Ghana Travel Guide

Visa for Ghana

Most European travellers need a visa for Ghana. It has to be applied for before arrival, as none is issued at the airport. The Ghanaian embassy or its visa section is responsible; processing times vary between a few days and several weeks depending on demand.

You will normally be asked for a passport valid for at least six months beyond your return, passport photographs, the completed application, proof of yellow fever vaccination and either confirmation of accommodation or a personal invitation from Ghana. Start the application early.

The exact requirements and fees are published by the embassy and change from time to time. Please check them yourself before you assemble any paperwork.

Flights and arriving in Accra

All international flights land at Kotoka International Airport (ACC) in Accra. Direct connections from central Europe are not continuous; the usual routes go via Istanbul, Brussels, Lisbon, Casablanca, Addis Ababa or Paris. Pure flying time from central Europe is around six to seven hours.

Kokrobite is about 30 kilometres west. Depending on traffic that takes 45 to 90 minutes. Traffic in Accra is the least predictable factor of any trip to Ghana, in both directions.

Best time to visit and climate

The best time to visit Ghana is the dry season from November to March. The roads are in good condition, and the national parks are accessible. That applies to the whole south and especially to the north.

The south has two rainy seasons: a heavy one from roughly May to July and a shorter one in September and October. Rain in Ghana rarely means continuous rain, more often heavy showers that are over within the hour. You can travel then too; you just plan with a little more flexibility. The north has only one rainy season, roughly April to October.

Between December and February the Harmattan blows, a dry wind from the Sahara that carries fine dust. The air turns hazy, sunsets become spectacular and photographs of the horizon become useless.

Temperatures sit between about 25 and 33 degrees all year. There are no great seasonal swings. What changes is the humidity, not the heat.

Health, vaccinations and malaria

Yellow fever vaccination is compulsory for entry into Ghana. Without the international certificate you will get neither on board nor through passport control. It has to be done at least ten days before arrival.

Beyond that, vaccination against hepatitis A, typhoid and rabies is usually recommended alongside your standard immunisations. What makes sense for you specifically is a matter for a travel medicine specialist. Please in good time, as some courses take weeks.

Good news on the cost: many statutory health insurers reimburse travel vaccinations once you submit the invoice. A quick call to yours beforehand is usually worth it.

Ghana is a malaria area, year-round and countrywide. Talk to a doctor about prophylaxis or standby medication before you travel, use insect repellent with a high DEET content in the evenings, and sleep under a mosquito net. The mosquitoes that transmit malaria bite at dusk and during the night.

Travel health insurance is one of those things you sort out before you leave and then hopefully never need. Your domestic health cover will not pay for treatment in Ghana, and private clinics usually bill up front. Make sure the policy includes repatriation.

Tap water is not drunk. People use bottles or the water sachets ("pure water") that are sold everywhere in Ghana, are chilled and are safe.

Money, payment and what things cost

The currency is the Ghanaian Cedi (GHS). The exchange rate fluctuates considerably, so check it shortly before you travel. Cash remains the most important means of payment in Ghana: outside hotels and larger supermarkets, cards are rarely accepted.

ATMs exist in Accra and all larger towns; in rural areas you should not count on them. Euros and US dollars can be changed in bureaux de change, often at better rates than at an ATM. Bring clean, undamaged notes, because creased bills are occasionally refused.

Mobile Money is very widespread: paying by phone number, even at a vegetable stall. If you have a Ghanaian SIM card you can use it and avoid the small-change problem entirely.

On price levels: a meal in a local restaurant costs a fraction of what you would pay in Europe, while imported goods often cost more. If you eat and live the way people here do, you get by very cheaply; if you want to live European, you pay accordingly.

Safety in Ghana

Ghana is considered one of the most stable and safest countries in West Africa. It has been democratic for decades, violent crime against travellers is rare, and people meet strangers with an openness that first disconcerts and then shapes many guests.

