Ghana

The biggest recent change is at the border: since 25 May 2026 Ghana requires a mandatory online e-visa (at evisa.immigration.gov.gh), replacing embassy stickers and the old visa-on-arrival. All Western visitors — US, UK, EU, Canadian, Australian — must apply in advance. (African nationals now enter visa-free but still need a free electronic travel authorisation.)

Be ready for the cost: the e-visa is expensive and controversial — around US$260 for a single-entry standard application, more for priority or multiple-entry — and Ghana’s own tourism federation has warned it could deter visitors. A yellow-fever certificate is compulsory for everyone, checked rigorously on arrival.

Apply for the e-visa well ahead at the official portal and budget for the steep fee (reconfirm the current amount, which has drawn pushback and may change). Don’t forget the yellow-fever certificate — it’s mandatory and strictly enforced at every port of entry, so carry the physical card.

The emotional core of a Ghana trip is the heritage coast. The fortress-dungeons of Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle — whitewashed above the surf, grim below — were holding points of the transatlantic slave trade, and standing at the "Door of No Return" is as moving as travel gets.

For the African diaspora these are places of return as much as memory: the government’s 2019 "Year of Return" campaign, marking 400 years since the first enslaved Africans reached Virginia, brought a wave of homecoming tourism, now carried on as "Beyond the Return."

Take the guided castle tours — the dungeons and the "Door of No Return" land far harder with the history explained — and give yourself time; this is heavy, affecting ground, not a quick photo stop. Cape Coast and Elmina sit close together on the coast west of Accra and pair naturally with Kakum inland.

Accra is the lively coastal capital — the colonial-lighthouse fishing quarter of Jamestown, the sprawling Makola market, a buzzing arts and design scene, and a famously big festival season (AfroFuture, formerly Afrochella, and the whole "Detty December" of concerts and parties). It’s loud, creative and welcoming.

Inland, Kumasi is the seat of the Ashanti kingdom, whose king still reigns as a traditional monarch — visit Manhyia Palace and the enormous Kejetia market, and detour to Bonwire, the village where the iconic kente cloth is hand-woven.

Ghana’s nature punches above its reputation. The Kakum canopy walkway near Cape Coast is a thrilling, easy add-on to the heritage coast — a chain of swaying rope bridges high in the rainforest. Up north, Mole National Park delivers an unusually cheap and reliable elephant safari, viewable on foot from the lodge’s waterhole.

For scenery, the vast Lake Volta (one of the world’s largest reservoirs, created by the Akosombo Dam) and the green, waterfall-laced Volta Region — with Ghana’s tallest falls at Wli — round out the country’s wild side.

Pair Kakum with the Cape Coast castles — they’re a short drive apart — for a single powerful day of forest and history. Mole is a long haul north (fly to Tamale to save a day), but it turns Ghana into a two-in-one heritage-and-safari trip that few expect.

Ghana’s coast is more about laid-back surf and estuaries than resort sand. Busua, in the west, is the easygoing surf town with schools and board hire; Ada Foah, where the Volta River meets the sea, is a maze of lagoon islands good for kitesurfing and quiet resorts; and remote Cape Three Points is the forest-meets-ocean southern tip.

The important caveat is safety in the water: the Atlantic here has strong surf, undertow and rip currents, and many beaches are unpatrolled — swim with real caution.

Getting around is eased by Ghana being English-speaking. The cheap local backbone is the tro-tro — shared minibuses running fixed routes by shouted destination — but for comfort and coverage most visitors hire a car with a driver, which is common and reasonable.

For the long hauls, domestic flights link Accra (Kotoka) with Kumasi, Takoradi and especially Tamale, the gateway for the far-north Mole safari — turning a two-day drive into a short hop. Main highways are paved but variable, and night driving is best avoided.

The dry season (November–March) is the best time to travel — easier roads and, late in the dry, the best Mole game-viewing as animals cluster at waterholes. The main rains fall roughly April–June (with a shorter second peak in the south around September–October).

Two seasonal quirks to know: the Harmattan (December–February) blows a dry, dusty haze off the Sahara — cooler but hazy, most pronounced up north — and "Detty December" turns Accra into a whirl of concerts, weddings and beach parties, vibrant but the busiest and priciest stretch of the year.

Ghana is good value — though the steep e-visa dents that — and its cedi stabilised through 2026 after the severe depreciation and inflation of 2022–23, so quote prices in cedi with a date and bring US dollars to change. The country is famous for its warmth ("Akwaaba" — welcome), its highlife and afrobeats, and being one of West Africa’s safest and most politically stable nations.

The practical health notes are routine for the region: malaria is present year-round (take prophylaxis and prevent bites), the yellow-fever jab is mandatory, and the heat and humidity are real — pace yourself, especially on the heritage-and-forest coast.

• Heritage and the diaspora storySkipstaying only in AccraGothe Cape Coast & Elmina castles plus Kakum
• Royal culture and marketsSkipskipping the interiorGoKumasi — the Ashanti capital
• An affordable African safariSkipassuming Ghana has noneGoMole NP’s elephants in the north

Carry US dollars to exchange and some cash for rural areas, though mobile money is widespread. Take malaria prophylaxis and the mandatory yellow-fever jab, and lean on the English-speaking, friendly ease of travel — with ordinary big-city caution in Accra and Kumasi for petty theft.