Jonquil and Friends Ghana Trip, November 2024

Day 1: DEPART USA -Wednesday ,November 06

Depart the U.S. on overnight flight to Ghana

Day 2: ARRIVE ACCRA, GHANA -Thursday,November 07

AKWAABA! WELCOME!!!

On arrival at Kotoka International Airport, our expert Cultural guide will meet, assist, and transfer you to your hotel in our private air-conditioned vehicle. Enroute, stop at the Accra Mall for familiar shopping and provisions. Once you have checked in, your guide who will be with you throughout your stay, will brief you on what to expect during your time in Ghana. This evening, we will have dinner at the Afrikiko Leisure Centre (Ghanaian Buffet and more)

Meal(s) Included: Dinner

Hotel : Labadi Beach Hotel

Day 3: ACCRA & VICINITY-Friday,November 08

Your experienced Tour guide will pick you up from the hotel for a panoramic tour of Accra.

· Visit the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre for Pan Africanism; this is the final burial place and former home of the prominent American Pan-Africanist Dr W.E.B. Du Bois, who led the Pan-African congress between 1919 and 1927. It is currently a Pan African Centre for culture, and it also has a research library and gallery full of manuscripts.

· We will make a stop at the Independence Arch and the Black Star Square, Accra’s ceremonial grounds, to visit the Arts and Crafts market.

· Continue to visit the final resting places of the fathers of Pan-Africanism. Visit the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, burial place of the first President of Ghana. Ghana’s first president is known to have spearheaded the course of Pan Africanism on the African Continent and beyond. The Mausoleum has been visited by many world dignitaries.

· After lunch (on your own account), we visit Jamestown Community-One of Accra’s most historic neighborhoods where history resides on every corner. Best known for its lighthouses (the first of which was constructed in 1875 by the British) as a navigational aid for trading vessels sailing through the Gulf of Guinea. The original structure was ruined but a larger and more improved lighthouse completed in 1921 is still functioning today.

Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Hotel : Labadi Beach Hotel

Day 4: ACCRA | KUMASI-Saturday,November 09

Highlights:

· 3 craft villages of Ashanti Kingdom After breakfast, we check out of the hotel and depart for Kumasi, the cultural heartbeat of Ghana and the capital seat of the Ashanti Monarchy. We may stop for snacks/bathroom visits. At the outskirts of Kumasi, enjoy a scenic drive through several villages with Ashanti cultural styled houses at the surrounding lush countryside which is a sharp contrast to the modern-day Kumasi city. Adanwomase will be our first craft village where we’ll see how the famous Kente Cloth is handmade on looms in a time-honored tradition passed down through generations. See the Kente patterns with each having a meaning. You will have the opportunity to make purchases. We may pay a courtesy call to the chief of this community amidst drumming and dancing or see their cocoa farms (must be prearranged). We will continue to the village of Ntonso where Artisans hand-stamp patterns on Cotton cloth to make Adinkra Textiles. Black-on-Black and Black-on-Red Adinkra Cloth is worn for funerals and other solemn occasions; learn how the Black Dye is made in the village from the bark of trees and create your own Adinkra sash to take home. You may also purchase large pieces of the Adinkra Cloth handmade in the village.

Our final village will be the Woodcarving Village of Ahwiaa, known for the talented craftsmen who fashion Royal stools, walking sticks and Fertility Dolls from wood; with the opportunity to purchase hand carved items of all kinds. This brings us to the end of the tour for the day. Dinner at the hotel.

Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Hotel : Lancaster Kumasi

Day 5: KUMASI-Sunday,November 10

After breakfast, you will start the day’s tour at the Prempeh II Museum inside the Kumasi Cultural Centre where you will get to know how the Ashanti Royalty live their lives, some genealogy of the Ashanti Chiefs and some educative and interesting history of the Ashanti and Akan tribe.

Continue to Central Kumasi which has quite a collection of British colonial buildings and it is the heart of the Ashanti culture. We enjoy a drive through the city with monuments dedicated to the memory of the great Ashanti people on our way to visit the Okomfo Anokye sword site, an important symbol of Ashanti unity that marks the spot where the golden stool “descended from the sky” and has been in place for over 300 years. Legend says the Ashanti kingdom would collapse should the sword ever be removed.

