12 Day Ghana and Senegal Tour

Arrive in Accra, Ghana (Flight Details - TBC). Transfer from airport to your hotel. Overnight at a hotel in Accra. Meals Included: Dinner.

After breakfast, depart for a sightseeing tour of Accra, the Capital of Ghana. Experience the city’s highlights during this Accra orientation. The capital of Ghana since 1877, Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region. In addition, it’s the country’s most populous city. Travel through the administrative and economic districts of Accra.

Also, see the Artiste Alliance Gallery, the W.E.B. Du Bois Center for Pan African Culture, the University of Ghana, the Independence/Black Star Square, and Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park. Learn about important events in Ghana’s history and the country’s first president who helped lead Ghana to independence. End the day’s tour at the Arts Center, where participants can sharpen their bargaining skills to shop for goods from Ghana and West Africa in an open-air market.

Overnight at a hotel in Accra. Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinners.

After breakfast, check out of your hotel and depart to Cape Coast for a tour of the infamous Forts, Castles, and Slave Dungeons of Ghana. History will unfold the story of the slave trade which the impact is still felt beyond the shores of Africa today. Visit the Cape Coast Castle built by the Swedes in 1653 and was later taken over by the British. Here, you would learn about the relationship between the western slave traders and the African tribes that made the trans-Atlantic slave trade possible.

It is an opportunity to be up and close with history – to stand in the dark and stuffy dungeons, imagining the experience and conditions that millions of Africans endured. This castle also houses the West African Historical Museum.

After lunch, drive through the historic Denkyira Kingdom to Kakum National Park, one of West Africa’s surviving tropical rain forests. Choose between a 2 km nature walk through the rain forest to discover the wide variety of exotic flora and fauna species and the medicinal values they offer or take a walk on the canopy walkway hanging 40 meters above the forest ground.

Overnight at a hotel in Elmina / Cape Coast. Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.

After breakfast, check out of your hotel and visit Elmina Castle, also known as St. George’s Castle, which was built by the Portuguese in 1482. Here, learn about the relationship between the western slave traders and the African tribes that participated in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Here participants will witness the dark and stuffy dungeons local people were forced to endure before being sent on a long and perilous passage across the Atlantic. To see the truth of these conditions in person is a powerful reminder of the inhumanity of the slave trade.

Afterwards, drive through the forest zone to Kumasi, the seat of the Ashanti Empire to explore the legends of the famous Ashanti people, whose legacies are still evident today. En route, stop at the former slave in Assin Manso. Visit the site of “Donkor Nsuo”, the former Slave River and market, as well as the final transit point for a large number of enslaved Africans. This is the final resting place for two ancestors whose mortal remains were returned from the USA and Jamaica and re-interred there.

Overnight at a hotel in Kumasi. Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.

After breakfast, you will visit the Manhyia Palace Museum to obtain firsthand information on the legacies of the Ashanti kingdom. A regal history that dates back to 1700 is told with relics and artefacts. Enjoy a drive through the city with monuments dedicated to the memory of the great Ashanti people.

Your city tour on this day will also include a visit to the famous Kejetia market, the National Cultural Centre which features the Prempeh II Jubilee Museum and various studios of the brass makers, potters and batik makers.

Overnight at a hotel in Kumasi. Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.

After breakfast, check out of your hotel and depart to Mole. En route, stop at the former slave markets of Kintampo and Assin Bono. Enjoy this scenic but haunting drive through the land where the slave trade took place. Notice the change in climate and terrain, which has a direct bearing on the population of Africans that the slave traders targeted. Visit the Kintampo Waterfalls to experience the cool, invigorating atmosphere created by nature and savor the breath-taking view of the cascading waterfall Continue the drive to Mole.

Overnight at a hotel in Mole. Meals included: Breakfast and Dinner.

After breakfast, visit the Larabanga Mosque, which is thought to be the oldest mosque in Ghana and West Africa. It is popularly referred to as the ‘Mecca of West Africa’, because of its rich historical and architectural values. The dimensions of the mosque are approximately 8m by 8m. The Larabanga Mosque made it to the World Monuments Fund’s List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.

Later in the afternoon, take a guided afternoon safari. The afternoon safari begins at 3:00 pm and lasts for an hour, in order not to disturb the animals unduly. An armed guide in a rental jeep escorts tourists on this adventure, which is booked for at the Information Centre. Tourists have the choice of viewing the animals from the roof of the jeep or from the inside, as most of the rental jeeps have rooftop seating. Some of the animals that visitors may see on
this safari are buffaloes, hyenas, roan antelopes, leopards, elephants and hartebeest.

Overnight at a hotel in Mole. Meals included: Breakfast and Dinner.

After breakfast, depart for an early morning safari. The drive safari involves a drive through the Park. If you ride on a Jeep, you are likely to see more animals than you would if you were walking, and you would certainly cover a large distance in a shorter space of time. Animals that you may see on a Day Safari are birds, roan antelopes, hartebeests, kobs, elephants, baboons, warthogs and monkeys. Afterwards, check out of your hotel and depart to Tamale.
Upon arrival, drive to the Tamale airport for check in and fly to Accra.

Overnight at a hotel in Accra. Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.

After breakfast, depart Accra to a beautiful village located on the lower course of the splendid Volta River. You will pay a courtesy call on the chief and elders amidst traditional drumming and dancing by the villagers.

The group will participate in a naming ceremony of recognition, where a Ghanaian name is given to participants, and a gift presented as part of celebrating a new identity as a Ghanaian and a member of the local community.

Overnight at a hotel in Accra. Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.

After breakfast, check out of your hotel and depart to the airport for check in and fly to Senegal. Upon arrival, you will be met at the airport and picked up to your hotel.

Overnight at a hotel in Dakar. Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.

After breakfast, you will depart for a sightseeing tour of Dakar. Visit the Independence Square, the museum of black civilisations, the Kernel Market, with its colorful flowers, fruits, fabrics, clothing and souvenirs. Then move on to view the main government buildings. From there drive through Soweto Square to see the National Assembly and the main museum, Institut Fondemental d’Afrique Noir (IFAN),which houses an amazing collection of masks, statues and musical instruments from West Africa.

Afterwards, you will discover the phenomenal Pink Lake. Track the last lap of the famous rally Paris/Dakar by 4x4 buggies and stop to meet hundreds of men and women mining the salt from the rose colored body of water. If time permits we will visit a Fulani village and experience the African lifestyle first hand. We take a ride up and down the sand dunes and discover the long stretch of the Atlantic Ocean. Let the breech of such blue fill our spirits.

Overnight at a hotel in Dakar. Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.

After breakfast, you will transfer to the ferry terminal. Here we board a ferry to the infamous Goree Island. This 20 minute ferry ride takes us back in time over 200 years. GOREE Island was once the depot and departure point of millions and millions of Africans shipped into bondage to the Americas. At the slave house, we listen the curator narrate 3 to 4 centuries of black slave trade as it happened in West Africa.

After prayers and libation to the memories of our ancestors who perished in the door passage, we tour the island with stops at the Women's Museum. Later in the day, transfer to airport for check-in and final departure back home.

Overnight at a hotel in Dakar. Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.