Here is a suggested route for an all-over tour around Ghana that would take about 21 days at an average pace. This allows you to cover some of the major highlights of Ghana.
You could do it faster if you wish, or as slow as you like. Please don’t panic at the word “tour”; I’m not suggesting this is “touristy,” Contiki for Ghana. No sirree! Supplement tour for “trip,” “journey,” “adventure,” or whatever floats your boat.
This is, rather, a plan that will help prospective travelers understand what is possible, what destination connects to which, and what they can do along the way.
Where does this adventure lead?
Accra—(Eastern Region) Akosombo—(Volta) Fume, Wli, Kpando—Ferry across Lake Volta to Afram Plains, Donkorkrom—Nkawkaw, Kumasi (Ashanti Region)—Nkoranza (Brong Ahafo)—Tamale (Northern)—Mole—Bolgatanga (Upper East Region)—Cape Coast (Central Region)—Green Turtle or Axim Beach (Western Region)—Nzulezo Stilt Village (Western Region)—back to Accra.
- From Accra, head north to Akosombo Bridge. Visit the bead makers at Agomanya market and hang out by the Volta river in Akosombo.
- Head on to Fume, half way along the highway from Akosombo heading towards Hohoe. Stay at Mountain Paradise Lodge for a few nights and enjoy complete peace and quiet.
- Head on to Wli via Hohoe from Fume. Wli is where Ghana’s largest waterfalls are located and one of most visitor’s favourite stops. You can climb to the upper falls which is on the border with Togo. In fact, there is a border crossing at the end of the main road in Wli where you could cross to Togo if that’s your plan.
- Take the adventurous route and cross Lake Volta from the eastern shore at Kpando, about twenty minutes from Hohoe, after you leave Wli.
- Cross Lake Volta on a ferry to Agordeke and Donkorkrom in the centre of the Afram Plains. Stay over night.
- Next day head towards Kumasi by crossing the south-west arm of Lake Volta at Ekye in a motorized canoe, and land at Adowso on the other side.
- From Adowso, catch a trotro that will be waiting over the hills to Nkawkaw, a major stop between Accra and Kumasi, then travel on to Kumasi—about 2 hours from there.
- Hang out in Kumasi for a few days.
- Head on up to Techiman, about 3 hours away, and stay at Operation Hand in Hand in Nkoranza, a Dutch-run orphanage and gorgeous grounds in which to spend a day or two.
- Or, go straight to Tamale, the capital of the northern region. To get to Mole National Park without your own vehicle it’s almost compulsory to go to Tamale first. From there you catch a Metro Mass Bus departing at 2 pm (though virtually never on time) to Mole and arrive late that night—it takes about 4 hours.
- Hang out at Mole for a couple of days and watch the elephants splashing around and baby warthogs snorting away. (By the way, did anyone notice that Hogwarts (Wizards) is Warthogs switched?)
- Return to Tamale the same way as arriving, but on a 4 am Metro Mass (you get the feeling the hotel doesn’t want you to warm your bed for too long).
- From Tamale, take a trip to Bolgatanga, the capital of the Upper East Region, and visit the basket makers, smock makers, Sirigu Arts and Pottery, about 30 minutes out of town. You could also head up to Navrongo and Paga—crocodiles—easily for a day from Bolga.
- If you really want to be adventurous, you could head to Wa from Bolga, but via Tamale, unfortunately, especially now as the rainy season has begun and the roads are worse than ever. However, hippos are notoriously hard to spot in the rainy season so it’s probably best heading to Wa when the rains finish, sometime from October onwards.
- Scoot back down to Cape Coast from Bolga directly on the STC—takes about 18 hours (25 Cedis)—or from Tamale on the STC (22.50 Cedis). Hang out in Cape Coast or Elmina for a few days.
- Head west from Cape Coast, stopping at any of the sites or beaches along the way like Green Turtle Resort, Axim Beach Hotel, and on to Nzulezo where the village on stilts is located in the Amansuri Wetlands, in Ghana’s far west bordering The Ivory Coast.
This super tour of Ghana was based on the first map in our Ghana guide which shows this route around Ghana. We call it “All Over Tour Option 1” as we have 15 maps showing routes all over Ghana for different themed tours and trips of Ghana in our guides. We outline the map in markers, with the stops noted, and the best order in which to follow them. This is more or less the textual version of those tours.
We’ll be posting the other travel routes, in writing, over the coming weeks so readers can get a sense of what is possible when traveling in Ghana.
If you want to match these explanations with the maps, you can buy our Ghana travel guide by clicking on the link on the right.
Let us know if you have any experience traveling these routes and what you’d suggest others to look out for.
Thanks for reading!
