welcome to grandma
welcome to ghana welcome to ghana
welcome to ghana
akwaba
ba ghana
welcome to ghana
getting a visa for ghana is not an easy job and this one falls somewhere between medium
to difficult category so usually it's paperwork but this one is paperwork and it's expensive 140
pounds from uk and and this one also requires a letter of invitation from someone local
i was very lucky because i have a friend who's ghanian thank you marian who wrote that for me
you can also work with tour companies to get your letter of invitation in some cases i've
heard hotels but i'm not entirely sure about that so if you want to be here that's the way to be
if you want to enter ghana you need to bring your yellow fever vaccination certificate
without it you will not be allowed and i'm not surprised if they're asking for covid
vaccine certificates after this as well so if you have one do bring it along with you
i am here in october and i quite like it because it's hot but it's not like ridiculously hot
it's also not rainy or too dry so it's kind of like temperate season because if
you come in december january the north is too too hot and generally i mean this is
also a good season for the beaches so i would recommend september october as the best time
not super easy especially if you're trying to use public transport generally there are these
trotro so yeah trotro but they are not the most convenient um and not the cleanest either and
vip so you can use those buses to travel between different cities there are also some tuk-tuks but
i've not seen a lot of them if you're going within the city i would recommend bolt or uber apps but i
would definitely recommend that you use the cash option instead of card because a lot of people
will just simply decline or cancel when they see card so far the best option is to go around hire
your own car i would definitely not recommend driving on your own the traffic is absolutely
crazy and the roads are really really diverse like you know in the north the road was like absolutely
beautiful almost carpet road and then some places the roads are non-existent but like massive
potholes and the traffic is absolutely crazy especially in the cities so i have been going
around with my buddy kofi and he's taken me around all around the place so if you want to do that i
can leave you his number if you want you can reach out to me or generally you can hire a car with the
driver on average it is about 400 to 500 cedis a day depending on where you go and that includes
petrol i mean if you're going further distance it might be a bit more but generally that's the
idea so that's how you get around ghana do you agree all right you have the approval public
transport is a bit chaotic it's really cheap but it's really chaotic at the same time you can look
all around me i'm taking a public transport thing somewhere and if you want to experience
this i would at least recommend you do it once generally i think taking a car is easier up to you
to be honest in all honesty you can do it on your own
the reason for getting a guide is because there are certain things that you wouldn't understand or
the places you wouldn't be able to navigate without a local like you know the markets
and it can be really chaotic so you can do it on your own but i would recommend getting a guide or
reach out to locals they're really nice and friendly and they're amazing and they're
really really hospitable so i had great time with porshia and kumasi and i met some people in accra
it it's really good i would recommend black root tours um those guys are really really helpful and
amazing and they operate in tamale in kumasi and in across so you can go around with them as well
so yeah that's the idea behind getting a guide here
let's talk accommodation now there are plenty of options when you look at airbnb
but i would recommend being a bit cautious because when i first arrived i stayed in an airbnb i mean
it looked really nice in the photos but there was a huge gap and security is another issue because
they're armed robberies so you want to get a proper hotel with proper security or you can hire
an apartment like the one i'm in right now but you need to get it in a proper compound that has
good security so kumasi has a good hotel called ike's hotel
and um that's called like quite in the center of the city very close to everything and then here in
accra where i'm staying at the closest area and this defies all logic um the nicest area actually
is the one close to the airport now usually people don't like living near to the airports because of
the noise and blah blah blah but yeah this is the safest and the best area to stay in accra
so yeah get up get a good hotel that's a must do and actually this is going
to be your biggest expense on your entire trip so buckle up
i would definitely recommend around seven to ten days if you want to try some safari in the north
you want to see kumasi you want to see cape coast accra you want to see the beaches another
you need seven to ten days so i'm spending about eight to nine days here
which covers quite a lot of the country and i think that's a good amount of time to spend here
i have some good news if you're coming from abroad english is the main language and pretty much
everyone speaks it so you will have no problems all the signs boards are in english as well as
french although not many people speak or understand french this is really peculiar
because all their neighbors are french-speaking countries burkina faso togo benin which they
don't have a direct border with nigeria but ivory coast all french speaking but it is what it is
for their own language the the mean language sort of like a bridge language in ghana is chi
which it comes from the ashanti region kumasi area and there are a lot of other languages the
main language in accra is gah but kind of everyone speaks chi so if you know a few words like akwaba
is welcome that's all i know but generally if you speak english you will have no problem here
the currency in ghana is cedi and this is what it looks like it's quite colorful and
you will be quoted cedis everywhere um there are no dollars i didn't see anywhere other than some
big hotels where you can pay in dollars so i would definitely recommend that you keep a lot of cash
on you especially when you're moving outside the city you will definitely need it atms i found
two banks echo bank and gcb ghana commercial bank that do not charge any transaction fees
the atms are quite easily available throughout the country and you're never far from one
card payments are not very common contactless payments are almost non-existent
so you need to keep cash with you at all most of the time but no one charged me any
card payment fees so that's a good sign uh we'll talk a bit more about how expensive
