Ghana

Jamestown is the oldest part of Accra, a dense Ga fishing community that grew up around James Fort, a British trading post of the seventeenth century, with the Dutch-built Ussher Fort a short walk away. The red-and-white lighthouse, rebuilt in the 1930s on the site of an older one, looks down over a harbour crowded with painted wooden canoes, smoking fish and boat builders at work. Climbing to the top gives the best view in the city across the rooftops and the surf. The neighbourhood is also famous for its boxing gyms, which have produced world champions, and every August it hosts the Chale Wote street art festival, when murals, music and performance take over the lanes.

TipGo with a guide from one of the local community tour groups; they explain the history, smooth the way with residents and the lighthouse keeper, and your fee goes back into the neighbourhood. Ask before photographing people.

Accra's great central market spreads across several blocks of the old commercial district, a maze of stalls, warehouses and pavement traders where you can find almost anything: wax-print fabric by the yard, beads, shea butter, pyramids of tomatoes and peppers, dried fish and plastic housewares. It is run, overwhelmingly, by women traders, the famous market queens whose networks have long been a force in Ghana's economy. It is hot, loud and crowded, and best treated as an experience rather than a shopping trip, although it is the place to buy cloth if you want something made by a tailor.

TipMornings are calmer and cooler. Carry small notes, keep valuables out of sight, and step aside for the porters carrying huge loads on their heads.

On the old polo ground where Kwame Nkrumah declared independence at midnight on 6 March 1957, a landscaped park now holds the mausoleum of Ghana's first president and his wife, Fathia. The mausoleum, clad in marble and designed to evoke an upturned sword, a symbol of peace among the Akan, is surrounded by water and fountains, and a statue of Nkrumah points forward towards the future. The museum alongside displays his books, photographs and personal belongings and tells the story of the independence struggle and his pan-African vision, as well as his later fall from power. The park has been extensively refurbished in recent years.

Built soon after independence, the Independence Arch stands at the edge of a vast parade ground facing the ocean, crowned with the black star that also sits at the centre of Ghana's flag. Black Star Square is where the national parades are held on Independence Day, and its grandstands can seat tens of thousands. The scale is the point: this was a monument to a new nation's confidence, and it remains the backdrop for state occasions. Nearby is the Christiansborg area, with the former Danish fort, later the seat of government, on the shore.

TipSoldiers guard the area and photography rules can change around official events; if in doubt, ask before taking pictures.

The American scholar and civil rights pioneer W.E.B. Du Bois moved to Ghana in 1961 at Nkrumah's invitation to work on an Encyclopedia Africana, took Ghanaian citizenship and died in Accra in August 1963, on the eve of the March on Washington. His house in the leafy Cantonments district is now a small memorial centre, with his study, library and robes, and his grave and that of his wife, the writer Shirley Graham Du Bois, lie in the grounds. It is a quiet, moving place, and an important stop for visitors of the African diaspora who come to Ghana to connect with its role in pan-Africanism.

Accra's best-known city beach, officially La Pleasure Beach, fills up at weekends and on public holidays with families, drummers, dancers, horse riders and stalls selling grilled fish, kelewele and cold drinks. It is less about swimming than about the atmosphere, especially on Sunday afternoons when live music and reggae play out on the sand. On weekdays it is much quieter.

TipThere is usually a small entry fee. The Atlantic surf and undertow here are strong, so swim only where others do, and keep belongings close.

The great white castle on the rocks at Cape Coast began as a Swedish timber lodge in the 1650s and was expanded by the British into their headquarters on the Gold Coast. For nearly two centuries, enslaved Africans were held in its dark, airless dungeons beneath the governor's elegant apartments and the chapel above, before being forced through the "Door of No Return" onto ships bound for the Americas. Guided tours, included with entry, lead you through the male and female dungeons, the condemned cell and the courtyard, and the museum explains the trade and its legacy. Together with Elmina and other coastal forts, the castle is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Visiting is a sombre, often overwhelming experience, and for many descendants of the diaspora a deeply personal pilgrimage. Wreaths and offerings are laid in the dungeons, and on the seaward side the door now carries a second inscription for those returning home. Allow time afterwards to sit quietly on the ramparts.

TipTours run throughout the day; go early to avoid the largest groups. Dress modestly, keep voices low in the dungeons, and do not take selfies in them.

About half an hour's drive north of Cape Coast, Kakum National Park protects one of the last large tracts of tropical rainforest in southern Ghana, home to forest elephants, monkeys, duikers and hundreds of bird and butterfly species. Most visitors come for the canopy walkway, a chain of narrow rope-and-plank bridges strung between giant trees, around 350 metres long and as much as 40 metres above the forest floor. The sway takes a few steps to get used to, but the view into the treetops is unforgettable. Guides also lead short nature walks explaining the medicinal uses of forest plants.

TipArrive at opening time for the best chance of birds and the fewest crowds. The animals are elusive; this is about the forest itself.

St George's Castle at Elmina was built by the Portuguese in 1482, making it the oldest European building in sub-Saharan Africa. Designed to control the gold trade that gave the Gold Coast its name, it was seized by the Dutch in 1637 and became a major centre of the transatlantic slave trade. The guided tour covers the female dungeon, the trapdoor through which the governor chose women from the courtyard, the condemned cells and the Door of No Return, and like Cape Coast it is hard but essential to see.

Outside the walls, Elmina is one of the most vivid fishing towns on the coast. Hundreds of brightly painted canoes jostle in the lagoon harbour beneath Fort St Jago on the hill opposite, and the old town has a series of posuban shrines, the elaborately decorated houses of the Fante military companies.

