Overview
Experience the Ghana Royal Festival Tour, a 10-day cultural voyage through Ashanti traditional ceremonies and Ghana tours, featuring a traditional naming ceremony, royal parades, and UNESCO sites. This Ghana cultural festival tour offers immersive experiences in Accra, Kumasi, and Elmina.
Highlights
- Explore Ghana's vibrant capital, Accra, visiting Independence Square, the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, and the Arts Centre for National Culture.
- Discover the rich traditions and history of the Ashanti Kingdom, visiting the Royal Palace and experiencing local customs
- Partake in a memorable Ghanaian naming ceremony, where you will be given Ghanaian names with attributes. It would be interesting to compare your given attributes with who you are today.
- Pay homage to the memory of those who suffered during the transatlantic slave trade at Assin Manso Slave River site.
- Reflect on history at these UNESCO World Heritage sites, exploring the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles.
- Unwind on Ghana's picturesque beaches, soaking up the coastal beauty and engage with local villages, experiencing their daily life and traditions.
- Taste Authentic Cuisine: Savor the flavors of Ghana with delectable local dishes, from jollof rice to waakye, and enjoy a unique culinary adventure.
Itinerary
Arrive at Accra airport.
Akwaaba! Welcome to Ghana. Meet, greet and transfer to your hotel. Hotel check-in at 3pm
Settle in, brief orientation by Elidel Travels. Welcome Dinner
Meals Included: Dinner
Accommodation: Hotel in Accra
On this day we go on a city tour of Accra as you Immerse yourself in the cosmopolitan flavors of Ghana’s Capital City. Experience a blend of the old and the new as you visit the iconic, the old, and the off-the-beaten track! Activites include a visit the WEB Du Bois Centre, drive through Jamestown Old Accra, a visit to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and shopping expereince at the Arts and Crafts Market where you get to pick out fabrics for your custom made dress. Photo stop at the Black Star Square.
Enjoy lunch at an Afrocentric restaurant. (included)
Meet dressmakers for your custom outfit or arrange with a hair stylist to get your hair braided.
Meals Included: B/L
Accommodation: Hotel in Accra
Breakfast and check-out of hotel
Depart Accra to Kumasi, the home of the Asante King. En route stop at one of Ghana’s biggest chocolate factory to experience cocoa from the farm and to the factory into Chocolate. You get to taste and have some as souvenirs.
Lunch
Continue the journey to Kumasi. Arrive and check-in
Rest of evening on your own for resting.
Meals Included: Breakfast & Lunch
Accommodation: Hotel in Kumasi
Depart the hotel to visit the King’s Palace to participate in the celebration of Akwasidae Festival. This festival falls on and is usually celebrated on a Sunday in Kumasi and other Akan speaking communities who owe allegiance to the King of Ashanti. This is celebrated every 42 days. This is a colorful, scenic, and unique event where people gather from afar, many in traditional costumes, come to greet their king on the throne at the royal court, and people bring gifts to pay homage to the King.
Visit the Palace Museum which provides a good insight into Ashanti culture and traditions, and the history of the Ashanti Kingdom which is over 300 years old. It provides a good glimpse into the powerful ancient Ashanti Empire and its past kings.
Meals Included: Breakfast & Lunch
Accommodation: Hotel in Kumasi
Depart after breakfast to visit a few Ashanti crafts villages well known for the traditional Kente cloth weaving. Observe weavers exhibit their skills in producing the clothes adorned some of which are a preserve for the Ashanti Kings.
Participate in a traditional Ghanaian naming ceremony. Participants will be given Ghanaian names with attributes. It would be interesting to compare your given attributes. Ntonso – noted for its indigenous artisans whose expertise lie in Adinkra textile printing using traditional symbols that express the spiritual, moral, political and socio-cultural philosophies of the Akan people. In the Ntonso Adinkra village you will be able to try your hand at creating your own designs.
Lunch
Return to hotel and rest of evening on your own
Meals Included: Breakfast & Lunch
Accommodation: Hotel in Kumasi
Depart Kumasi for Cape Coast in the Central Region. Drive through the forest and several farming villages. Stop en route to visit Assin Manso, burial site of the remains of the two ancestors exhumed from New York’s Wall Street and Jamaica Kingston and re-interred on the Emancipation Day 1998. Visit the “Slave River” where enslaved Africans were allowed to have their bath in preparation for auction at the nearby slave market.
After lunch visit Elmina Castle, the first and oldest European structure built of any substance on African soil. This was built by the Portuguese in1482 and later used as an auction market for a comprehensive guided tour. See the slave dungeons and condemn cells where slave who attempted to escape were incarcerated. View its utterly distinct architecture
Return to your hotel.
