Our biannual Panafest and Emancipation Festival is a celebration committed to the ideals of Pan Africanism. This is a chance to reunite the African family and all those interested in African History
Day 1 - AKWAABA ANYEMI – Welcome Brother/Sister You arrive on the motherland at Kotoka International Airport Accra, the capital city; Accra is situated on the Gold Coast in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. After passing through immigration, you proceed to the conveyor to collect your baggage before heading to customs. We will meet you on the other side, just look out for our sign as you come out of the terminal building. Please make yourself known to us, and we will take care of you from here and for the duration of your stay. We board our air conditioned vehicle, your mode of transport whilst you are on the motherland and set off for your hotel, which is a short drive from the Airport. Our expert guide, who will accompany you for the duration of the tour will check you in and offer you Akwaaba (Welcome), have some rest before having an early lunch and depart for Cape Coast. We check into our beach front hotel and relax for the next day activities.
L, D
Day 2 – Grand Durbar of Chiefs Today is the formal opening of Panafest with a grand durbar of chiefs and sub chiefs in their traditional colourful kente cloths. This is accompanied with drumming and dancing by the Asafo Companies (Traditional warriors) and the locals. The rest of the day will be taken up by visiting some local homes where we will interact with the people, get to know some customs and have a hand in the preparation of some local dishes.
B, L, D
Day 3 Naming and Marriage Ceremonies The activities on our agenda today reflect on the true unadulterated customs that our ancestors handed over and we get to feel the real value of some traditional ceremonies. We will experience naming and marriage ceremonies and can have our own local names.
After this, we will proceed to the grounds prepared for the Panafest Village Expo/Bazaar for its official opening.
B, L, D
Day 4 and 5 – Pilgrimage to Kumasi, the Powerful Ashanti Region This morning we depart Cape Coast and head inland, our destination is Kumasi capital of the Ashanti region and home to the Asantehene, king of the powerful Ashanti Empire. We will visit the Manhyia palace museum and learn how a brave female warrior stood up against British oppression in 1901 and was sent to exile for her bravery. The history of the Ashanti will unfold as we are taken around this small but informative museum.
Every ethnic group in Ghana has a unique type of clothing. Having had our fill of the museum, we continue to two outlying villages just north of Kumasi, Ntonso and Adawomasi. These two villages are famous for two very unique types of cloths, the adinkra (parting ways/ saying farewell) at Ntonso and kente at Adawomase. Adinkra is a collection of traditional symbols with meanings and are carved from calabash shells. The adinkra symbols are then printed onto traditional cloth using natural dyes made from the bark of certain local trees. Adinkra cloth has been adorned by the Ashanti’s for more than 4 centuries and pre dates kente cloth. Even today most Ashanti’s will wear adinkra cloth for funerals, festivals and other important occasions. During our time here we have the opportunity to make our own strip of adinkra cloth using symbols with personal significance. Kente on the other hand is more intricate and has lots of designs and colours. We will have a detailed tour of the kente weaving process. We will put our bargaining skills to test and purchase some kente cloths at very reasonable prices.
B, L, D
Day 6 Assin Praso Heritage Village Durbar The activities for today are one of the highlights of the Panafest celebrations. We depart Kumasi early and attend a durbar at Assin Praso Heritage Village durbar grounds where there will be a re – enactment of the River Pra crossing by our enslaved ancestors on their way to the Coast. This is followed by colourful performances by various cultural groups with the chiefs in attendance. We continue our journey to Cape Coast, have our evening meal and reflect on the day’s activities.
B, L, D
Day 7 Laying of wreaths in respects of our ancestors After a good night’s rest and a leisurely breakfast, we will visit the Anomabo Fort where wreaths will be laid by the elders. We will continue on a regional tour of the towns and villages around Cape Coast and Elmina. A visit to the Posuban shrines of the traditional warriors (Asafo Companies) will cap our day.
B, L, D
Day 8 Candlelight Procession to Elmina Castle Whatever that we could not do or have enough of, we have this morning and afternoon to ourselves, so much can be achieved in this respect. The main item of great importance is in the evening. The venue is the Cape Coast Castle and the main climax is 9:00pm. This night has been dubbed as the Reverential Night. There are five main items, Candlelight Procession, Testimonies – spoken word, Cultural Performances, Roll call of Ancestors and Reading of Proclamation. We return to our hotel and rest for the remainder of the night.
