Explore Ghana

Arrive in Accra, Ghana. You will be met at the airport by your Goway guide who will assist you with your transfer from the airport to your hotel. Enjoy a welcome drink at the hotel and participate in an orientation session. Dressmakers will take measurements and sew cloths for interested participants.

This evening enjoy a welcome dinner with your fellow group members.

After breakfast, depart for a sightseeing tour of Accra, the Capital of Ghana. Experience the city’s highlights during this Accra orientation. The capital of Ghana since 1877, Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region. In addition, it’s the country’s most populous city. Travel through the administrative and economic districts of Accra. Also, see the Artiste Alliance Gallery, the W.E.B. Du Bois Center for Pan African Culture and the Independence/Black Star Square. Learn about important events in Ghana’s history and the country’s first president who helped lead Ghana to
independence.

Continue your tour to The National Museum of Ghana is in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. It is the largest and oldest of the six museums under the administration of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board. The museum building was opened on 5 March 1957 as part of Ghana's independence celebrations.

End the day’s tour at the Arts Center, where participants can sharpen their bargaining skills to shop for goods from Ghana and West Africa in an open-air market. On display, you will see fabrics of different materials, designs, colors and textures to purchase.

After breakfast, depart Accra to a beautiful village located on the lower course of the splendid Volta River. Pay a courtesy call on the chief and elders amidst traditional drumming and dancing by the villagers. The group will participate in a naming ceremony of recognition, where a Ghanaian name is given to participants, and a gift presented as part of celebrating a new identity as a Ghanaian and a member of the local community.

After lunch, you will visit cedi beads factory and market. Beads play a very important role in the life and culture of the Krobo people of Ghana. Beads are used to mark family status, special occasions, and the important rite of passage of girls into puberty, called the Dipo. Participants will be shown around the factory and observe the making of beads in a traditional manner. The beads come in every imaginable color, shape, and size and are made from recycled glass, beer and wine bottles, and broken windows. They are pounded and crushed with a mortar and pestle and then poured into molds and heated individually in ovens. These ovens are made from termite soils, which are able to withstand high temperatures. After sizzling in a special oven for about 45 minutes, the beads are smoothed while still warm. A cassava stick is put in the center of the bead while it melts into shape. The beads are cooled and hand polished with sand and water and then strung. Participants will even have the opportunity to make their own beads to take home!

After breakfast, check out of your hotel and depart to Cape Coast and drive through the historic Denkyira Kingdom to Kakum National Park, one of West Africa’s surviving tropical rain forests. Choose between a 2 km nature walk through the rain forest to discover the wide variety of
exotic flora and fauna species and the medicinal values they offer or take a walk on the canopy walkway hanging 40 meters above the forest ground.

After lunch on your own, embark on a tour of the infamous Forts, Castles, and Slave Dungeons of Ghana. History will unfold the story of the slave trade, which the impact is still felt beyond the shores of Africa today. Visit the Cape Coast Castle built by the Swedes in 1653 and was later taken over by the British. Here, you would learn about the relationship between the western slave traders and the African tribes that made the trans-Atlantic slave trade possible. It is an opportunity to be up and close with history – to stand in the dark and stuffy dungeons, imagining the experience and conditions that millions of Africans endured. This castle also houses the West African Historical Museum.

After breakfast, depart your hotel and visit the Global Mamas Cultural Workshop. Explore the fragrant and exotic flavours of West African cuisine in Auntie Esi’s kitchen. Esi will introduce you to an array of new tastes and flavours as you learn how to create authentic Ghanaian dishes. Using African cooking techniques, during this workshop you will create traditional dishes like fufu, groundnut soup, fried plantain, palava sauce and red red. After learning the recipes, you will enjoy eating the feast you’ve helped to prepare.

After lunch, visit Elmina Castle, also known as St. George’s Castle, which was built by the Portuguese in 1482. Here, learn about the relationship between the western slave traders and the African tribes that
participated in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Here participants will witness the dark and stuffy dungeons local people were forced to endure before being sent on a long and perilous passage across the Atlantic. To see the truth of these conditions in person is a powerful reminder of the inhumanity of the slave trade. Afterwards, explore Elmina, a fishing village that’s both picturesque and gritty, charming and though-provoking. What better way to appreciate it than to immerse oneself in its main industry - fishing! Meet with local fishermen to learn the intricacies of their trade and the challenges they face in their day-to-day work. Next, meet the fish mongers in the village who will demonstrate the various stages of smoking the fish in earthenware ovens. This is a unique way to experience one of Ghana’s oldest and important trades.

After breakfast, check out of your hotel and drive through the forest zone to Kumasi, the seat of the Ashanti Empire to explore the legends of the famous Ashantis, whose legacies are still evident today. En route, stop at Assin Manso. Visit the site of “Donkor Nsuo”, the former Slave River and market, the final transit point for a large number of enslaved Africans. This is the final resting place for two ancestors whose mortal remains were returned from the USA and Jamaica and re-interred there.

Continue your drive to Kumasi where you will visit Manhyia Palace Museum to obtain firsthand information on the legacies of the Ashanti kingdom. A regal history that dates back to 1700 is told with relics and artefacts. Enjoy a drive through the city with monuments dedicated to the memory of the great Ashanti people. End the day’s tour at the National Cultural Center, which features the Prempeh II Jubilee Museum and various studios of the brass makers, potters and batik makers.

After breakfast, dedicate this day to visiting the three famous Ashanti craft villages; Ahwiaa, the wood carvers’ village, Ntonso, the home of Adinkra cloth, and Bonwire, the Kente weaving village. You will have an opportunity to see how African crafts are made and to buy directly from the artisans who make them.

Return to your hotel afterwards and relax.

After breakfast, check out of your hotel and depart for Accra. En route, stop on the way at Besease shrine, a world heritage site. The Besease Shrine is a traditional fetish shrine near the town of Ejisu. Each of these shrines is a home for a particular spirit, called obosom that mediates between mortals and the supreme god Nyame. Observe the unique architecture and experience the mode of ancestral worship to the ancient gods.

Upon arrival, check into your hotel.

After breakfast you are at leisure until the transfer to the airport. Take advantage of one of the option experiences.

Optional School Of The Deaf - After breakfast, visit the school of the deaf in Tema. Over here, the students have put their disability aside and keep the African art, which is a part of Ghanaian culture and see how these unique students express themselves through this art, cultural dancing and painting. During your visits, you can also have the opportunity to learn about sign language or play football or other forms of interaction with the students. Return to Accra afterwards.

Optional Hair Wrapping - After breakfast, spend the morning at a salon where participants will be taught how to fix quick local hairstyles they can apply in their daily lives.

At 5:00PM, check out of the hotel and transfer to airport for check-in and final departure back home.