Accra & Tema updates

Many thanks to Nancy Chuang, who is currently in Ghana updating the Bradt Guide for the 8th edition, for these useful news snippets:

ACCRA:

• The Loom Gallery’s owner is 90 years old. So…it’s not open regularly anymore. Frances’ number is 0264295567.
• Nima Tours has a totally incorrect price in the book—it is 30 cedis per hour (as many hours as you wish), not $75! There is now a second tour guide in Nima named Nurainy, charging 70 cedis per tour. Whatsapp +233208520542.
• Agbogbloshie scrapyard: either Nima Tours or Nurainy can guide tourists there.
• National Museum still closed since December 2015, but hoping to reopen in October or November. gmmb.acc@gmail.com, ghanamuseums.org, 0302221633/35 are active contacts.
• Bella Roma is closed.
• Monsoon is closed.
• Maquis Tante Marie closed (all locations).
• Trashy Bags: Osu shop closed, but the factory is still open to visitors.
• Le Magellan no longer closes between lunch and dinner.
• The eastern side of Osu has been booming (about a 20 minute walk from Oxford Street). Green Eats, Tea Baa, Kukun, Little Havana, The Shop at Accra, not too far from some of the cheaper Osu hotels like Access Inn.
• For travelers in need of a Starbucks-esque fix—as in sweet coffee drinks, sandwiches, free wifi, AC, in an impeccably-clean shop—the South African chain Vida e Caffe has been spreading through Accra since 2015. The most convenient one for tourists is across from the National Theatre.
• Uber is a huge boon and also a huge frustration. It’s always 1/2 or 1/3 the price of taxis, without needing to haggle. But the drivers either do not understand how to use the app (they always ask where you’re going) or are trying to frustrate you intentionally into cancelling to take your cancellation fee. Select cash payment rather than card, to help guarantee a pickup.
• Another popular app for calling cars is Taxify. Supposedly Taxify pays its drivers faster, and riders aren’t charged for cancelling on tardy drivers–a common problem while Accra is in the learning stages of using these ride apps.
• Just confirming what a past reader wrote: Somewhere Nice hostel’s rates now include a substantial, fresh breakfast served in a communal setting.
• One Corner Garden is unlike any other bar/restaurant in Kokomlemle, about 6 minute walk from Somewhere Nice hostel. It’s a beautiful hideaway, great music, and thoughtful menu of indigenous ingredients.

 

TEMA:

• Unclear if share taxis to Prampram have moved, a few people said it was now by the Total filling station. In regular trotro/market area, you can get trotros to Prampram for 4.50 cedis and they often leave without waiting to fill.
• In case it matters, the popular bar/restaurant Monte Carlo is marked incorrectly on the map, it’s actually in Community 10 and appears in the right spot on Google maps.
• Uber functions in Tema, but even worse than Accra.
• If you need a cheap place to crash, Jeska in Community 5 is passable for 60 cedis, self-contained with fan. Right next door is Last Hour chop bar, which is pretty good & popular.