B, L, D
Day 9 Emotional visit to Ndonkor Nsuo – Slave River The enslaved Africans made a significant stop at Assin Manso on their arduous journey from the hinterland to the coast. The prime objective of the stop was to give them their last bath in the ‘’Ndonkor Nsuo’’ (Slave River), separate them according to sexes and wait for news on available boats on the coast to transport them. We will pay an emotional and thought provoking journey to this river. The activities are a durbar of the chiefs and people, Wreath Laying on the graves of two enslaved Africans (Crystal from Jamaica and Carson from USA) whose remains were brought back to Ghana for reburial and a visit to the wall of return. We will continue our journey to Accra, check into our hotel and relax.
B, L, D
Day 10 We bid farewell to our Brothers/Sister After an early breakfast, we transport you to the airport for your flights after an emotional, memorable, educative and informative 10 day visit to the Motherland.
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It's been a month since we returned from our 10-day wildlife/birding tour of Ghana, we're putting the finishing touches on our photo album, and we still marvel and how perfectly everything went.
The naturalist guide, James, is a world class birder who worked very hard to eke out every additional species sighting for us. Just as importantly, he worked hard to see that we were well taken care of by the hotels and restaurants. He and the driver, William, were very congenial as well as professional, and we shared many laughs as well as thought-provoking discussions on long drives and at dinner.
The itinerary -- custom designed for us to maximize time spent experiencing nature at different venues -- could not have been better. The timing worked out great, William drove us safely on rough back-country roads and through incredible traffic (to us, since we're from a small town in the western U.S.) in the cities.
The hotels were clean and comfortable, the food was quite good, and it's impossible to say enough about James' keen eye and ear. While we were still struggling to find a bird in a far-away tree, James would say, "In the scope." and there it was at high-power magnification for us to admire and study in detail. Kakum's canopy boardwalk and Mole's beauty and abundant wildlife were wonderful.
If we are fortunate enough to visit Ghana again someday, we would like to see the eastern region with its waterfalls and hike to Ghana's highest point. But for this first visit, we wouldn't change a thing. If we do return, we would hope to travel with James and William again. We will never forget them, the amazing sights of Ghana, and the excellent service provided by Mark, Lydia, and the other staff.
The 14-day birdwatching tour was very rewarding. Going from location to location allowed us to see quite a bit of the country in addition to our 250+ species. I was very pleased with all of the accommodations -- they all had aircon and hot water.
The highlight of the hotels, however, was the proprietors. Ghanaians are supremely friendly! I especially liked the cook/owner of D&A Guest House in Shama. Very delicious buffet dinner.
Our guide, Robert Ntakor, amazed me. A bird would flit by and he'd identify it in a split second. He was also excellent at spotting birds in the dense brush and canopy. He seems to have the calls of every bird in Ghana on his iPod and we had great success attracting beauties such as the long-tailed hawk, great blue turaco, emerald cuckoo, and the list goes on.
It was great fun seeing and photographing the exotic birds.
Our family of four recently completed the Walking with Elephants tour. The detailed itinerary was very appealing to us. From the wildlife to the villages and markets, from a mosque to museums, and even a bead factory - everything exceeded our expectations!
Yaw and Kawawa (our guide and driver) were both outstanding! Yaw is extremely knowledgeable and was quick to customize the schedule to meet our needs. Kawawa always had a smile on his face, even while driving on some of the bumpiest roads we've ever encountered.
Even before the trip, Janet and the administrative staff were very responsive to our needs. When the airlines canceled certain flights, with a smile, Janet rearranged all of the dates and hotel accommodations to fit our needs.
In 10 days, we traveled over 2000 km circling the diverse country of Ghana but we wouldn't have given up any of our destinations. We would highly recommend this tour operator.
Our holiday exceeded our expections! from the moment the beaming smile of our driver and guide greeted us at the airport things just got better and better.
The whole experience was delightful, we have so many memories and photos that I could go on for ever! The services of Yah and Kawawa were fantastic. Nothing was too much trouble for them and they looked after us very well. The 2 safaris we had at Mole National Park were just wonderful. To come across an elephant is something to be experienced, feeding monkeys from my hand was amazing! The stay at Talawano lodge was an experience that I would not have wanted to miss, and the last night stay at Anamobo beach resort was lovely.
I would, without hesitation, recommend this operator to anyone.
My wife and I had a 12 day birdwatching trip to Ghana in December and enjoyed it enormously. We could be called veterans of such trips having travelled to many countries and dealt with numerous travel companies who organise these kind of holidays.
