of this guide is less than half of what you would pay in taxis across Accra to a bus station only to find that there is no bus departing until tomorrow and doubling back to a hotel for the night and returning the next day—until now, you’ve had no choice but to take this hit and miss approach.
No more hit and miss.
This guide changes that. This Ghana guide gives you no less than five timetables showing fares from Accra to destinations all over Ghana—as well as clear explanations of the company’s location with a map showing where they’re located in Accra. And you get at least two options between all other cities—but often three. Not only that, you get our insider’s tips on some unusual connections that will make long distance travel easier—these are not obvious unless you’ve been here a while.
Avoiding that one trip across Accra saves you twice the value of this guide and days of valuable travel time. What are you waiting for?
You can buy it now: Click the link to the secure checkout.
OK, if you’re like me, you want to know more.
Our style
By the way, we have written the guide in an informal, chatty style so you will hear our “voice” throughout, rather than the somewhat detached, cool style you will find in most guide books. If you like the style of writing you read on this blog, you will like the guide.
Why us?
Many travelers are familiar with one or another city in Ghana—say, Accra or Cape Coast or Kumasi—but it’s very difficult to find people with knowledge across the country. And it’s even more difficult to find this in a clear, precise and logical format. And even more difficult to find it distilled from the point of view of both a foreigner (who has traveled in your shoes and knew nothing about Africa or developing countries when she first touched down in Ghana in July 2005) and a Ghanaian who has traveled and lived all over Ghana and interacted with foreign visitors in volunteer settings for years.
Who are we to write this guide?
The difference between us and other guide writers is that we live here. This is our home. And we’re not scheduling writing this between writing guides to five other countries. We don’t drop in every few years and spend 8 weeks madly updating a book that is then not published for another 12 months after this short visit.
We are on the ground every day and Ghana is it. We pick up new tips and ideas daily. We hear a lot through the grapevine which we translate into helpful tips and information in the guide. And we’ve experienced first-hand every topic we write about. (Once you’ve used some guides for a while you’ll see that the writer didn’t actually do the journey themselves).
“To and From” Sections
We have included longer-than-average explanations on how to get to and from places. When you read the introduction to the guide, you will see that maps and directions are one of the biggest challenges in Ghana. We’ve given you these details in language that drivers (you will have to explain them to) will understand—because there is a huge gap between navigating in western countries and navigating Ghana-style. The Insider’s Guide to Ghana fills that gap and, therefore, makes your journey much less stressful than it may otherwise be—and will save you time and money.
How it all fits together—explained
Another important point is that other guides show maps by regions with a map of the whole country, but they don’t show how the regions connect—like how to get from one to the other and, thus, how the attraction you actually want to get to connects with the next attraction. For example, when reading other guides it’s very difficult to work out how to get from, say, Wli Waterfalls in the Volta Region to Green Turtle beach resort in the Western Region on public transport or driving yourself. Should you return to Accra? Should you cross Lake Volta? Can you go via Koforidua? You have to read the minute detail at the end of each area section and then flip 20 pages ahead and read the minute detail there and often you still can’t work it out and have to flip back. But all trips (unless you don’t venture out of Accra) overlap from one region to another.
Choose your own adventure!
So we’ve included a dozen maps of the most common trips travelers take around Ghana showing connection points from city or town to town, and the sequence in which you can do it, so you can see how you can get from A to B to C to D to E—or skip C and D and go straight to E—you can work this out with our maps. To make it easier, we included a printable country map with dotted lines between connecting points so you will be able to instantly see the potential routes you can take to get around the whole country and avoid backtracking. We show maps by ‘journeys’, not regions that form but one part of a journey. The Insider’s Guide to Ghana will give you a clearer picture of how all the cities and towns—and therefore the major attractions—connect so you can save time and do and see more.
The informal transport system
In addition to that, we’ve given a comprehensive explanation of how the informal transport system works. We believe this is unprecedented. When you first arrive you will think there is no order to the trotro (mini bus) and share and dropping taxi systems, but there is method in this madness and that’s what we have taken the time (several pages) to explain. You will be able to hit the ground running—or at least walking.
Sex and dating
This may prove to be a controversial inclusion, but we felt it necessary. In fact, since we mentioned this on the blog a week or so ago we have received several emails asking for this section before we actually release the guide—there is a need. This is because many visitors have some kind of friendly or romantic encounter and, more often than not, come out burnt in some way. We felt that a dose of frank, honest and sobering advice based on our first- and second-hand knowledge will help you and your friends and associates avoid some of the heartache we’ve witnessed over the years. This section is five pages long and covers the cultural context including the fact that men are permitted to have multiple sexual partners (and are not expected to be honest about it), the issue of money and dating, and a couple of paragraphs on sexual intercourse itself (you might find it’s not worth the hassle). We also discuss more serious issues in relationships and communication should you be in that situation.
