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October 2, 2026 · FarSerene Editorial Desk

Top 5 Places to Visit in Ghana in 2026

Two weathered wooden fishing canoes with blue and red trim beached side by side, green fishing nets heaped to the left, with people working at the surf line and a hillside town along the curving shore beyond, under a pale overcast sky with birds overheadFarSerene
Two weathered wooden fishing canoes with blue and red trim beached side by side, green fishing nets heaped to the left, with people working at the surf line and a hillside town along the curving shore beyond, under a pale overcast sky with birds overhead
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The top places to visit in Ghana are Cape Coast and Elmina, Kakum National Park, Kumasi, Mole National Park, and Wli Falls. Arrivals are rising: international visits grew 12% in 2024 to 1,288,804, by the count in the Ghana Tourism Authority’s (GTA) 2024 Ghana Tourism Report, as covered by Citi Newsroom; the Ghana News Agency reports the same 12% increase.

  1. Cape Coast and Elmina — Give the two castles a full day, and start at Elmina. UNESCO dates St George’s Castle there to 1482 and calls it “one of the oldest European buildings outside Europe”. Cape Coast Castle is the harder visit. Join the guided tour, since the dungeons are part of it, per the GTA, and leave time for the West African Historical Museum, which the castle also houses. Both castles sit within one UNESCO World Heritage listing, inscribed in 1979, that covers forts and castles along roughly 500 km of shoreline from Keta to Beyin. Britain governed the Gold Coast from Cape Coast until 19 March 1877, when, by the GTA’s account, its administration shifted to Christiansborg in Accra.
  2. Kakum National Park — Come for the canopy walkway and set your expectations for everything else. The GTA’s numbers: 7 bridges, 333 m end to end, and a highest point 27 m above the forest floor. You reach the start along a short forest trail, so sturdy footwear helps. Birders get the most from the rest of the park, where the GTA counts over 300 species. Mammal spotting is another matter: Kakum has forest elephants, but the GTA calls game viewing “difficult”.
  3. Kumasi — Book a guide at the Manhyia Palace Museum. The house became Prempeh I’s palace once his 28-year exile in the Seychelles ended; British colonial authorities built it in 1925, the GTA says, and the Asante insisted on paying for it rather than accept it as a gift. Ask your guide about Yaa Asantewaa, whose effigy is in the collection: as Queen of Ejisu, she led the 1900 rising against British rule, per the GTA. Then drive out to the shrine at Ejisu Besease. It is one of ten Asante buildings near Kumasi that UNESCO inscribed in 1980 as “the last remaining testimony of the great Asante civilization”.
  4. Mole National Park — Fly to Tamale rather than drive the 700 km from Accra. From Tamale it is 146 km to the park, on a road the GTA says is now paved. Elephants are the reason to go: the park’s 2019 survey counted 590, the World Bank reports, and it calls Mole the country’s most important elephant habitat. See them on foot. Wikivoyage lists ranger-led walking safaris at about 6am and 4pm, and any walk or drive outside the motel grounds needs an armed ranger. On the way in, stop at Larabanga, whose mosque the GTA describes as 500 years old and “reported to be the oldest in West Africa”.
  5. Wli Falls — Between April and October the falls are at their best, according to the GTA, but that season brings a trade-off. The lower falls are the easy option: about 90 minutes with a guide, on largely level ground. The upper falls take about four hours of steep climbing, and the GTA warns that trail is “too slippery and treacherous” in the wettest months, so settle for the lower falls if you come at the height of the rains. Late afternoon is the time to be there, because that is when the GTA says you may see the cliffs’ fruit-bat colony, thousands strong, fly out to feed. The GTA bills Wli, about 280 km from Accra near the Togo border, as West Africa’s highest waterfall.

Planning note

Almost every trip begins in Accra: over 1.13 million of 2024’s international arrivals came through Kotoka International Airport, per the GTA report as covered by Citi Newsroom. Cape Coast, Elmina and Kakum work as one southern loop, while Mole is 430 km from Kumasi by the GTA’s count, so give the north its own leg. As of October 2026, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advises against all but essential travel to the Bawku Municipal area in the Upper East region; none of the five places above is in it. The FCDO also warns that rip tides and undertows make swimming dangerous off Ghana’s southern beaches, which matters on the castle coast. For sequencing several stops, see our multi-city itinerary guide.

Sources

Explore more of FarSerene’s destination guides, including the Top 10 Countries to Visit in 2026 roundup, for more 2026 trip inspiration.

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