TipVisiting both castles on one day can be draining. Many travellers spread them over two days, with Kakum in between.

Busua is the most relaxed of the beach villages on the western coast, a long curve of sand with gentle surf, a cluster of guesthouses and beach bars, and a surf scene that has grown up around local schools offering lessons and board rental. It makes a perfect pause after the castles. Walks along the shore lead west to Dixcove and its small British fort, Fort Metal Cross, and east over the headland to the fishing village of Butre, where the ruins of a Dutch fort overlook the bay.

TipFurther west, the stilt village of Nzulezo, reached by dugout canoe across a lagoon from Beyin, makes a memorable day trip.

Kumasi was the capital of the Asante Empire, one of the most powerful states in West African history, and the Asantehene, the Asante king, still reigns here today. The old Manhyia Palace was built by the British in 1925 for Prempeh I on his return from exile in the Seychelles, and was used by the royal family until the 1990s. Now a museum, it displays royal furniture, regalia and photographs, along with lifelike figures of past kings and queen mothers, and guides tell the story of the Golden Stool, the sacred symbol of the Asante nation.

TipTry to time your visit for an Akwasidae festival, held roughly every six weeks, when the Asantehene receives chiefs and the public in a colourful durbar of drums, umbrellas and gold. Dates are posted locally and by the palace.

Kumasi's central market district is one of the largest in West Africa, a sprawling city of stalls where Asante traders deal in everything from yams and snails to kente, beads, sandals and herbal medicines. Part of it now sits in a large modern market complex, while the older lanes of the Central Market tumble around it. It is a sensory overload, but also the best place to feel the commercial energy that has always driven Kumasi.

TipGo with a local guide if you want to find specific crafts; it is very easy to get lost. Keep a firm hand on bags.

About an hour south-east of Kumasi, Lake Bosomtwe fills a near-circular meteorite impact crater around a million years old, ringed by forested hills. It is sacred to the Asante, who believe souls come here to bid farewell to the god Twi, and local tradition long forbade metal boats; fishermen still paddle flat wooden planks called padua. Lakeside lodges near the village of Abono offer swimming, hikes up the crater rim, bike rides through the farming villages and a welcome escape from the city heat.

Kente, the bold, interwoven silk and cotton cloth that has become a symbol of Ghana and of the wider African diaspora, has been woven in Bonwire for generations, and the village claims to be its birthplace. In the weaving centre and family workshops, men work narrow strip looms with remarkable speed, and each pattern has a name and a meaning, often a proverb or historical reference. Visitors can watch, try the loom and buy directly from the weavers. Nearby Adanwomase runs a community tourism programme with weaving and village walks, and Ntonso is known for adinkra cloth stamped with symbols.

TipReal hand-woven kente takes days or weeks to produce and is priced accordingly. Buying in the village supports the weavers directly.

In the dry north, on the road to Mole, the small whitewashed mosque at Larabanga is one of the finest examples of Sudano-Sahelian mud architecture in West Africa, its buttresses and pointed towers bristling with wooden beams. Local tradition dates it to the fifteenth century, which would make it one of the oldest mosques in the country, and it was restored with international support in the early 2000s. The village also shows visitors the Mystic Stone, said to return to its place whenever it is moved.

TipNon-Muslim visitors are generally not allowed inside, but can view the mosque from outside with a local guide. Agree any fee at the start and dress modestly.

Ghana's largest national park covers a huge stretch of savannah woodland, and its headquarters, on an escarpment above a pair of waterholes, offer one of Africa's more unusual sights: elephants wandering past the swimming pool. Rangers lead walking safaris in the early morning and late afternoon, often bringing visitors remarkably close to elephants, along with antelopes such as kob, roan and hartebeest, warthogs, baboons and a long list of birds. Jeep safaris and night drives are also available. This is not big-cat country, but the intimacy of the encounters makes up for it.

TipWalking and drive safaris run in morning and afternoon slots and are booked at the park's information centre; you are always escorted by an armed ranger. Bring long trousers and closed shoes for the bush.

In the far east of the Volta Region, close to the border with Togo, Wli Falls plunges down a sheer cliff into a pool surrounded by forest, and is usually described as Ghana's highest waterfall. An easy walk of under an hour from the visitor centre, crossing streams on small bridges, leads to the lower falls, where a large colony of fruit bats roosts on the cliff face. A much tougher guided hike climbs steeply to the upper falls. The falls are at their most powerful during and just after the rains.

A short drive from Wli, Mount Afadja, often called Afadjato and long billed as Ghana's highest peak, rises above the village of Liati Wote. The climb is short but steep, and the summit gives wide views across the forested Volta hills into Togo. Local guides from the village lead the hike and can combine it with Tagbo Falls nearby. The surrounding area, with mountain villages such as Amedzofe and the cooler air of the highlands, is one of the most appealing parts of the country for walkers.

The villagers of Tafi Atome have long regarded the Mona monkeys in their forest as sacred, and their community-run sanctuary protects the troop while bringing income to the village. Guides lead visitors into the patch of forest where the monkeys come down from the trees, and village walks and stays can be arranged. It is a fine example of the community tourism projects scattered across the Volta Region.

TipFollow the guides' lead on feeding; the project's rules are there to keep the monkeys healthy and wild.

On the Akuapem ridge just north of Accra, where the air is noticeably cooler, the Aburi Botanic Gardens were laid out in 1890 around a former colonial sanatorium. Avenues of royal palms, giant silk-cotton trees, spice plants and shady lawns make it a popular escape for Accra families at weekends. On the way up, the roadside woodcarvers' stalls at Aburi sell masks, drums and furniture, and the ridge-top villages around make a gentle end to the loop before you drop back down to the city.