Ghana has sixteen regions. Almost everything written about Ghanaian travel covers about three of them, and there is a reason for that: the country's ten most-visited attractions account for roughly 77% of all domestic tourism visits, and every one of those ten sits in Greater Accra, Central, Eastern or Ashanti.
This page covers all sixteen anyway: what is actually in each one, and how much of a trip it can carry. Some regions get a weekend. Some get an afternoon. A few, honestly, get a sentence, and we would rather say so than pad them out.
The four regions that hold the top ten
Greater Accra
Three of Ghana's ten most-visited sites are here: the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, the single most-visited attraction in the country at 302,523 visitors in 2025, the Accra Zoo, and the Shai Hills Resource Reserve out towards Dodowa, where you can see baboons and antelope an hour from the city.
Beyond the list: Jamestown and the old harbour, Ada Foah where the Volta meets the sea, and a coastline that gets better the further west you go from the city.
Ours: the Accra travel guide, Labadi, Bojo, Kokrobite and the quieter beaches near Accra.
Central
The heaviest concentration of history in the country, and three of the top ten: Kakum National Park and its canopy walkway (203,222 visitors, second nationally), Cape Coast Castle (141,523) and Elmina Castle.
Central is also festival country: Aboakyir at Winneba on the first Saturday in May, Bakatue at Elmina on the first Tuesday in July, and Oguaa Fetu Afahye at Cape Coast on the first Saturday in September.
Ours: the Kakum canopy walk and the Accra to Cape Coast weekend.
Eastern
The most underrated region in Ghana, and the one we had written nothing about until recently. It holds two of the top ten: Bunso Eco Park, the third most-visited site in the country at 149,319 visitors, and the Aburi Botanical Gardens. Then Boti Falls, the Umbrella Rock, Akosombo and the Akuapim ridge.
It is also the closest of the four to Accra. Aburi is forty-five minutes away.
Ours: Bunso Eco Park, Aburi Botanical Gardens, Boti Falls and the Umbrella Rock, and a two-day Eastern Region weekend.
Ashanti
Two of the top ten: the Manhyia Palace Museum (120,328 visitors, fifth nationally) and the Kumasi Zoo. Then Kejetia, the largest market in West Africa, and Lake Bosomtwe, the only natural lake in the country. Bonwire, where kente is woven, is half an hour out of the city.
Ashanti and Eastern lead the country in overnight stays alongside Greater Accra, which is a way of saying people come here for a weekend rather than an afternoon.
Ours: the Kumasi weekend guide, Manhyia Palace, Kejetia Market and Lake Bosomtwe.
The regions with one very good reason to go
Volta
Wli Waterfalls is the highest in West Africa, falling 60 to 80 metres. Mount Afadjato is Ghana's highest peak and a genuine morning's climb. There is also the Tafi Atome monkey sanctuary and the Keta lagoon, and Amedzofe sits high enough to be cold at night.
Hogbetsotso, the Anlo festival, falls on the first Saturday in November at Anloga.
Savannah
Mole National Park is Ghana's largest wildlife reserve at nearly 4,900 square kilometres, and the place you go to walk near elephants. The Larabanga Mosque, one of West Africa's oldest mud-and-stick mosques, is fifteen minutes away.
Mole does not appear in the national top ten, which surprises people. It is a long way from anywhere, and that is the whole reason it is worth the trip.
Western
The beach coast. Busua for surfing, Axim, Cape Three Points where the Atlantic meets the southernmost point of the country, and Nzulezo, a village built on stilts over Lake Tadane and reached by canoe. Ankasa Conservation Area is rainforest proper.
Kundum, the Nzema and Ahanta harvest festival, runs from August into October depending on the town.
Upper East
The Paga Crocodile Pond on the Burkina border, where the crocodiles and the town have an arrangement that has to be seen. Sirigu, where the houses are painted and the pottery is a craft tradition rather than a souvenir stand. The Tongo Hills and the Tengzug shrine.
Bono East
Kintampo Waterfalls and the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, where the mona and colobus monkeys are protected by tradition rather than by fence, and are buried in their own cemetery. Techiman market is one of the largest in the country.
Upper West
The Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary on the Black Volta, holding one of only two remaining hippo populations in Ghana. It is community-run, and the trip is an overnight rather than a stop.
North East
The Gambaga Escarpment: a line of sandstone cliffs running nearly 100 km from Walewale to the Togo border, rising over 300 metres in places. Nakpanduri has the most accessible view from the top. Good hiking, almost no visitors.
Northern
Tamale is the gateway to everything above and a real city in its own right. Damba is the largest festival in the country, celebrated across Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper East and Upper West in the lunar month of Damba, around July and August.
The regions we will be honest about
Four regions have no top-ten attraction, no festival with national pull, and very little published about them. They are not empty. They are simply not places most people plan a trip around, and we would rather say that than invent a reason.
Bono
Bui National Park spans Bono and Savannah: 1,821 square kilometres, hippos and antelope, and caves with bat colonies. The Duasidan Monkey Sanctuary near Dormaa Ahenkro has rare mona monkeys, and the Nchiraa Waterfalls are north of Wenchi. Sunyani is the regional capital.
Western North
Bia National Park, a biosphere reserve of 563 square kilometres preserving some of the last untouched forest in Ghana, and one of the better birdwatching sites in the country. Sefwi Wiawso is the capital.
Ahafo
Forest and farmland, centred on Goaso. Ahafo was split from the old Brong Ahafo region in 2018 and has no developed visitor circuit of its own.
Oti
Split from Volta in 2018. Dambai and Kete Krachi sit on the Volta lake, and the ferry crossings are the practical reason most travellers pass through.
How to use this page
If you have a weekend and you are starting from Accra, the honest ranking is Eastern first, then Central, then Ashanti: closest, cheapest and most to see, in that order. Everything north of Kumasi is a trip rather than a weekend, and worth planning around a festival date if you can.
We are working through the regions in order of what people actually visit rather than in order of the map, so this page grows. If a region here has no link next to it yet, that is why.