is ghana now generally western africa is a bit more expensive but generally it is still quite
a cheap destination especially if you want to do safari etc the most expensive thing that
i found is the accommodations if you want good accommodation which i would highly recommend it
will cost you other than that entrance to national parks and doing other things is not that expensive
so what i mean by that is you can have a really good day from somewhere between 50
and 100 dollars and that includes your food as well as moving around even if you get like your
car with your own driver so yeah it's it's generally quite comfortable within that mark
from my interaction so far they're quite friendly and they try to make it as fun for you as possible
you're getting around they will try to give you as much information as possible they're very
friendly they have big smiles which is my favorite part and they will just come up to you and start
a conversation which is which is definitely a good thing but i would also warn you that
um yeah if you get into an argument which i did a couple of times and not by my own choosing but
if you're right stand your ground be firm but be polite at the same time uh but if you are not sure
back out i don't think you can win an argument from a ghanaian um that's what i've learned so
other than that people are really nice they're very friendly they're very fun
and they're very outgoing and loud and it's very very easy to make friends and everyone i met here
mostly has been amazing so a massive thank you to everyone i met in ghana i really enjoyed it
from the offset i would say you have to be careful it's not your average tourist destination and i
was warned before coming here so i've been with locals and it sort of generally felt
quite safe so far i've not had any major issues rouse or anything like that people are generally
quite friendly and helpful but you have to be careful especially of scams of people who are
trying to promise you everything so you have to be careful of that but other than
that it generally is quite safe i would also recommend being careful after dark in big cities
that's another good safety tip and just going around with the local is the best way
to have the best of this country so be careful but it's generally quite safe
i got vodafone for free because i'm with vodafone uk and i don't have to pay any roaming charges but
what i can tell you is they don't have the best network here mtn does if you're getting
a sim card i would recommend mtn they have much better coverage than vodafone
you can also use the mtn momo which is like a mobile payment thing so you can use that to
send money to or pay bills anywhere in ghana um internet is not that great it's not very
fast even in the cities so if you're looking to like do some high-speed remote working i don't
think it's gonna be very great uh like i found out uh wi-fi is also not very readily available
especially the more you go outside the city the the more difficult it is to get internet
so um i would recommend mtn if you're getting and yeah don't expect a lot from internet beat
in ghana they use uk style plugs you know the three prong ones
so come prepared with those although i've seen most of the hotels do provide those flexi
converters so you can use the european style as well but the official one is actually the uk style
unfortunately you cannot drink tap water so you need to get bottled water everywhere but
it's quite freely available so it's not going to be a big issue but yeah
a side effect of it is you will see plastic bottles everywhere especially on the beaches
the biggest disappointment that i found in ghana is how the police acted so i had two
incidents where the policemen tried to get money out of me so because there are a lot
of robbers coming back from cape coast to accra there were a lot of checkpoints and two of those
checkpoints the police actually wanted to get money one because um one wanted to be my friend
and then he thought you know i should not just leave my friend be and the other one
said something to the driver and that amounted to some offense but he didn't want the driver
to pay he wanted me to pay but i stood firm and yeah that's how it ended they're not forceful or
anything just it's a bit disappointing because you don't expect that from the police right
i had a couple of incidents where people wanted the attention and i decided not to engage
because i knew where i was leading you know being friends and then what are you leaving your friend
i have to stress this is not like very very few only two incidents throughout my eight nine days
here so um when i decided not to engage they became quite aggressive and they made up some
rules and they made it look like they were enforcing those rules so that's another good
reason to go around with a local because you won't have to deal with this difficult space
sunscreen sunscreen and tons of sunscreen and a lot more of insect repellent do not forget these
things if you're coming here you will really need it and your sunscreen just you know basically just
melts down after a while because it's so nice and warm here so you will need to keep applying
so make sure you bring enough stock i would also recommend using anti-malarial tablets my system
doesn't agree with them so i stocked up on the extra insect repellent so don't forget these
it is really really really hot so make sure you
drink plenty of water and have some electrolyte replacements
otherwise this place just took it out of me yesterday i was just so exhausted by the end of it
beware of the scams and the scammers it can be quite interesting to deal with
the most interesting and the most manipulative one i dealt with so far is the one outside in
mina castle so um i was going in and this guy asked me my name and how i spelled it and by the
time i came out he had it written on a shell and as like as a gift and then he wanted some money
for it i decided not to give him any because i thought it was a bit emotionally manipulative
it's up to you how you want to deal with it i would recommend not engaging if you're not
interested in buying anything also going into a lot of monuments and places you will get
um yeah you will get that the people want to sell paintings or something and they would like
most common chat up line is hey where are you from so yeah be beautiful be careful
if you're going to ghana i would definitely recommend getting some anti-malarial or
prophylaxis because i didn't and i caught malaria and i promise you it's not fun at any level
it's been really rough for the last three four days especially
i'm on treatment now but yeah it's not fun so talk to your doctor before you go and choose
the best option and yeah definitely do it along with the insect repellant if you haven't already
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