Getting around
Getting Around Ghana
The most common planning mistake in Ghana is arithmetic. The country is compact — you can trace the main circuit on a map in a few seconds — and the distances between the places most visitors want are genuinely short by African standards. The hours are not. Roads vary from excellent to patient, towns slow everything to walking pace, and shared transport runs on a logic that has nothing to do with timetables. Budget in hours rather than kilometres, accept that two big moves in one day is usually one too many, and Ghana becomes one of the easiest countries in the region to travel.
Updated 2026-08-16
Why the hours do not match the distances
The main north–south spine — the capital up through Kumasi and on to Tamale — is the road most visitors use, and it is the clearest illustration. Accra to Kumasi looks like a short hop and reliably takes most of a morning and then some, because the route passes through a long series of towns where the road becomes a high street, and because leaving Accra itself can absorb an hour before you are properly moving. Kumasi to Tamale is longer again. Neither is difficult; both are simply slower than the map implies.
Two things cause most of the gap. The first is town traffic: Ghanaian roads run through settlements rather than around them, and each one means speed bumps, market stalls at the verge, and people. The second is the start of the day — nothing in Ghana leaves at the moment you planned, and an early start is genuinely early rather than nominally so. Set out at dawn for any long leg and the same journey becomes markedly shorter.
The practical rule that follows: give a long road leg its own half-day and do not stack a headline sight onto the end of it. The traveller who plans Cape Coast in the morning and Kumasi by evening arrives too late for either, and the traveller who gives the drive its own slot arrives fresh and finds the country enormously rewarding. Which shape of trip to attempt in the first place, and whether to add the north at all, is worked through on the trip-planning guide.
Tro-tros, and how shared transport actually works
The tro-tro — a shared minibus, the backbone of Ghanaian transport — is how most of the country moves, and it works on a principle worth understanding before your first attempt: it leaves when it is full, not when a clock says so. There is no timetable to consult and no advance booking. You go to the station, ask for your destination, are pointed at the right vehicle, take a seat, and wait for the remaining seats to fill. Popular routes fill in minutes; obscure ones can take considerably longer, which is the real reason to travel early.
Stations are organised by destination rather than by operator, and are far more navigable than they look. Asking is normal and expected — the mate, who is the conductor and door-hanger, will call the destination, and any bystander will point you the right way. Fares are fixed by route rather than negotiated, and paid to the mate during the journey rather than in advance.
Tro-tros are cheap, sociable, frequently full to a degree that surprises first-timers, and the single best way to understand the country at ground level. They are also cramped and unhurried, and on a long leg in heat that adds up. The sensible pattern for most visitors is to use them freely for short and medium hops and to take something more comfortable for the big inter-city runs.
Coaches, flights and reaching the north
For the long legs, the intercity coaches are the right answer. Several established operators run air-conditioned services along the main routes, in proper seats, leaving to an actual schedule from their own terminals rather than from the general stations. They cost a little more than shared transport and considerably less than anything else, they can be booked ahead — increasingly online — and they turn the Accra–Kumasi run from an endurance event into a straightforward morning. Overnight services exist on the longest routes and split opinion; the roads are quieter and the time is free, but the sleep is not.
Domestic flying is the other lever, and it matters most for one journey. Reaching Mole and the savanna north by road is a long two-day proposition from the coast; flying to Tamale reduces it to about an hour in the air plus a drive, and for a trip of under three weeks that trade is usually worth making. Several carriers serve the main domestic routes and the flights are short, frequent and reasonably priced against the time saved. Book ahead in the dry season, when the north is at its busiest.
The other route north is the road itself, through the forest belt and the waterfall country of the middle of the country, and it is a genuinely good drive if you have the days for it. That is the choice to make deliberately: the north as a destination reached quickly by air, or the middle of the country as part of the journey.
Taxis, hired drivers and the lake
Within towns, shared taxis run fixed routes like miniature buses and are picked up at the roadside; a “dropping” taxi, hired for yourself, is the private alternative and is negotiated before you get in rather than metered. Agree the fare first, every time — this is completely normal and nobody will be offended. Ride-hailing apps operate in the two largest cities and remove the negotiation entirely, which many visitors prefer for airport runs and evenings out.
For anything beyond a city, the standard solution among visitors who can share the cost is a car with a driver, hired by the day. This is a well-established, unremarkable arrangement in Ghana rather than a luxury, it costs far less than the equivalent would elsewhere, and it solves the two genuine difficulties at once — navigation, and the fact that a driver who knows the roads will simply be faster than you will. Self-drive is possible and rarely the best use of a holiday: the driving standard is assertive, unlit hazards after dark are the real risk, and the strong local advice is not to drive long distances at night. Why that is worth taking literally — and what else on a Ghanaian road genuinely poses a risk — sits on the health and safety guide.
Finally, the lake. Lake Volta is the largest reservoir in the world by surface area, and a passenger ferry runs the long north–south route through it. It is slow, occasional, and subject to change without much notice, which makes it a poor way to get anywhere on a schedule and an excellent thing to do if the journey itself is the point. Check the current service locally rather than planning a connection around it.