Discover Accra Metropolis

In Accra Metropolis, performing arts, museum collections and places shaped by history come together. If you’re looking for a vacation rental, you can plan your stay around the subjects that interest you most: performances, Ghanaian art and traditions, or historic neighborhoods and forts. These different themes offer practical starting points for discovering the metropolis’s cultural side.

Performing arts, tours and museum offerings

The National Theatre hosts theater, music and dance performances, offering a variety of performing arts. Seminars, lectures, workshops and cultural events are also held at the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre’s Open Air Theatre. The two venues represent different event formats, from performances to talks and workshops.

Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park offers a museum, a library and guided tours about Kwame Nkrumah’s life, work and ideals. Each option has a distinct focus: you can explore his biography, look through materials in the library, or learn more about his life and ideas on a tour. Visitors can reach the park by taxi or public transport, including trotro and Metrobus. Check local availability of these transport options when planning your trip.

Art, traditions and historic places

The National Museum in Accra has three main galleries covering Ghana’s past, traditions and artistic culture. Works on display include sculptures and paintings by pioneering and contemporary artists. The museum also exhibits traditional clothing, local musical instruments and sacred tribal artifacts, including Asante ancestral stools. It is located on Barnes Road in Accra. The variety of galleries makes a museum visit an introduction to art, traditions and history alike.

The older neighborhoods of Ushertown and Jamestown also feature architecture spanning several centuries. Ussher Fort in Usshertown and James Fort in Jamestown are part of the UNESCO World Heritage property “Forts and Castles.” Over the course of its history, Ussher Fort served as a trading post, slave dungeon, police post, prison, military detention center and military court.

The Independence Square is another historical landmark: the Independence Day parade takes place there every year on March 6. The Nationalism Park opened in 2011 to honor those who fought for Ghana’s independence. It is located in Osu, between Independence Square and Accra Sports Stadium. The annual parade and the park’s dedication offer different perspectives on Ghana’s history of independence.

Choosing a location and looking at the wider region

When looking for a vacation rental, you can first decide which experiences you want to focus on: museum collections on Barnes Road, performing arts and event venues, or the historic sites of Osu, Ushertown and Jamestown. These specific place names offer a starting point for your search; check location details before your trip. This lets you choose where to stay according to your cultural interests without narrowing the different themes down to a single focus for your visit.

The wider travel destination of Greater Accra also includes the Songor Biosphere Reserve around Ada. Its landscape encompasses marine and coastal areas, wetlands with lagoons and marshes, and the freshwater of the lower Volta. In the core zone, mudflat marshes, mangroves and waterlogged grassland provide habitats where, among other species, herons, egrets, cormorants, sandpipers, stilt birds, small waders and terns feed and rest. The sandy beach is a nesting site for green sea turtles, leatherback turtles and olive ridley turtles. These landscape and nature themes complement the cultural perspective on Accra with a view of the wider Greater Accra travel destination.

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Return to the wider travel overview: Greater Accra.