After lunch (on your own account) at Ike’s Cafe, we travel to Ejisu Besease to visit the Besease Traditional Shrine. Being on the World Heritage Site list, the shrine is a rare surviving example of a significant traditional architectural design belonging to the woman with the writ of men, warrior, and the late queen mother of Ejisu, Nana Yaa Asantewa. Oral traditional history has it that she visited this shrine before his very last war with the British.

This brings you to the end of your tour for the day. Transfer to Casa Restaurant for dinner before we return to the hotel for the night.

Meal(s) Included: Breakfast and Dinner

Hotel : Lancaster Kumasi

Day 6: KUMASI | ELMINA-Monday,November 11

Highlights:

· Assin Manso Slave River

· Elmina Township Walk

Today, we depart for yet another adventure of Coastal lands of Ghana- Elmina & Cape Coast. Enroute, we stop at Assin Manso, the burial site of two former slaves from the USA and Jamaica whose remains were re-interred in August 1998 during Ghana’s first Emancipation Day Celebration. A visit to “the Slave River” or “Donkor Nsuo” offers the chance to see the place where captured Africans were washed before being confined in the Slaves Castles to await shipment to the Americas and Caribbean.

This evening, enjoy the sights of the many colorful fishing boats bringing their daily catch into the harbor and take the opportunity to mix with the locals at the nearby market. A short distance from the market we visit the boat builders, still building colorful fishing boats using traditional tools and methods spanning centuries. Continue to your hotel and check in. Prepare dinner at your hotel.

Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Hotel : Lemon Beach Resort

Day 7: ELMINA | CAPE COAST | KAKUM-Tuesday,November 12

After breakfast and check out, we depart for Accra. Enroute, visit Kakum National Park, one of Ghana’s most famous parks. Take a brief walking tour on the forest floor; see birds, butterflies and perhaps catch a glimpse of the forests of over 40 species of mammals including monkeys and the reclusive forest elephant. Proceed to the canopy walkway. Kakum is home to Africa’s only aerial walkway through the treetops, a 1000-foot-long and seven-bridge walkway with viewing platforms that reach heights of over 150 feet above ground.

After lunch (at your own account) at Hans Cottage Restaurant, we continue to Cape Coast to visit the Cape Coast Castle. History will unfold the story of the slave trade which the impact is still felt beyond the shores of Africa today. The Cape Coast Castle built by the Swedes in 1653 and was later taken over by the British. This castle also houses the West African Historical Museum established by the Smithsonian Institute in collaboration with the Ghanaian Government in 1994.

Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner 

Hotel: Lemon Beach Resort

Day 8: ELMINA | ACCRA-Wednesday,November 13

Following a leisure breakfast, we check-out of the hotel for an amazing experience of reconnecting with the motherland.

We visit the Elmina Castle, another World Heritage site, originally called Fort Sao Jorge de Elmina – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, completed in 1486 and was the first European made structures built in sub-Saharan Africa.

Here, you will go through the “Fihankra” Fihankra is a ceremony which seeks to reconnect people of African descent, who have been lost due to the transatlantic slave trade, to the motherland. This ceremony reconnects returnees with the cultural and spiritual ties that had been denied them for centuries.

We continue to the Chief’s palace where his elders and people have gathered to take us through a naming ceremony. You will be provided with a certificate of authentication for your new name. We continue to Accra, arriving early evening. Transfer to your hotel. Dinner at the hotel.

Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Hotel: Labadi Beach Hotel

Day 9: ACCRA – KROBO ODUMASE – ACCRA-Thursday,November 14

After a refreshing night at your hotel and a sumptuous buffet breakfast, we will have a scenic drive to a small village called Krobo Odumase to witness first-hand experience of beads making from specially crafted glasses- Cedi Beads Factory. We will have the opportunity to design our own beads using the traditional Krobo technique. The bead-making craft has a long history in Ghana. Beads have been used in ceremonies of birth, coming of age, marriage, or death for the past four hundred years. You will watch and participate in the whole bead-making process from beginning to end.

Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Hotel: Labadi Beach Hotel

Day 10: ACCRA-Friday,November 15

Driver, guide and transportation is available.

Meal(s) Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Hotel: Labadi Beach Hotel

Day 11: DEPART ACCRA-Saturday,November 16

Today am at leisure but with the assistance of your driver and guide, decide on your excursions and activities. Visit the sites in Accra and vicinity that you have not yet seen.

You will be transferred to the airport for your onward flight.

Meal(s) Included: Breakfast