In Person Lodging Evaluation: 4.88 out of 5
Eco-tourism Lodging Rating: 2.69 out of 5
This resort is probably one of the largest and nicest beach resorts outside of Accra. Typically they are not know for prescribing to the ecotourism crowd and have not done as much as some of their smaller equivalents on the Western Coast of Ghana. But for a high end establishment they have done some things to be more responsible, but they still have the lowest score of any of the establishments that we evaluated in Ghana.
This resort is on the outskirts of Axim which does not have a lot of offerings to tourists, other than the fort and beaches; much like many of the other coastal communities in Ghana. Being an upper end resort though Axim Beach Resort has attracted many customers for weekends away from work in Takaradi, which has now become a oil boom town to expat oil industry workers which is another reason they have not done more to be more eco-attractive. That being said the level of comfort that Axim offers is far beyond many other places. Its location also offers great access by road to many of the other sites in the western region being that it is not too far off the main Elubo road and there is only about 1km of unpaved road from Axim to its front gate.
Part of the comfort comes from its size and the options that are available because of this. You could have the option of dinning up on the hill near the main lodge or down beach side. The ocean view buffet in the morning is definitely a perk also. You can choose to have your own self-contained bungalow suite, or a self-contained room in a motel type building like many US hotel/motels. But be prepared for the hum of AC coming from most of the room and even the unmistakable sound of a television which you have not previously missed on your trip to Ghana where there is so much entertainment beyond a glowing box. If you choose to exercise all of your options here you will truly be exercised walking down to the beach and then back up the hill to the main lodge and rooms could give your legs quite the workout. One of the other highlights of this place is the beautiful detail that went into the rooms from the nice stone work in the floors and then handmade rock mosaics in the showers and bathrooms. The rooms, facilities, and landscape are also meticulously maintained and cleaned.
On a good day the food and service will be perfect, but even with the size and the beauty of this place there have been reports of less than stellar service and meals. The downside is that with a very nice place like this meals that you can get elsewhere will be about the same in quality here but more expensive. The reports are all over the board on service and meals and I guess it is up to you to decide for yourself. The views while dinning though will be un-paralleled.
One of the most obvious examples of where Axim Beach Hotel is working to be more Eco-friendly is that you will see the unmistakable solar hot water heaters above a number of the buildings. They are also actively involved in turtle conservation on their beautiful white sand beaches. They collect the eggs after they are laid and keep them higher up the beach in protected areas, after hatching they are collected and kept until a safe time to release the hatch-lings into the water at night.
In person Evaluation
Positive Aspects of In person evaluation:
Aspects of in person evaluation that could use some improvement:
Eco-tourism Evaluation
Aspects of Axim Beach that brought up their Green Bug Ecotourism Index:
Aspects of Axim Beach operations that brought their Green Bug Adventures Index rating down:
Below are the tours where you can stay at Axim Beach Resort as an option.
Remember that we are happy to tailor make a tour for you around this accommodation also. If you have stayed here or have experience with Axim Beach Resort let us know by sharing in the comment box below.
My friend and I travelled to Axim Beach Resort a few weeks ago. This trip was one of the worst I have ever experienced in Ghana, or elsewhere for that matter. I have been living in Accra for four years, with extensive travel around the country, and I have never had such poor, disrespectful and hurtful customer service, as I had at Axim Beach Hotel.
From a former review, we read that people often go to the neighbouring (about 30 minute drive away) hotel, Lou Moon, for dinner. We thought this was a great idea. We arranged with Axim to get a taxi for us, which they agreed. When we arrived at Lou Moon, we exchanged numbers with the driver, so that when we were finished, he could come back and pick us up.
After a lovely dinner, we called the driver, whose phone was off. Confused, we called Axim Hotel, to ask what we should do. The night receptionist, said he would call some other numbers and back. He never called, so we called him. He proceeded to tell us that no one was answering. He had no other options for us, and could care less that it was 11pm, and we were two foreign women essentially stranded. After many phone calls back to this receptionist, pleading with him to find us a way back, the evening ended with us having to spend 200 euros on a room for the night at Lou Moon.
Beyond tired and angry (and 200 euros wasted!), we finally made our way back to Axim Hotel the next morning. As we approached the daytime receptionist, we explained the whole story. At least he was apologetic, and understood our anger and disappointment. At the end of our conversations, we exclaimed ‘i assume we will not be paying the 30 cedis rate for last night?’. This promoted him to call over the owner – Jonas.
We reexplained the whole story to Jonas, concluding that because we had to spend 200 euros for a night accommodation elsewhere (because they had left us stranded), we were not prepared to pay the 30 Cedis for the room we had at Axim.
Jonas could not care less. He put all the blame on us, laughed in our faces and while pointing his finger at us, explained that he had travelled around the world, and is shocked that we think we could not pay for the previous nights room rate.
To me, this is all about the principle. The fact that he showed such disrespect to his customers, to turn the whole situation around to make it seem like it was our fault, and on top of it to laugh in our faces, is beyond unacceptable.
We were happy to pay for the other nights we spent there, along with our meals and drinks etc. All we were asking for was to deduct 30 cedis (less than 15USD) because of the principle. The fact that they could not do that is shocking, and I hope that people will take this into consideration when choosing where to stay near Takoradi.
I have never experienced this kind of disrespect from hotel staff – let alone from the owner!