I’m wrapping up our Nigeria – Ghana series with a review of all the services we used during our trip. We spent our time between Grand Popo, Accra and Cape Coast. I wrote about them in the first part of this series. (Recap of our trip in Grand Popo | Accra | Cape Coast). I also wrote a cost and trip breakdown which you can find here.
This follow-up article is a review of all the places we stayed at and the bus services we used.
The first stop is our hotel in Benin. We stayed at the Auberge de Grand Popo. Here’s my personal review of the place.
What's Covered in this Post
Auberge de Grand Popo
We stayed here for two nights and it wasn’t so bad. The hotel has this rustic old charm to it. Most of the buildings were old and the room we booked was very basic. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the room but I’ll try to describe it as best as I can. Ours had a bed (with a mosquito net), a desk and table and a fan. The shower area and toilet were also very small.
What I found surprising and perhaps a bit terrifying about this place was the fact that it wasn’t fenced. The buildings are distributed on both sides of a stretch of road. So, in the mornings, we would hear school children walking past our building to their school or bike men riding past.
What we loved
- Location – The hotel is located right on the beach, which was just fantastic. I loved waking up to the sound of waves and enjoyed spending time relaxing or reading on the beach.
- Food – The food was delicious!
- Service – Hotel staff were very professional, courteous and always willing to help. Service was generally exceptional.
Low points
- Mosquitoes in our room were vicious! This isn’t necessarily the hotel’s fault anyway. We had a net but it was so short and kept coming out of the bed after we had tucked it in. If you stay here, maybe ask if the rooms can be sprayed with an insecticide before you call it a night and travel with a malaria kit.
- WIFI didn’t work the entire time we were there.
Awale Plage Hotel, Grand Popo
This was our second option for a place to stay in Benin. We chose the hotel above because it was cheaper and also because we loved the beachfront. (They had just about the same rating on Booking.com).
We didn’t stay here but we went over to have lunch there on day 2. The food was equally delicious and unlike Auberge de Grand Popo, this hotel was fenced in and had working WIFI. The service was great and the staff was very helpful when we had issues paying for our stay at our hotel. (We actually came here to pay).
I would definitely consider staying here when I get to visit Grand Popo again.
Overall Rating is for restaurant and service alone.
Gracie Jones Guest House, Accra
We stayed at Gracie Jones for a few nights during our time in Accra. We booked their standard room for 60 cedis (6,000) a night. I don’t have a picture of the room here either but it was also pretty basic and smaller than where we stayed in Benin. We had a TV, AC and a fan in our room with a shared bathroom next door.
What we loved
- Price – This guest house was incredibly cheap. Probably the cheapest you”ll find in Osu/Oxford street area.
- Service – was also good. Staff was friendly
- Location – this place is off Oxford street, so it’s close to sites around.
Low points
- None really. There’s only so much you can expect from paying 6K/night.
Urbano Hotel, Accra
We stayed here for one night only. I really wished we could have stayed longer but no money we had to leave for Cape Coast. Everything about our stay was great. I’m not sure how long it has been in existence but it felt and smelt like a new place. We also got upgraded from a standard double room to a superior room here, so what’s not to love?
What we loved
- Room – Super comfy rooms. Soft bed, pillows, clean sheets and of course the upgrade.
- Service – Friendly professional staff
- Location – proximity to attractions was a good thing. It’s also not that far from bus stations and co.
- WIFI – super fast 🙂
Low points
- Breakfast option was quite limited
Earl Heights Apartment Hotel, Accra
We stayed here for a night, hosted by new friends from Nigeria who were also visiting Ghana at the same time as us. This was an apartment hotel, so it had everything en suite and felt more like a home than a hotel. We were also very impressed with the size of this place. The living room, dining area, kitchen, bedrooms were all very large and well furnished.
What we loved
- Hotel: we loved everything about this place.
- The pool – where I learned to swim 🙂
- Speedy WIFI
Low points
- None
Almond Tree Guest House, Cape Coast
This was our home for the one night we spent in Cape Coast. We loved the Jamaican vibe the place has. (I believe the owner is Jamaican). The rooms were named after popular figures and there was art everywhere, I loved it. I thought the in house restaurant was quite expensive but other than that, we enjoyed our stay.
What we loved
- Clean rooms and sheets;
- Service was generally good
Low points
- None
STC Bus Service
We used STC twice – from the Aflao border to Accra (14-seater) and from Accra to Cape Coast. Both services were great, punctual and very comfortable. The buses were also very clean, which was unlike our experience with ABC. There was a bit of mess getting our tickets to Cape Coast even though we booked the night before but we were eventually able to get seats on the bus.
What we loved
- Punctuality – both buses left within 10 minutes of the departure time stated. The Ghanaians we travelled with were not necessarily impressed with that though
- Drivers of both buses drove at very good speeds.
