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Beaches of Ghana - Explore Ghana
Places · Coast
Beaches of Ghana
Palm-fringed bays, fishing villages, forts on the rocks and some of the most beautiful sand in West Africa. Also plastic, sewage, rip currents and beach touts. The honest guide to the coast.
The truth about Ghana's beaches
Ghana has around 550 kilometres of Atlantic coastline, and some stretches are genuinely beautiful: wide bays backed by coconut palms, fishing canoes painted in bright colours, old forts above the waves. The photographs you see online are real.
What the photographs leave out is just as real. Near the big towns, many beaches are littered with plastic washed up from blocked drains and rivers. Some beaches double as the village toilet. Fishing communities work and live on the sand, and the beach is their workplace, not a resort. The best beaches are those in front of well-run lodges and in quieter places away from the cities, and the further west you go, the better it generally gets.
The Gulf of Guinea looks inviting, but it is not the Mediterranean. Strong waves, a powerful undertow and rip currents drown people on Ghana's beaches every year, including strong swimmers and visitors from the UK.
Swim only where local people swim, and ask at your lodge where it is safe.
Never swim alone, after drinking, or at night.
Stay out when the sea is rough or a red flag is flying.
If a current pulls you out, do not fight it: swim parallel to the shore until you are free, then swim back.
Most beaches have no lifeguards. Lagoons and sheltered bays are safer for children.
Keep your belongings close. Bags left on the sand while you swim are an easy target. Take only what you need to the beach.
Greater Accra
Labadi (La Pleasure Beach): Accra's busiest beach, with bars, music, horses and weekend crowds. Lively and fun, but not for swimming in peace, and not the cleanest.
Kokrobite: west of the city, with drumming, backpacker lodges and a relaxed scene. Crowded and littered in places; quieter further along.
Bojo Beach: a cleaner, fee-paying stretch reached by a short boat across the lagoon. Popular at weekends.
Prampram and the east: fishing towns, Fort Vernon, and quieter sand.
At Ada Foah, two hours east of Accra, the Volta River meets the sea in a maze of sandbars, islands and lagoons. Resorts and lodges on the estuary offer boat trips, water sports and calmer water than the open sea; the strip of sand between river and ocean is one of the most striking places on the coast. Further east, Keta sits between the sea and its huge lagoon, a coast fighting erosion that has already swallowed much of the old town and half of Fort Prinzenstein.
Between Accra and Takoradi, forts and castles stand above the beaches, and most visitors combine the two. Anomabu has beach resorts beside its fort; Elmina and the coast around Cape Coast have resorts and hotels; Brenu Akyinim, west of Elmina, is a long, quieter beach. The sea here is strong; ask before swimming.
Day trips from Accra to the beaches and the castle coast. Entrance fees are included in the tour price. Tips for your guide and driver are not included, but they are always welcome.
Updated and fact-checked: 1 October 2026 · GhanaNet.co.uk, Peter Terrace, Swansea, SA1 6FJ · travel@ghananet.co.uk
Greater Accra Region
Five forts, Independence Square, Makola and the palace you cannot visit.