Cape Coast Castle courtyard and cannons overlooking the Atlantic

Explore Ghana

Things to do in Ghana

Cape Coast Castle · Photo: Rjruiziii · License: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

Ghana rewards travellers who look beyond the obvious. The places gathered here range from the Akosombo Dam, which impounds Lake Volta, and the Adomi Bridge at Atimpoku, Ghana's first permanent Volta River crossing, to quiet forest and mountain country such as Bia National Park, Bunso Eco Park and the Afadjato-Tagbo Eco-Tourism Reception Centre at Liati Wote, where guided hikes to Mount Afadja and Tagbo Falls begin.

What they share is that most are working places as much as visitor sites: markets, craft centres, shrines, power stations and community-run trailheads. Where they differ is in mood and effort. Aburi Botanical Gardens, opened in 1890, and the nearby Aburi Craft Village suit an easy half day, while the Amedzofe Canopy Walkway asks for a steep guided climb of roughly 259 concrete steps. Some, like the Asante Traditional Buildings near Kumasi and the Besease shrine house, carry UNESCO World Heritage status; others, like Aflao Market or the Ankobra Estuary, are simply everyday Ghana going about its business.

Good to know

Before you go

Plan around distance rather than a fixed itinerary: many of these sites sit far apart, so group them by region. Kente country around Kumasi takes in Bonwire and Adanwomase; the Volta Region links the Afadjato-Tagbo reception centre, Aduadu Mountain and Amedzofe; the coast offers the Ankobra Estuary and the Anyanui to Ada Foah boat trip. Shared taxis, tro-tros and hired cars are the usual ways between towns, and some sites, including the Aboadze power station and Akosombo Dam, are working installations. Before setting out, check current access, guided-tour arrangements and whether a site is open to visitors, and confirm market days, such as Bolgatanga's three-day cycle.

Start here

Places to explore

Attraction · Tafi Agome

Tafi Monkey Village

Community-run sacred grove in Tafi Atome, Volta Region, protecting Mona monkeys and offering guided forest walks and cultural village experiences.

Photo: Mike Norton · Source

Attraction · Liati Wote

Tagbo River

The sacred stream that feeds Tagbo Falls near Liati Wote, crossed three times by bridges on the forest trail to the falls.

Photo: Kradolferp · Source

Attraction · Takoradi

Takoradi Harbour

Takoradi Harbour is Ghana's oldest seaport, a secured working industrial port in Sekondi-Takoradi commissioned in 1928, with restricted public access.

Photo: Kees Torn · Source

Attraction · Takoradi

Takoradi Monkey Hill

Takoradi Monkey Hill is a forested hill and primate habitat conservation site within Takoradi, listed by the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly as a tourist site.

Photo: Elsewer · Source

Attraction · Tamale

Tamale Central Market

Tamale Central Market is a major market in Tamale, Northern Region, Ghana, with Aboabo and Dakurili sections selling food, crafts and clothing.

Photo: Ghana Decides · Source

Attraction · Tongo

Tengzug Shrine

Tengzug Shrine is the paramount shrine of the Talensi people, set among sacred shrines in the cliffs of the Tongo Hills, about 15 km southeast of Bolgatanga.

Photo: Alhaj Darajaati · Source

Attraction · Tongo

Tenzug Cave School

Tenzug Cave School is a historic rock-overhang school site in the Tongo Hills near Tongo, Talensi District, Upper East Region, where formal education began between 1965 and 1985.

Photo: Knowledge and philosophy · Source

Attraction · Teshie

Teshie fantasy coffin workshops

Working carpentry studios in Teshie, Accra, where Ga carpenters hand-carve figurative "design coffins" for funerals and export.

Photo: NdaniTV · Source

Attraction · Tongo

Tongo Chief's Palace

The royal court of the Paramount Chief of the Talensi Traditional Area, and a stop on the official Tongo-Tengzuk Cultural Landscape tour in Ghana's Upper East Region.

Photo: Knowledge and philosophy · Source

Attraction · Tongo

Tongo Hills

A granite hill range near Tongo in Ghana's Upper East Region, known for balancing rock formations, caves and sacred Talensi ancestral shrines.

Photo: Uridl01 · Source

Attraction · Tengzuk

Tongo-Tengzuk Cultural Landscape and Sacred Shrines

A Talensi cultural landscape of balancing rock formations and sacred ancestral shrines at the base of a horseshoe-shaped hill chain near Tongo, Upper East Region.

Photo: Munkaila Sulemana · Source

Attraction · Opersika

Umbrella Rock

Umbrella Rock is a balancing rock formation near Boti Falls in Ghana's Eastern Region, reached mainly by a guided forest hike and known for its overhang and valley views.

Photo: ZSM · Source

Attraction · Bolgatanga

Upper East Regional Museum

An ethnographic museum in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region, preserving the material culture of the region since 1972 and housed at its current site since 1991.

Photo: Mac-Gbathy · Source

Attraction · Accra

Ussher Fort

Ussher Fort is a 17th-century Dutch-built fort in James Town, Accra, now home to the Ussher Fort Museum on the history of the slave trade in Ghana.

Photo: Twi inaccr · Source

Attraction · Ho

Volta Regional Museum

A GMMB-run ethnographic museum in Ho, Volta Region, opened in 1973 in the former Office of the Regional House of Chiefs.

Photo: Prempy · Source

Attraction · Ada Foah

Volta River Estuary

The Volta River Estuary at Ada Foah is where the Volta River, draining Lake Volta, meets the Atlantic Ocean on Ghana's southeast coast.

Photo: SanBa · Source

Attraction · Vume

Vume Pottery Community

Vume is a small town near Sogakope in Ghana's Volta Region, long noted for household pottery workshops and roadside pot displays along the Accra–Aflao highway.

Photo: Enock4seth · Source

Attraction · Vume

Vume Pottery Village

The pottery-making quarter of Vume in the South Tongu District, Volta Region, where roadside workshops along the Accra-Aflao highway make and display household pots.

Photo: Enock4seth · Source

Attraction · Wa

Wa Naa's Palace

Wa Naa's Palace is the traditional palace and official residence of the Wa Naa in Wa town, Upper West Region, and a gazetted national monument in Sudano-Sahelian mud-brick style.

Photo: U.S. Embassy Ghana · Source

Attraction · Accra

W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan-African Culture

Memorial, museum and research centre in Cantonments, Accra, occupying the former home of W.E.B. Du Bois, with his mausoleum, library and archives.

Photo: Yorker · Source

Attraction · Wechiau

Wechiau Hippopotamus Sanctuary

A community-run sanctuary at Wechiau protecting a 40 km stretch of the Black Volta River and one of Ghana's two remaining hippo populations.

Photo: Kradolferp · Source

Attraction · Daboya

White Volta at Daboya

The stretch of the White Volta (Nakambe) flowing past Daboya in the Savannah Region, known for village-paddled boat trips, birdlife and salt-harvesting beaches.

Photo: Hasslaebetch · Source

Attraction · Ejisu

Yaa Asantewaa Museum

A museum in Ejisu, Ashanti Region, honouring Yaa Asantewaa, Queen Mother of Ejisu and leader of Ashanti resistance in the 1900–1901 War of the Golden Stool.

Photo: Noahalorwu · Source

Attraction

Attraction · Amedzofe

Abadzeme Falls

Abadzeme Falls is a waterfall in Ghana's Volta Region, associated with the mountain village of Amedzofe and reached by a steep, roughly two-hour trail.

Closer in

More in Ghana