Andrew Eames September 18, 2017
It’s culturally interesting, politically stable and has a coastline of golden beaches. So why isn’t Ghana on the tourist map—and could it be? Andrew Eames takes a road trip along the West African nation’s Cape Coast to find out.
As winter approaches the northern hemisphere, European minds—as if on auto-pilot—start thinking about where to insert a window of sunlight into the long dark months that separate the holidays from spring.
The options haven’t changed much since last year; once again, the Canary Islands are looking forward to a bumper season, and Egypt will be hoping that a terrorism-free year will revive tourist fortunes.
But there’s a historically interesting, politically stable country with gorgeous beaches—and not much further away than either the Canaries or Egypt—that somehow never gets a look-in. Even last year, when its near-neighbor Gambia had a huge political wobble which sent sun-seekers packing, Ghana just wasn’t able to pick up the slack. So why not?
It has seen big brand hotel openings too, from the likes of Kempinski, Marriott, Movenpick and Holiday Inn, although only in the capital city Accra for now and mainly for business travelers.
So why no leisure travel? It was a question I put to El-Yesha Puplampu, who I came across in Accra’s Gallery 1957 on my first day in town.
Accessible art, she said, along with sushi restaurants, was a symptom of a growing middle class, who have the time and the money for such things. The gallery’s paintings were priced between $ 6,000-12,000 USD. But I wanted to know why they didn’t go to the beach, these middle classes. El-Yesha protested that they did—and gave me a list of shoreline spots to check out.
But before heading for the coast, I wanted to see the city itself. I booked a tour guide via the Ghana Guides’ Association and negotiated a price, but when Nathaniel turned up, he asked, “What’s the itinerary?” It wasn’t the greatest of starts.
However, after some discussion, we wandered off into the sweaty confines of Makola market, a huge sprawling shanty-town of stalls in a forest of alleys in the heart of Accra, a place of smoked fish, giant snails, yams, fabric and cosmetics. And packets of ‘Sexmen’ pills. So “when duty calls, you are ready,” explained Nathaniel.
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We ended up in Jamestown, Accra’s oldest district, a fishing community jammed onto a sandy spit, wedged between a colonial-era British lighthouse and the shell of a Dutch fort once used in the slave trade. The shoreline was thick in rough-hewn fishing boats, daubed with flags and Biblical quotes, and blanketed under a thin film of smoke emitted by fish-smokeries improvised out of old oil barrels.
And that was the city. Not pretty, but culturally fascinating, if you don’t mind heat and dust. Now, finally, the coast beckoned. I hired a car plus driver—it’s not cheap in Ghana, at $ 220 USD for the day, but it’s pretty much the only option—and so we headed east to Labadi Beach, the closest resort to town.
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Labadi turned out to be something of a party place—in fact, it’s better known as La Pleasure Beach. Lined with bars and massage parlors, its heavy-duty sound systems made the sand bounce. And although the beach itself is broad, backed by a couple of decent-looking hotels, it is sullied with scrapings from charcoal barbecues. We turned around and went the other way to see what lay in store.
The main road out to Cape Coast, west of Accra, stays inland, well away from the coastline. There were no road signs, so it was a case of guessing where to strike south to reach the shore. We avoided Kokrobite, the closest resort to the city, on the basis that it was probably similar to Labadi, and instead made for the Blue Diamond resort, down a bumpy track near Apam, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) out of town.
The resort was small; around a dozen simple rooms, with an inviting swimming pool in generous grounds fronted by a great piece of sand in a wide bay. But there were no visible guests, and a resort empty of people is a sad place. It was mid-week though, said the staff, and the clients only came at weekends.