Meals Included: Breakfast & Lunch
Accommodation: Beach Hotel in Elmina
Depart to Kakum National Park. Go on a morning walk of the “Kuntan Trail” with its countless trees with medicinal properties. For the young at heart experience the “Canopy Walkway” suspended 100 feet from the forest ground for a panoramic view of the flora and fauna of the remaining vestiges of the rainforest.
Lunch
Visit the Cape Coast Castle Dungeons which was originally started by the Swedes in 1652. It served as the headquarters and seat of the British colonial government until 1877. Go on a comprehensive tour of the Castle, the Slave Dungeons and the West African Heritage Museum.
Meals Included: Breakfast & Lunch
Accommodation: Beach Hotel in Elmina
Transfer to a local Ghanaian where you will be immersed and thought by your chef how to prepare a number of Ghanaian tradition dishes, from Jollof rice (rice cooked in red tomatoes sauce), Red Red (Beans Stew with fried plantains) and among others. Start by learning the various Ghanaian ingredients and spices for most local dishes and special mix of ingredients that gives the Ghanaian Jollof and most meals its distinct flavor. Try your hands in preparing these dishes and enjoy your meal.
Enjoy your meal for lunch
Return to your hotel and rest of day free for relaxation.
Meals Included: Breakfast & Lunch
Accommodation: Hotel in Elmina
Checkout and proceed to Accra driving along several fishing communities and coconut lined beaches.
Give back: Enroute stop at a local community, school or facility for an opportunity to donate or give back to them.
Arrive at hotel and check-in
Farewell Dinner
Meals Included: Breakfast & Dinner
Accommodation: Hotel In Accra
Breakfast
Last day free for packing and personal activities
Transfer to the airport for departure
Cost Includes
- 4 Nights In Accra on bed and breakfast
- 2 Nights in Kumasi on bed and breakfast
- 3 Nights in Elmina on bed and breakfast
- Meals as indicated (Daily breakfast, 2 Dinners & 7 Lunch)
- Overland Transportation via air-conditioned vehicle
- Tours and Entrances fees to Tour Sites as outlined in Itinerary
- English speaking Professional Tour Guide
- Professional Photographer to capture the experiences on the tour
- Cold water during tours
Cost Excludes
- International Airfare
- Immunization (Yellow Fever Required, Malaria Prophylactics Recommended)
- Visa
- Travel Insurance (Recommended)
- Early Check-in at Hotel
- Expenses of personal nature
- Meals and drinks not specified in the itinerary
- Optional tours/services
- All Entrance fees/tickets to evening events
- Gratuity and Tips
- Any other item not mentioned in the inclusions
Join Our Fixed Starting Date
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Guaranteed Available PackagesThursdayMarch 25, 2027SaturdayApril 3, 2027$329010Available
Frequently Asked Questions
The dates are chosen so that Day 4 of each departure falls on an Akwasidae Sunday, and the durbar is held in public at the Manhyia Palace with a visitors' area. What we cannot promise is the form it takes on the day — the Asantehene normally presides, but this is a ceremony of the Asante court and its arrangements are his. There is no ticket and no reserved seating.
Modest dress, and not black or red, which are the colours of mourning. Kente, batakari, kaba and slit, or simply light or bright colours are all appropriate. Shoulders and knees covered. Your guide will brief the group beforehand.
From the visitors' area, generally yes, without flash near the Asantehene or the chiefs. You must not photograph the Golden Stool. Photography is not permitted inside the Manhyia Palace Museum galleries. A professional photographer travels with the group and works to the same rules.
Ten travellers at most on each departure. That is a deliberate cap — it keeps the group manageable at the durbar and in the craft villages
Arrange your Ghanaian visa before you travel. That is what the UK and US governments advise, and it is the route we would point you to. Ghana does also operate a discretionary visa on arrival, formally an Emergency Entry Visa, granted by an Immigration officer at the border — your host can help pre-arrange the approval letter from the Ghana Immigration Service if you are short of time, but it is granted case by case and should never be relied on without written confirmation in your hand. A yellow fever certificate is required at the border for everyone aged nine months and over, and malaria tablets are recommended. Visa fees and immunisations are not included.
The guided tours at Elmina and Cape Coast go through the dungeons where enslaved people were held, and many visitors find them hard. There is no fixed schedule afterwards and no one will hurry you.
The adinkra piece you stamp at Ntonso, and the outfit the Accra dressmaker makes from the cloth you choose on Day 2. The tailoring itself is paid for separately and is not part of the trip price.
Not much. The canopy walkway at Kakum is level but exposed and it sways; the durbar involves standing for a stretch in the sun. Everything else is short walks around sites.
Yes, for two people sharing a room. A single room is available as an extra.