Low points
- Ticketing could be handled better.
ABC Bus Service
Where to begin? This was the worst part of our entire trip. The bus was extremely filthy and disgusting! It had a terrible smell as well and the staff weren’t bothered at first – even after several complaints. At some point, one lady even had to bring out her antiperspirant to spray the bus, it was that bad. They eventually began to spray the bus intermittently.
I was very disappointed with this service as I have used them twice in the past. My first experience was a trip to Jos with them. It was amazing! I was so disappointed to see how run-down they’ve become.
What we loved (if I can even use that word)
- Good driving
- Stress free border crossing (not necessarily time saving)
Low points
- Terribly filthy, smelly bus
- Faulty AC
- Whenever we stopped at a border, they let vendors come in to sell stuff. I didn’t quite find this comforting
- We spent forever at the Seme border.
- Price difference – the cost of the trip was 216cedis. They insisted we paid in cedis. With the current exchange rate, this came up to N21,600. When we got our tickets, it was written 216cedis | N17,500.
That’s about it for all the services we used. I hope you find the info here useful. Please share and comment on this article if you’ve enjoyed it.
You can find the rest of the series here: (Recap of our trip in Grand Popo | Accra | Cape Coast). I also wrote a cost and trip breakdown which you can find here.
I want to travel to Ghana with my 5 years nephew, does he need a passport as well?
Yes, he does.
This review was really helpful. Is there a mail that you can be reached on?
Hi, Funmi
You can reach me using the contact form on my About Me page or send an email to [email protected]
Waoo Amara, you are wonderful. I wish I could listen to your super articulated brains. I am making the trip to Ghana in a couple of days. I was I could talk to you. My experience would add to your review because I’m gonna use my 2006 sienna for the trip. Do you have idea how much required for vehicle lesser passer? And other requirements. I wish I also get to carry passengers used to the road to offset some nills.. Let’s talk please.
Hi Mamah,
Thanks for your comment. I have sent you an email with the details I have. It’s not complete but it might be helpful to you. If you don’t mind, could share your experience driving your personal vehicle across the borders once you get back from your trip? I’d love to feature it here on TWAP.
Interesting read Amara; keep it up!
My wife and I plan to do a West African tour as well 2 weeks from now. We’re generally concerned about security and wondering if it’s better travelling on one of these tour packages as a group rather than by ourselves. We’re however excited about it an want to enjoy the whole road trip experience. Additionally, would it be a good idea pre-booking tour guide? Our reservations around this also borders around security, feel a bit uneasy having complete strangers have so much details about our trip even before we began. What do you recommend?
Hello Paschal, booking with a reputable tour group certainly gives a little bit more reassurance than flying solo, especially if you’re not used to doing that. But as you can tell from my Ghana series, my sister and I travelled on our own and we had a great time. We didn’t need to pre-book any tour guides too. Did some research over the internet and went with the flow in the cities we visited. You shouldn’t have to worry about sharing your itinerary with tour operators. Once you find the right ones (aka, read lots of reviews), you would be fine.
Hello Amarachi, good read. Thank you so much. But I would require your help further. I just started my own tour company and would like to plan a road trip to Ghana from Lagos. Would need your advice on it and the pros and cons of a road trip as opposed to going by air. Would love to hear from you as I intend to start a package for it soonest as soon as I’m able to get the adequate information needed for it. Like tour guides numbers and hotel accommodations. Do have a lovely day. Thank you
Hi Faith, thanks for your comment. I am not a tour guide, so I won’t be able to provide you with the kind of information you may be looking for.
The major advantage of travelling by road is the price. Generally, it is cheaper and you get to pass through other countries but it is a very long journey. Going by air is faster, less stressful but more expensive. The option you go with will affect your tour prices…
Well, If I had to choose between a filthy bus with a good driver and a nice clean bus with a crazy dangerous driver… I would go for the first one and use my wipes/spray/anti-bacteria gel to make it easier to bear LOL 🙂
Haha, I know right! I don’t know why we just can’t get both though. ABC used to be the standard to follow for road transportation here in Nigeria. I don’t know how they let it get this bad.
I think you were pretty generous with your rating. Giving 4/5 for Auberge de grand popo even when the WiFi didn’t work and having to worry about mosquitoes, but at the same time its located on the beach and who doesn’t love waking up to the sound of waves.
As for the ABC bus service, if there’s anything lower than 0, maybe a -5 would have been a better rating.
Lol, I agree that ABC should have gotten a worse rating. The only reason they got +1 was cos of their excellent driving and one of the staff was actually quite nice.
For Auberge de Grandd Popo, they made up for shortcomings in very many ways. They even had a staff who went with us to the border when we had issues with money. He waved a small part of the fees, negotiated our bikes for us, crossed the border into Togo with us and even paid for my sister’s crossing fee.