8-Day Ghana Cultural Tour with Castles, Kakum and Ashanti Heritage

• Arrival: Arrive in Accra, Ghana.
• Meet & Assist: You will be met at the airport by Root tour representatives who will assist you with your transfer from the airport to your hotel.
• Hotel: Enjoy a welcome drink at the hotel and participate in an orientation session.
• Activity: Dressmakers will take measurements and sew clothes for interested participants
• Overnight: Alisa Hotel, Accra.
• Meals included: Dinner.

• After breakfast: depart for a sightseeing tour of Accra, the Capital of Ghana.
• Activity: Experience the city’s highlights during this Accra orientation.
• Sightseeing: Travel through the administrative and economic districts of Accra.
• Visit: the Artiste Alliance Gallery, the W.E.B. Du Bois Center for Pan African Culture, and the Independence/Black Star Square.
• Visit: The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park.
• Includes: visits to Nkrumah's mausoleum, a museum sho wcasing his life, his personal residence, the eternal Flame of African Liberation, and beautifully landscaped gardens.
• Visit: End the day’s tour at the Arts Center, where participants can sharpen their bargaining skills to shop for goods from Ghana andWest Africa in an open-air market.
• Shopping: On display, you will see fabrics of different materials, designs, colors, and textures to purchase from.
• Overnight: Alisa Hotel, Accra.
• Meals Included: Breakfast.

• After breakfast: check out of your hotel and depart for Cape Coast.
• Drive: Upon arrival, drive through the historic Denkyira Kingdom to Kakum National Park, one of West Africa’s surviving tropical rainforests.
• Choice: Choose between a 2 km nature walk through the rainforest 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.
• Lunch: After lunch on your own, embark on a tour of the infamous Forts, Castles, and Slave Dungeons of Ghana.
• Visit: Visit the Cape Coast Castle, built by the Swedes in 1653, which was later taken over by the British.
• Museum: This castle also houses the West African Historical Museum.
• Overnight: Coconut Groove Beach Resort.
• Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.

• Explore: Explore Elmina, a fishing village that’s both picturesque and gritty, charming and though provoking.
• Activity: Meet with local fishermen to learn the intricacies of their trade and the challenges they face in their day-to-day work.
• Activity: Next, meet the fishmongers in the village who will demonstrate the various stages of smoking the fish in earthenware ovens.
• Lunch: After lunch on your own, visit Elmina Castle, also known as St. George’s Castle, which was built by the Portuguese in 1482.
• Visit: Here participants will Witness the dark and stuffy dungeons that local people were forced to endure before being sent on a long and perilous passage across the Atlantic.
• Overnight: Coconut Groove Beach Resort.
• Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.

• After breakfast: check out of your hotel and drive through the forest zone to Kumasi, the seat of the Ashanti Empire, to explore the legends of the famous Ashantis, whose legacies are still evident today.
• Stop: En route, stop at Assin Manso.
• Visit: Visit the site of “Donkor Nsuo”, the former Slave River and market, the final transit point for a large number of enslaved Africans.
• Activity: This is the final resting place for two ancestors whose mortal remains were returned from the USA and Jamaica and re-interred there. After, we have our naming Ceremony.
• Visit: Continue your drive to Kumasi, where you will visit Manhyia Palace Museum to obtain firsthand information on the legacies of the Ashanti kingdom.
• Drive: Enjoy a drive through the city with monuments dedicated to the memory of the great Ashanti people.
• Visit: End the day’s tour at the National Cultural Center, which features the Prempeh II Jubilee Museum and various studios of the brass makers, potters, and batik makers.
• Overnight: Lancaster Hotel, Kumasi.
• Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.

• After breakfast: depart your hotel and devote this day to visiting the three famous Ashanti craft villages;

1. Ahwiaa
2. The wood carvers’ village
3. Ntonso, the home of Adinkra cloth, and Bonwire, the Kente weaving village.

You will have an opportunity to see how African crafts are made and to buy directly from the artisans who make them.

• Overnight: Lancaster Hotel Kumasi.
• Meals Included: Breakfast and Launch.

• After breakfast: check out of your hotel and depart for Accra.
• Stop: En route to Accra, stop on the way at Besease shrine, a world heritage site.
• Visit: The Besease Shrine is a traditional fetish shrine near the town of Ejisu.
• Observe: Observe the unique architecture and experience the mode of ancestral worship to the ancient gods.
• Hotel: Upon arrival, check into your hotel.
• Overnight: Alisa Hotel.
• Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner.

• Activity: The final day is reserved for relaxation, reflection on the journey, and preparation for departure from Ghana.