Ghana
Accra
Where Nkrumah declared Ghana free in 1957, and where West African music, street food and diaspora homecomings now meet.
Ghana's capital is a sprawling, sociable Atlantic city, and the place where Kwame Nkrumah declared independence in 1957, on ground that now holds his mausoleum. Accra runs less on set-piece sights than on energy: painted fishing canoes and old forts in Jamestown, the cloth and bead stalls of Makola Market, jollof and kelewele from roadside grills, and highlife and afrobeats late into the night around Osu. It is also the gateway to Ghana's coast and its slave-trade castles, and where much of the African diaspora lands first when it comes home.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
English, Twi
Currency
GHS
Timezone
UTC
Why you'll love Accra
Independence history Nkrumah declared Ghana free on the old polo ground where his mausoleum now stands, a short drive from Black Star Square, its arch and the flame of African liberation.
Jamestown The old Ga quarter of fishing canoes, boxing gyms, a striped lighthouse and weathered colonial forts is the city's historic core, and its most vivid.
Music and nights Highlife was born on the Gold Coast and still plays alongside hiplife and afrobeats, while Osu's bars and the weekend beach parties run late.
Street food Jollof rice defended against Nigeria's, waakye for breakfast, kenkey with fried fish and pepper, banku with grilled tilapia, and kelewele from night-time roadside stalls.
Best time to visit
Jul-Apr
28-33° days
5.557° N, 0.201° W
UTC · Africa/Accra
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Weather & when to go to Accra
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Jul-Apr
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Accra
There is no bad season. May and June bring the main rains, with heavy downpours that flood low-lying roads and bring the traffic to a standstill, though sunshine usually follows. Around the turn of the year the Harmattan can haze the sky with Saharan dust, and December is the busiest month, when the diaspora comes home for weddings, concerts and parties and rooms fill early.
Top things to do in Accra
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Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park - where independence was declared
history culture arts 👍 PopularOn the old polo ground where Nkrumah proclaimed Ghana's independence at midnight in 1957, a marble mausoleum set among pools and fountains holds his remains and those of his wife, Fathia. A bronze statue of him stands out front, and a small museum tells his life in photographs and personal belongings.
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Black Star Square - the Independence Arch and the eternal flame
history culture arts 👍 PopularA vast parade ground on the seafront, built for a royal visit in 1961 and framed by the Independence Arch, the Black Star Gate crowned with Ghana's black star, and the Eternal Flame of African Liberation. It fills for the Independence Day parade and otherwise sits grand and empty. Guards can be strict about photographs, so ask first.
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Jamestown - lighthouse, forts and fishing canoes
history culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedThe oldest part of Accra, where Ga fishermen run painted canoes up the beach below James Fort and the red-and-white lighthouse, and women smoke the catch in the lanes behind. Local guides lead walks past boxing gyms, family compounds and street murals, and you can usually climb the lighthouse for a view over the harbour and rooftops.
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Makola Market - cloth, beads and everything else
shopping culture arts 👍 PopularThe sprawling central market, run largely by market women, spills across the streets of the old centre: wax-print cloth by the length, beads, pots, dried fish, shito, sandals and phone cases. It is hot, crowded and completely absorbing. Go in the morning, keep valuables close and let the traders do the talking.
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Teshie fantasy coffins - the carpenters' workshops
culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedGa carpenters in Teshie, on the eastern edge of the city, build figurative coffins shaped like fish, eagles, cocoa pods, cars and beer bottles, so the dead are buried as what defined them. Workshops welcome visitors to watch the carving and painting, and the tradition's pieces now sit in museums around the world.
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Arts Centre - Accra's craft market
shopping culture artsThe Centre for National Culture, near the seafront in the old centre, is the city's big craft market: kente and adinkra cloth, carved stools and masks, drums, beads and brass figures. The selling is famously persistent, so browse with patience and bargain with good humour.
