With a rich cultural heritage and history comes the curiosity from others to explore such a culture. Ghana is no doubt one of the countries in Africa with an impressive culture and one of the best places to spend time during a holiday break. Right in the heart of the capital are enough places for you to hang out and have an experience of a lifetime.
There’s the fun, the food, the nightlife, the theatres for cultural arts, oh the music, and wild – sorry the zoo no longer is. You have the Accra Mall, Junction Mall, West Hills Mall, Achimota Retail Centre, Marina Mall and all the other malls there are. Let’s face it, the malls are gradually becoming a bore of a place for hanging out, save the few with cinemas like the Accra and West Hills Malls. But away from that let’s get to know a little more about these places for hangout.
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First stop for a tourist coming from abroad is the Kotoka International Airport, well not that it’s so impressive, but it still is the first stop. But let’s all agree to start from the point that now you are in Accra and you are wondering where to spend your time. For your first night you could opt for a cocktail night, and one of the best places is the One2One cocktail bar in the Mövenpick Ambassador hotel. Located on the Independence Avenue not very far from the British Council. The service there is awesome and you will definitely love it.
Still on the drinks of Accra nightlife, there is Firefly Lounge Bar, and Champs Sports Bar & Grill. The former is a serene, dimly lit brickwork setting filled with mostly only bar stools (and people of course). The lighting makes it look like you are in a large hall with moving silhouettes. It is quite the spectacle; I mean, the whole place looks quite “antique”. It is a place where you will get to meet several cocktail lovers like yourself and enjoy the company of the very friendly bar tenders. Located in Osu, on 11th Lane Embassy Road, FireFly Lounge Bar should definitely be on the list of the top 5 cocktail bars you would want to visit in Accra.
However, if you are looking for a more energetic atmosphere filled with much emotional cacophony mostly from sports then you will definitely want to visit the Champs Sports Bar & Grill. If you have got any sports game to watch and want to have the experience as big as being in the stadium but with the drinks, then Champs is the best place for you. You can find Champs at Adabraka Asylum Down, pretty sure google maps will be of great help in identifying the exact spot of the building.
Away from the nightlife and cocktails you are greeted with the arts and cultural centres in Accra. You have first of all the popular National Museum of Ghana which has information on almost everything historic about Ghana. Artefacts and other antiquities in the museum are gathered from across the several tribes of the nation, so you are basically almost all of Ghana’s history in one building complex – much like how you get a fair idea of all the colonies of Britain by visiting the British National Museum.
And then there is the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum; forget the textbooks and everything you have heard about the man, if you want to know him then you have got to see this mausoleum – they will show you even as much as the pen he used. Speaking of monuments for national heroes there also is the WEB Du Bois Memorial Centre, it wouldn’t hurt a fly if you visited the place. Not really enchanting or spectacular, but what you learn is really enlightening. Jamestown lighthouse may just be the perfect stop for you on your return for day one of outing (after choosing which of the above places you would visit). The sea and the fishing community around the place make it a sight to behold, just the perfect place to round of a day.
There are several other art markets where you could get to see and even buy arts craftsmanship. From the Artists Alliance Gallery at Labadi, to the Nubuke Foundation at East Legon, the Goethe-Institut at Cantonments, Centre for National Culture, to Wild Gecko Handicrafts – the list is endless, and this is just Accra.
Golfing – one of the exotic sports that is gradually gaining traction in Ghana – is one of the few things you could do as part of your hanging out if you are considering something sports. And no better place to golf than in a full blown golf course (not PGA tour size of course). The Achimota golf club is your answer then, in my defence is designed specifically for casual golfing judging by the size.
You may also want to try Polo, which in itself is very much unpopular in Ghana, if you want to shake things up a bit at the Accra Polo Club.
The beaches are always there for your pleasure, the most patronised of the beaches in Accra being the Labadi Beach. The others being the Kokrobite, Bojo, and the Ada Foah. The Labadi Beach is a public one and the most recommended, but Ada Foah is an experience to relish.
Away from the bustle and noise of urban life you are presented with the sereneness of libraries and their accompanying literature. There is The George Padmore Research Library, the Blame Library in the University of Ghana Legon, Kathy Knowles Community Library in Osu, and the Dansoman Community Library among several others.
So there you have it, your miniature guide to outing in Accra whether day or night. It sure doesn’t cover everything, but it does help a lot. The ball now lies in your court; to make it a series of drinking nights, a day of endless sighting seeing, or maybe just an intimate time between you and some pages of printed text – feasting on the knowledge of some philosopher, historian or maybe fictional writer.
