Things to do in Western Region

The Western Region stretches along Ghana's Atlantic coast from Shama and Takoradi westwards to the Ivorian border, and it holds an unusual concentration of history, water and forest. Fort San Sebastian at Shama, begun by the Portuguese in the 1520s, and Fort Santo Antonio at Axim, started in 1515, are both National Monuments within the UNESCO-listed Forts and Castles of Ghana. Further west stand Fort Metal Cross at Dixcove, Fort Batenstein above Butre, Fort Gross-Friedrichsburg at Prince's Town — Ghana's only German-built fort — and Fort Apollonia at Beyin, which has housed the Museum of Nzema Culture and History since 2010.

What these places share is the coast itself: almost everything here is reached by the same shoreline road, and most of it looks out over the same ocean. Where they differ is in mood. Some are working or restricted sites, such as Takoradi Harbour, Ghana's oldest seaport, and the Aboadze Thermal Power Station visitor site. Others are quiet and natural — the Ankobra Estuary near Sanwoma, Abby Lagoon near Jaway Wharf, and Takoradi Monkey Hill. And some are simply about being outdoors: the Busua–Butre coastal hike, the surf at Ahanta Waves Surf School on Busua Beach, the lighthouses at Cape Three Points, and Nzulezo, Ghana's only stilt village, reached by canoe through the Amanzule wetlands.