Accra
Ghana
The friendliest capital in West Africa, and the door to the slave coast
Photo by Seyiram Kweku on Unsplash
Photos by Virgyl Sowah, Ifeoluwa B., Yoel Winkler and Yoel Winkler on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Ghana
November to March
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 161mm in Jun
Where it is
5.60°N, 0.19°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Go to Cape Coast and Elmina, which is why most visitors come and is worth the day it takes
- Walk Jamestown with a local guide from the community
- Eat your way through a chop bar lunch
- Spend a Sunday afternoon at Labadi with half the city
- See the fantasy coffins made at Teshie
- Hear highlife and afrobeats live, which is the point of a Friday here
Accra travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Ghana
Mid-rangeThe cedi has been volatile for years, so change in small amounts and check the rate the day you do it. Forex bureaux in Osu and Airport City beat the banks and beat the airport hall by a wide margin. Mobile money — MTN MoMo — is how the country actually pays for things, and a tourist SIM can be loaded with it.
ATMs & cards
Use bank machines — Stanbic, Absa, Ecobank, GCB — inside branches or malls, and expect a limit per withdrawal that is lower than you want. Some machines dispense only cedis in large notes; break them at a supermarket. Cards work in hotels and malls, cash and MoMo everywhere else.
Avoid these
- standalone machines outside branches
- changing money at the airport hall
Use these instead
- Stanbic
- Absa
- Ecobank
- GCB — inside a branch or a mall
Mobile money — MTN MoMo — is how Ghana actually pays, and a tourist SIM can be loaded with it. Forex bureaux in Osu beat the banks.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Ghana
Reasonably safeGhana is among the safest countries in West Africa and Accra is comfortable, but petty theft happens in Makola and on Labadi beach, and the sea along this coast has a fierce undertow that drowns people every year. Traffic is the genuine daily risk — crossing roads on foot is a real skill here. Scams involving "friends" met at the airport or in Osu are common and persistent.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (8 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Jamestown, Accra — and the Makola market area after dark
- Unlicensed taxis — use Bolt or Uber
- Currency exchange in the street
- Labadi Beach — the undertow, which is strong along this whole coast
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Ghana visa rules
e-Visa requiredup to 30 daysfrom $60
This changed on 25 May 2026: Ghana ended visa-on-arrival and now requires an e-Visa obtained online before travel. Processing is quoted at 96 hours, the visa is valid 90 days from issue and allows a stay of 30. A yellow fever certificate is mandatory and is checked at the airport.
Other passports
No visa needed
ECOWAS nationals enter free with a valid passport.
Visa required in advance
Applied for at a Ghanaian mission before travel.
How to get it: Apply at evisa.immigration.gov.gh, not through the agencies that still advertise visa-on-arrival — it no longer exists. You need a passport valid six months, a photo, travel dates and proof of accommodation.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Ghana
Good but costlyRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate — required of all arrivals over nine months old, and checked at the airport
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Hepatitis A and typhoid
- Malaria prophylaxis, year-round
- Rabies for longer stays
Getting treated
Private hospitals in Accra — Nyaho, the Trust — are good by regional standards and take payment up front. Outside the capital, care is basic and evacuation is the realistic plan. Insurance covering repatriation matters more than the treatment cover.
Yellow fever vaccination is genuinely mandatory here and travellers are turned back without the certificate. Malaria is present everywhere all year. The coastal undertow at Labadi and along the Gulf of Guinea is severe and drowns swimmers every year.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodJollof, and do not say it is better in Nigeria. Also waakye for breakfast, banku with tilapia and pepper, and kelewele — fried plantain with ginger and chilli — from a street stall at night. The chop bars are where the food is; the Osu restaurants are where the expats are.
Nightlife
Afrobeats where a lot of it is made, with a December that brings the diaspora home and turns the city into a month-long festival.
- Oxford Street, Osu — the bar strip, and the crowd
- East Legon — the smarter clubs and lounges
- Labadi Beach — Sunday afternoon into the evening
Closing: 04:00 at the weekend.
A beer in a bar: GHS 15–40
December — "Detty December" — is the peak and prices roughly double for it.
Getting around
Limited- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- YangoWorks here
- From the airport
- Accra airport to Osu GH₵60–100
- Against a taxi
- Cheaper and, unlike a street taxi, priced before you agree to it.
Time zone and your working day
Africa/Accra — 4 hours ahead of you
4 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–13:00 your time, 13:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 05:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 05:00–13:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Ghana
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Fair. Video calls and streaming for one or two people — fine for a holiday, thin for a household working. Broadband here runs at 37% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fair. Maps, calls and streaming; tethering a laptop works for an hour, not a day. Mobile runs at 36% of the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Ghana, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
English (Ghana)
- WelcomeAkwaabaah-KWAH-ba
- Good morningMaakyemah-CHEH
- Good afternoonMaahamah-HA
- Thank youMedaasemeh-DAH-seh
5 more phrases
- How are you?Wo ho te sɛn?wo ho teh SEN
- I am fineMe ho yɛmeh ho YEH
- Friend / mateChaleCHAH-leh
- How much?Ɛyɛ sɛn?eh-YEH sen
- GoodbyeYɛbɛhyiayeh-beh-SHEE-ah
English is the official language and is spoken everywhere, so this is about the local layer on top of it: Twi greetings, and the Ghanaian English that will be spoken back to you. "You are invited" said over a plate of food means join us, and refusing outright is rude — take a token mouthful.
Religion
Christian, with a large Muslim minority
Roughly 70% Christian and 20% Muslim, with traditional beliefs woven through both — a Pentecostal church and a shrine can operate on the same street without anyone finding it odd. Religion is public here: shops are named after scripture, Sunday services run for hours and are worth attending if you are invited, and the north is predominantly Muslim while the south is not.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Shake hands with everyone in the room, and learn the Ghanaian finger-snap handshake if it is offered
- Use your right hand for everything — eating, giving money, waving
- Say akwaaba back when you are welcomed, which will be constantly
- Ask before photographing people, especially at the slave castles, which are memorials rather than attractions
- Dress up rather than down: Ghanaians dress well and casual scruffiness reads as disrespect
Don't
- Do not use your left hand to hand over anything, including money
- Do not point with a finger or beckon palm-up; use the whole hand, palm down
- Do not treat Cape Coast and Elmina as sightseeing — they are the sites of an atrocity and people visit them to grieve
- Do not discuss Ghana-Nigeria jollof unless you are prepared for a long argument
- Do not assume a quoted price is fixed at a market, or that it is negotiable in a shop
Where to stay in Accra
No Holistay rentals in Accra yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Accra on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Kotoka ACC
20 minfrom the airport· 3 km as the crow flies
20 min to the centre.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