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W.E.B. Du Bois Centre - the scholar's last home
history culture artsThe American scholar and pan-Africanist moved to Accra at Nkrumah's invitation, took Ghanaian citizenship and died here in 1963, the day before the March on Washington. His house in Cantonments is now a small museum of his library and belongings, and he is buried in the grounds.
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Labadi Beach - Accra at the weekend
nightlife music culture artsThe city's busiest beach fills at weekends with drummers, dancers, horse rides, football games and beach bars playing highlife and afrobeats. Come for people-watching and a cold drink rather than a swim: the Atlantic surf and currents here are strong.
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Osu and Oxford Street - eat and go out
food nightlife musicCantonments Road through Osu, known to everyone as Oxford Street, is the liveliest strip in the city, lined with restaurants, bars, shops and street food, and the side streets carry on late. Chop bars serve fufu with light soup and banku with tilapia, and after dark kelewele sellers set up on the corners.
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Jollof, waakye and kenkey - eat Ghanaian
foodStart with jollof rice, fiercely defended against Nigeria's version, and waakye, rice and beans served with shito, spaghetti and egg from morning roadside stands. Try kenkey, fermented corn dough, with fried fish and hot pepper; fufu with groundnut or light soup; red red with fried plantain; and kelewele, spiced fried plantain, at night.
Best areas to stay in Accra
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Osu
Nightlife and first visits $$Oxford Street bars, food and late nights
Explore hotels in Osu →
Cantonments and Labone
Quiet and leafy $$$Leafy embassy streets beside Osu
Explore hotels in Cantonments and Labone →
Airport Residential Area
Short stays and business $$$International hotels beside the airport
Explore hotels in Airport Residential Area →
East Legon
Longer stays $$$Upmarket suburb of restaurants and lounges
Explore hotels in East Legon →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Accra
Getting to & around Accra
Getting there
Fly into Kotoka International, which sits inside the city north of Osu and the old centre.
Flight
Kotoka International Airport (ACC)
Around 10 km to the old centre and less to Osu and Cantonments. Taxis wait outside arrivals and ride-hailing apps work, usually 20-30 minutes, but rush-hour traffic can stretch that past an hour.
Coach
Kwame Nkrumah Circle
Intercity coaches from Kumasi, Cape Coast, Tamale and the north run to terminals around Circle and elsewhere in the city. Kumasi is around five hours by road, longer in traffic.
Coach
From Lome in Togo, coaches and shared taxis cross the border at Aflao and follow the coast road west to Accra, a few hours' drive.
Getting around
Ride-hailing
Uber and Bolt work across the city and are the easiest way around for visitors, with the fare set in the app.
TBC
Taxi
Taxis with yellow-painted corners are everywhere. Meters are not used, so agree the fare before you get in.
TBC
Trotro
Minibuses on fixed routes, with a mate calling the destination from the door. Crowded and hard to decode without local help. Pay the mate in cash.
TBC
Walking
Osu, Jamestown and the old centre reward walking in short stretches, but heat, traffic and deep open gutters make longer walks hard work.
Free
Day trips from Accra
Aburi Botanical Gardens
Half dayHill gardens and carvers
Cooler air and views back over the plains to Accra. The botanic gardens, laid out in 1890 around a colonial-era sanatorium, hold towering trees and shady lawns, and the wood carvers' village on the road up sells stools, masks and drums.
Getting there
car
About an hour north into the Akuapem hills by car, longer in traffic
Kokrobite
Full dayBeach and drumming village
A fishing village on a long beach west of the city, with laid-back lodges, painted canoes and a drumming and dance school that draws students from abroad. Weekends bring live music and a crowd from Accra; midweek it is quiet. Mind the surf, which can be strong.
Getting there
car | bus
About an hour west along the coast by car or trotro
Akosombo and Lake Volta
Full dayDam and lake cruise
The Akosombo Dam, finished in the 1960s, holds back Lake Volta, the largest reservoir in the world by surface area. Boat cruises head out among the lake's forested islands, and the Adomi Bridge spans the Volta just downstream.
