Introduction
The Central Region is the first place most visitors to Ghana go after the capital, and almost all of them go for one reason: the two great castles on its shore. What surprises people is how much else is packed into a region this small. Within an hour of those castles there is a rainforest with a walkway through its canopy, a coast of fishing towns with whitewashed forts above them, a town Ghanaians associate with schools rather than with history, and a festival calendar that fills the streets three or four times a year.
Overview
This is a short, dense region — a strip of Atlantic coast west of the capital with a wedge of forest country behind it — and its shape makes it easy to travel. The coastal highway runs its whole length, the towns sit on or just off it, and nothing worth reaching is more than an hour or so from anything else. Cape Coast and Elmina are the twin bases, twenty minutes apart, and between them they hold the accommodation, the food and the castles that bring people here in the first place. Half an hour inland is Kakum, the rainforest park with the canopy walkway, which is the region's other headline and wants an early start. East along the coast towards the capital are the fishing towns — Anomabo, Abandze, Apam, Winneba — each with a fort above it and none of them on a standard itinerary. Two nights is the working minimum and three is better: one day for the castles, one for the forest and the coast, and a third if you want the smaller forts or a festival. The dry window from roughly November to March is the comfortable one, but the region's calendar is worth knowing before you fix dates, because the big festivals fall well outside it and are the best few days of the year to be here.
Discover Central
Elmina is a working fishing port that happens to have a castle on it, and the harbour is at least half the reason to stay. The Benya lagoon behind the castle is packed prow to prow with wooden canoes painted in blocks of colour and flying flags carrying proverbs and slogans; the catch comes in through the morning, the noise is tremendous, and it goes on regardless of who is watching. Scattered through the town are the posuban — the shrines of the asafo, the traditional militia companies of the coastal towns. They look like nothing else in West Africa: concrete tableaux several storeys high, painted in strong colours and populated with life-size figures, ships, lions, birds and scenes from proverb and scripture, each one built by a company as a statement against its rivals. They are still owned and maintained by those companies, they stand in ordinary streets, and asking someone nearby before photographing one is both polite and usually the start of a conversation. Cape Coast, twenty minutes east, is bigger, hillier and more of a town to walk: a busy central market, a fishing beach below the castle walls, and — the thing Ghanaians actually associate with the name — schools. Several of the country's oldest and most prestigious secondary schools sit on these hills, along with a large university, and in term time the town belongs to students in a way no guidebook prepares you for.
Ways to Experience This Destination
A lagoon packed with painted canoes, and concrete shrines several storeys high standing in ordinary streets — the coast's most distinctive living art form.
Seven rope bridges forty metres up in the rainforest half an hour inland, best at opening time — plus the ground walks and dawn birding almost nobody does.
A chain of small whitewashed forts above fishing towns east of Elmina — Anomabo, Abandze, Apam, Senya Beraku — each half an hour and almost never visited.
Aboakyer at Winneba in May, Bakatue at Elmina in July, Fetu Afahye at Cape Coast in September — durbars, palanquins and the whole town in the street.
Frequently asked questions
Visaja keeps this page's contact details and visa guidance under continuous review — still, requirements can change at short notice, so confirm the essentials with the mission or the official government portal before you travel.