The usual precautions still apply: pickpocketing in crowded markets, no unnecessary display of valuables, no lonely stretches of beach at night. Statistically the most dangerous thing about a trip to Ghana is the road traffic.

Follow the current travel and safety advice from your foreign ministry, particularly regarding the border regions in the far north. The routes we plan do not go there.

Getting around the country

Ghana drives on the right. The main routes between the larger towns are tarred and in good condition; off them it quickly becomes a dirt track, especially in the north and after rain.

Ghana's public transport is the tro-tro: a minibus that leaves when it is full and stops on request. Cheap, authentic and, for longer distances with luggage, exhausting. For journeys within cities there are taxis, and in Accra Bolt and Uber.

For round trips we like to use public transport, because that is the more authentic experience. If you would rather travel in comfort, we arrange a driver of our own for you, someone who knows the potholes, the police checks and the diversions while you simply look out of the window.

Allow more time than the map suggests: 200 kilometres can take four hours in Ghana. We would rather plan driving times too long than too short.

Internet, SIM cards and electricity

Mobile internet in Ghana is cheap and, in inhabited areas, surprisingly good. The large providers are MTN, Telecel and AirtelTigo; MTN has the best coverage outside the cities. A SIM card with several hundred gigabytes of data costs a low double-digit euro amount.

Registering a SIM card requires your passport and is done biometrically in a shop. It takes time and does not work at every kiosk. Better to have someone help you than to try it alone at the airport.

Electricity is 230 volts with British three-pin plugs (type G). Many sockets also take a European type C plug without any trouble. Power cuts happen and usually last only a few minutes to a few hours. Many tourist hotels have their own generator.

The time zone is GMT with no daylight saving. Against central Europe that means one hour's difference in winter and two in summer.

Language, culture and etiquette

The official language is English, so you will get by everywhere. Alongside it, Twi is mainly spoken in the south, Ga in Accra, Ewe in the Volta Region and Dagbani in the north. A few words of Twi open doors: "Ete sen?" means "How are you?", and the answer is "Eye", meaning good.

Greeting is not a formality in Ghana but the start of every interaction. Walking into a shop and asking the price without a greeting counts as rude. Take the twenty seconds, it changes the tone of every conversation.

Two practical rules: give and take with the right hand, never the left. And photograph people only after asking, especially at places like Cape Coast Castle or in markets.

Ghana is a religious country, predominantly Christian in the south and Muslim in the north. Clothing can be light but should not be too revealing away from the beach, in villages and when visiting churches or mosques all the more so.

Food and drink

Ghanaian cooking is hearty, spicy and starchy. The classics are jollof rice (rice in tomato sauce, over whose best version Ghana and Nigeria have been arguing for decades), banku and fufu as sides made from fermented maize and pounded cassava respectively, served with groundnut soup or light soup with fish or goat.

"Red red", beans in palm oil with fried plantain, is the most reliable vegetarian option. Waakye, rice with beans, is traditionally a breakfast dish. On the coast fresh fish is a given and usually caught the same morning.

Street food is good and cheap as long as it is served fresh and hot. Be careful with raw salads and peeled fruit from unknown hands. Drink water from sachets or bottles, along with bissap (hibiscus), sobolo and local beer.

Packing list for Ghana

Ghana is warm and humid. You need less than you think, but a few things are hard to replace.

• International vaccination certificate with the yellow fever entry, nothing works without it
• Insect repellent with a high DEET content
• A travel first-aid kit including something for diarrhoea and, on medical advice, malaria
• Light, long clothing for the evenings, against mosquitoes, not the cold
• Sturdy shoes for Kakum, Mole and the walks in the Volta Region
• High-factor sun protection, a hat and sunglasses
• A rain jacket or poncho if you travel outside the dry season
• A power bank for driving days and in case of a power cut
• Cash in euros or US dollars, in clean and undamaged notes