Getting there
car | tour
About two hours north-east by car or tour
Ada Foah
1-2 daysRiver mouth and beaches
Where the Volta meets the Atlantic: a sandbar of beaches, estuary islands and riverside lodges. Boats cross to the beach at the river mouth and explore the creeks, and sea turtles nest on the sands in season. A popular weekend escape from the city.
Getting there
car
About two hours east by car
Cape Coast and Elmina
1-2 daysSlave-trade castles
The two great castles of the Atlantic slave trade, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where guides lead visitors through the dungeons to the Door of No Return. Kakum National Park's canopy walkway is close by. Possible in a long day, far better with a night on the coast.
Getting there
car | bus | tour
About three hours west along the coast road by car, coach or tour
A little history of Accra
Accra is a Ga city at heart. Ga Mashie, the old core of Jamestown and Ussher Town, still keeps its chiefs, its fishing and Homowo, the harvest festival that "hoots at hunger", and the name Accra comes from Nkran, an Akan word for ants. From the 1600s the Dutch, English and Danes built forts a few kilometres apart to trade in gold and enslaved people, and those forts, now part of a UNESCO World Heritage listing, seeded Ussher Town, Jamestown and Osu.
Britain took over its rivals' forts in the mid-1800s and, after its 1874 war with the Asante, made Accra capital of the Gold Coast in 1877. In 1948 police fired on ex-servicemen marching on Christiansborg Castle, and the riots that followed hastened the push for self-rule. On 6 March 1957 Kwame Nkrumah declared Ghana independent, the first colony south of the Sahara to break free, and Accra became a capital of pan-Africanism. Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966 and died abroad; in 1992 he was reburied in the mausoleum on the spot where he had declared independence.
Danish traders begin Christiansborg Castle at Osu, later the seat of colonial and then Ghanaian government.
The English Royal African Company builds James Fort, around which Jamestown grows.
Accra replaces Cape Coast as capital of the British Gold Coast.
Police fire on a march of ex-servicemen at the Christiansborg crossroads, and riots follow across the city.
Kwame Nkrumah declares Ghana's independence at the Old Polo Grounds in Accra.
Black Star Square and the Independence Arch are completed for a royal visit.
W.E.B. Du Bois dies in Accra, his adopted home, and is buried at his house in Cantonments.
The Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum opens on the site of the independence declaration.
Ghana's Year of Return, marking 400 years since enslaved Africans were first landed in English North America, brings diaspora visitors to Accra in large numbers.
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Everywhere
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type G
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+233
FAQs about Accra
▸ When is the best time to visit Accra?
Accra is warm all year and most months are good. The main rains fall in May and June, with heavy downpours and flooded roads between sunny spells. July to September is cooler and cloudier, and fairly dry on this coast. November to March is hot and mostly dry, with Harmattan dust around the turn of the year, and December is the busiest, liveliest month as the diaspora comes home.
▸ How many days do I need in Accra?
Two days cover the city: Jamestown, Makola Market, the Nkrumah park and Black Star Square, and a night out in Osu. Allow three to five to add the gardens at Aburi, a beach day at Kokrobite or the lake at Akosombo. The castles at Cape Coast and Elmina are better as an overnight trip than a day.
▸ Is Accra safe for visitors?
Ghana is widely seen as one of West Africa's more relaxed countries to travel in, and Accra is generally easy-going. Watch for pickpockets in crowded markets and at lorry stations, use ride-hailing or taxis after dark, and mind the deep open gutters on unlit streets. Do not swim off the city beaches, where currents are strong, and check your own government's current advice before travelling.
▸ Can I visit the slave castles from Accra?
Accra has its own old forts in Jamestown and Ussher Town, but the great castles, with guided tours through the dungeons to the Door of No Return, are at Cape Coast and Elmina, about three hours west along the coast. It can be done in a long day, but an overnight stay makes it far less rushed.
▸ What language is spoken in Accra?
English is the official language and widely spoken. On the street you will hear Twi, the most widely spoken Akan language, and Ga, the language of the city's original people, and younger people often switch into Ghanaian Pidgin. Akwaaba means welcome, and medaase, thank you in Twi, is always appreciated.