This organisation was up with the best of these and their prices are very reasonable, much lower than any UK based organisation could offer. The quality of the tour was equal to if not better than any other organisation and I would wholeheartedly recommend their services to anyone planning such a holiday.
They were fully supportive and informative throughout the planning process and the whole holiday went smoothly, which is quite unusual for this kind of holiday in our experience. We originally found the operator via the Africa Guide web site and regard ourselves very fortunate to have done so.
We covered a number of the key birding sites in Southern Ghana focussing particularly upon the Guinea rainforest endemics, successfully locating 275 species of which 127 were new birds for us and also observing the majority of the target species.
Transport and driving services were excellent and the accommodation was generally very good. The sites that we visited were evocative and in some cases spectacular: the Kakum walkway has to be experienced at least once by everyone, although in my case once will be quite enough (no head for heights). As anyone with a real interest in nature would know the experience of being in rainforest away from the crowds and the hurly burly provides a real insight into what any country has to offer.
Ghana is really an excellent country to visit, quite unlike many others in Africa where we had been previously and, whilst we had expected this to be our sole journey to this country. We are now inclined to return and experience its special atmosphere once again.
I had a fabulous time in Ghana on the Tribal Trek Tour in October.
The organization was very good and our guide, Yaw Asimoah, is most knowledgeable.
Although I could have done with fewer shopping opportunities (not the usual complaint, I expect) the wildlife viewing, historical experiences and social interactions were superb.
The trip met my family's expectation. We had professional, experienced and friendly guides. Itinerary was super. Changing hotels frequently made it more fun.
We saw many things, explored the history culture and vast areas of Ghana. Accra,Cape Coast, Kumasi, Kitampo, Mole, Water falls, Elmina Castle, Canopy walk way, Volta dam etc ,etc. We met the people, ate their food, felt their warmth and smiles, made new friends and shared their feelings.
Ghana was hot, but with the wonderfully airconditioned hotels with swimming pools that we enjoyed nightly and often during a pm break, we Northerners survived.
Our guides were personable, knowledgeable, and excellent at finding the birds we had gone to see. The ever present bottled water was a real plus as that was not something we needed to worry about. Price was not only very reasonable but it included everything(which isn't always true), even trying local treats from car vendors.
No one bugging us for tips, local food was a treat, locals were friendly and interested in us as we were in them.
We had a great vacation and I would recommend this company for any tour of Ghana, as they will take you whereever you want to go. They went out of their way to make us comfortable and to do the things we wanted to do and to find the birds we were most interested in.
9
Client:
Christine Lane - from United Kingdom
Trip:
currently unavailable
Rating:
rating 9/10
Comment:
Five of us travelled to Ghana on their 15 day Culture and Wildlife tour.
Our itinerary was excellent and we covered 8 out of the 10 regions in Ghana.Our 2 guides and 1 driver were all Ghanaian, they were informative, flexible and fun and took us to places of interest not included in the itinerary.
We started on the coast visiting the Castles and learning about the Slave Trade, we visited the largest market in West Africa, completed the amazing Canopy walk, visited various villages,learnt and watched Kenti Clothes being produced,also Palm Oil, Cocoa, Fufu and Garri. At Mole National Park we walked within 20 yards of Elephants, we went in a dug out up the Black Volta so close to Hippos and wonderful bird life and spent 2 days and 1 night living with the Lobi tribe on the border of Burkino Faso, sleeping as they do on the roof of their houses-----no electricity and water from one bore hole.
So many highlights but for me the greatest higlight was the Ghanaian people. I have lived and travelled all over Africa but never before have I met such friendly, welcoming and smiley people.
On the downside we were asked to use Paypal to pay the balance of our trip--they were a nightmare to deal with and we found other means of paying,we passed this on to the opeator.
There are a few long drives and don't always expect showers etc to be in good working order.
The tour operator was extremely helpful when we were planning this trip, nothing was too much trouble.
Finally I have no hesitation in recommending them and Ghana.
They provided any and everything we needed. The guide was very knowledgeable and was able to provide great insight into the history behind all the sites we visited. All the food and hotels except the Afia African Village were great.
The management of the African Village was not very helpful and would not except anything except Cedi's but that was not told to us until we where to check out.
I would recommend the operator to all that want to see the historical side of Ghana. I am a history teacher and I thought it was informative and insightful.