Travel visas
Visas. We have included clear, accurate and extensive information about obtaining a visa with lists of embassy contacts in dozens of countries. There is much conflicting information and advice online, but we researched this with immigration officials directly and distilled it down to the most important elements including what you need to know about visitor visas, documentation, applying, and the confusing contradiction between the duration stated in your visa and the stamp you receive upon arrival. We explain this clearly and simply. We also explain the “extension of stay” that you must receive should you stay longer than 60 days. And we explain the truth about visa on arrival. There is also extended information on working, investment and student visas.
Hospitals
I’m torn between whether finding a good clinic is more difficult than understanding the transport system. Either way, finding a good clinic is very difficult. However, we have inside tips about the best clinics and physicians gleaned from our network of contacts that means you get two pages of contacts that you can’t get anywhere else. If you’re staying here for any length of time, even a month, this information is invaluable should you fall sick. We have more than a dozen good contacts in Accra as well as at least one or two for Ho, Hohoe, Cape Coast, Takoradi, and Tamale.
By now you may see that you will save the cost of this guide countless times over.
You can buy it right now by clicking
.Attractions and journeys
We have focused on all major, and some not-so-major, and some little-known-but-excellent destinations that travelers rave about, and we have chosen to leave some places out. For example, we’ve not heard one positive word about Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary in the Volta region from the dozens of visitors we know who’ve visited over the years. “Not worth it” and “disappointing” were the usual responses. When you have options like Baobeng Fiema near Techiman that are worth it, we feel it’s not worth recommending any place that doesn’t meet a certain standard. It’s subjective, but we didn’t want to “pad” our guide with everything and anything. We chose to leave establishments and attractions that we feel, after considering the accumulated feedback over the years, are not worth the effort.
We know that most travelers have limited time and simply cannot see everything. It is doubtful that you could see everything that we’ve included in our guide in 2 full-time months of traveling, let alone a shorter time frame. Even with what we have included, it is likely that you will have to miss some excellent attractions. But it is less likely that you will hit a terrible or poor attraction. If you do feel something is not up to par, please let us know. We value your feedback—good, bad and ugly! Bring it on.
None of the establishments listed were aware of our presence throughout our writing this guide—unless someone noticed us taking copious notes at meal times. We haven’t received any free meals or rooms from any establishments. As far as we know, the establishments chosen are not aware that we have chosen to feature them or in fact that this guide even exists. In other words, we paid everywhere we stayed (many times in some cases) and chose to include establishments because they’re good—or even better.
We have listed dozens of attractions, hidden or in-the-know shops, restaurants and bars. We elaborate on those establishments worth getting to and, particularly, how to find them in detail. We also bullet point most hotels’ features so that you can quickly scan them and compare. We deliberately omitted some of the famous international chains for the terrible feedback regarding service. We focused more on boutique hotels and lodges with a personal feel that have excellent or higher than average customer service. Of the budget options, we can’t guarantee top-notch service, but they were all reasonable by Ghana standards.
The PDF Guide
We have created two versions of the guide: Easy Read and Easy Print. “Easy Read” is designed specifically to be read on a computer screen. Font is 12 point and 1.5 spaced (between lines) so that it is easy on the eyes. Each section has a distinct colour theme so that, when you scroll through, you can identify where you’re at easily by the colour. In addition, each page has a section header at the top showing which section you’re in, like a book has a chapter title at the top of the page. This is 5.5 MBs.
“Easy Print” has exactly the same content, but it is designed to be printed, should you wish to print any part of the guide. This version is black and white, 10 point font and single spaced lines so that more information fits on one page and you don’t have to use all your coloured ink and use less weight in paper. This is 3.5 MBs.
You get both versions for $US 15.00. Again, the price is US$15.00 for the two versions. They are in a zip file and will be downloaded together.
You also have the option of downloading the 46 page Insider’s Guide to Volunteering in Ghana for free with this guide. You will see it with the shopping cart when you click through to pay. You can also get it separately at www.g-lish.org
So that is a brief overview of the reasoning and content of the guide. We truly welcome all feedback. Writing has been a long, surreal process and we shall write a post or two about that experience in coming weeks too.
When you buy the guide you will receive a zip file which contains both the easy read (colour, 1.5 spaced) version and the easy print (black and white, single spaced) version. You will also have an option to download the Insider's Guide to Volunteering in Ghana for free at the same time. You will be directed to a site to purchase the guide using a secure connection. When your payment is accepted you will receive a link to download the guide immediately. It's that simple.
You can buy it now by clicking on the payment button here