Welcome back or welcome for the first time to the series of posts on How to Get Around Ghana. We have covered walking, riding a bike, taking the taxi and now we will look at using the Trotro to get around Ghana. I originally wrote a post about taking the Trotro when doing the Wanderer Wednesday Posts, and it was the third one back in December 2011 but I wanted to bring it back and include it in this series with a few corrections and updates.
This is the third installment of the series about “How to Get Around Ghana,” you can read part 1 about walking and part 2 about riding a bike. Keep an eye out for future installments.
When traveling in Ghana it is very much an exercise in patients sometimes. State owned transport is often late to leave or not even show up and tro-tros are often full or take forever to fill up before leaving. Trying to connect all of these pieces together while traveling can take a lot of time, each wait can add up to take most of the day if you need to trade tro-tros or transportation methods.
Welcome to Part 2 of How to Get Around Ghana, if you missed part 1 about walking and trekking you can catch it here.
Like walking riding a bike around Ghana is probably not going to be the primary mode of transportation for most people. But for some it is the adventure that they crave, they are usually the type that will fly in with their own bike and a little more hard core than the standard traveler. There are even some companies that offer dedicated biking tours of Ghana. As for me I don’t think that I would feel entirely safe riding around most places in Ghana especially Accra, Kumasi and some of the longer stretches on the main roads in rural areas. This is not a security concern at all but one of safety because of the drivers, they tend to have little regard for pedestrians or bikers, and there are many traffic accidents throughout the country anyway. But for those that would feel comfortable doing this I am sure you would be rewarded with some beautiful sights and great interactions with people along the way.
The issue of transportation after reaching Ghana seems to be one of the biggest issues facing travelers. Traveling in Ghana it is unlikely that you will not be able to find a place to stay each night; even if you haven’t planned ahead or made reservations, most lodges and guesthouses are rarely at capacity. If the one that you were going to is, usually asking locals about another place to stay or another guest house will take care of the issue. Transportation is all a little more complicated and seemingly disorganized. But it is not impossible and there are transportation method for everyone’s level of comfort, budget and timeline. With any option there are compromises in these things and rarely is it possible to be able to have all three at once comfort, budget and timeline.
In a previous blog post I talked about traveler’s etiquette when traveling to Ghana. One of the things that I brought up is that smoking in public or around Ghanaians is usually frowned upon and you will usually get nasty looks or be asked to put out your cigarette. So we have already talked about how it is general frowned upon by the public and as a visitor you should abstain from smoking in public, but now the government of Ghana has gone a little further with a general ban on smoking in public. It still needs to be approved by the president but will probably go through because of the public sentiment towards it that has already be discussed.
Travelers should be aware of this and the possible future repercussions but even if it does not go through be aware that it is not acceptable to smoke in public in Ghana in general.
CNBC Africa with this program won the best TV Program award in 2009. This 4 point series takes an in depth look at doing business in Ghana and what the major industries are and reasons for success and areas that could cause issues.
Some of the words in the program that come up time and time again about why Ghana is a great place to do business are:
This video is a perfect example of pigeon English, its popularity in Ghanaian entertainment, and its connections the traditional languages. Efya very much brings the Sexy Sassy, and well the Wahala part may be a little hard for you to understand. Wahala is pigeon for trouble, problem or nuisance. It comes from the Hausa word Wahala that means the same thing. It has made its way into pigeon English in both Ghana and Nigeria, both of which countries have Hausa’s populations in the North.
This video is also a soundtrack video for the movie Adams Apples, which is a Ghanaian film that seems to put some light on the newer phenomenon of empowered independent women in the urban areas of Ghana. And to many these women can seem like a sexy sassy problem.
European travelers are keeping a huge secret. Do you know what it is?
Short answer West Africa and even more so Ghana.
When traveling in Ghana of the few tourists that you will come across at the tourist hot spots and hotels, you will meet people from, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Scandinavia, and some other European travelers. You will occasionally run into another American, but if you ask them about what brings them to Ghana they will usually respond with business or volunteering. There are very few Americans who have discovered the Ghana is paradise for casual travel.
Why are Americans not traveling to Ghana?
There are many potential reasons for this; some of the more prominent ones boil down to lack of knowledge about Ghana or even knowing it’s potential as a travel destination. The length of the flights and the cost of the flights are also prohibitory for some people. As a by product of colonialism, Europe is much more connected to Africa and they receive a lot more information in the news and media about Africa and many Europeans realize there are very nice and safe places to travel to. Just like many Americans see Mexico, the Caribbean and South America as great places to enjoy beaches and warm weather the same can be said for Europeans and Africa. The benefit for them is that Africa is much less developed and offers very unique, uncrowned travel opportunities because of that.
Why should Americans consider traveling to Ghana?
Off the beaten path discovery- Adventurous travelers will delight in feeling like they are discovering something new every day of their trip.
Cost- After the initial cost of getting to Ghana, the cost of eating every day and the majority of hotels are very affordable especially compared to the cost of meals and hotels in the US and Caribbean. Compared to cruises and other vacation options it is even affordable to be treated like royalty with your own car and driver and a guide throughout the whole trip as you can see with our adventures.
Unique Experiences- You will get to experience things without the crowds and you will not have the same experience as hundreds of others like on a cruise ship. Your experience will be yours.
Empty Beaches- You won’t have to share paradise with very many other tourist, just some locals and fisherman. And when you meet other tourist it will still be an interesting cultural interaction because the majority of them are not from the US.
English- With many Americans not speaking another language the fact that most Ghanaians speak it and all official business is conducted in English in Ghana is a huge plus.
Get out and discover while you still can without the crowds, and mega resorts.
Many people do not even consider West Africa when looking to travel to Ghana because they want to take Safari, and there are great Safari’s in East and South Africa. Ghana has so much to offer a visitor and wildlife is only part of it. But one of the highlights of many people’s trips to Ghana is Mole National Park. Here you can get up close and personal with some great wildlife, like Elephants, Bush Buck, Antelope, Baboons, other primates, many many birds, and reptiles.
Ghana is one of the few places in Africa you can take a very affordable Safari staying at a lodge right in the park, and one of even fewer places where you can still take a walking Safari. All of this with out the crowds of other tourists. See for yourself in this video, Mole National Park is truly a gem. We offer some great ways for you to experience the park, we have an over all tour of Ghana with some time spent a mole in our South to North, Culture and Wildlife Adventure, and an in depth adventure in Mole with our Mole Camping Trip.
This is a perfect example of a song or the type of song that you would hear in Ghana in a taxi or blarring from a speaker at one of the many drinking “spots.” This song would probably be considered pop, contemporary high-life, or R & B in Ghana. And it seems to be very popular with all ages and the general public.
This particular songs title gives us a number of clues as to what the song is about. Koforidua is a small city in the Eastern Region of Ghana, and this is where Kofi B is probably from. As far as the flowers part, there is very clearly a dual meaning there referring to the beauty and the flowers of the city of Koforidua and of course the lovely ladies.
Koforidua is very nice to visit being within 2 hours of Accra by car and in the cooler mountains. The town really comes to life during the Easter Holiday weekend where there is an international renowned paragliding festival there. Learn how to visit here.
