Guide to Ghana

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: An excelent Guide to Ghana that covers all aspects of the country. Contains a lot of good advice. I would recomend it to every one.

Rating:
Summary: Without a doubt, take this book with you!
Review: Briggs knows Ghana like the back of his hand. And this book, compact and inexpensive, served as a Bible to me on my recent visit to Ghana. Truly, without his intimate knowledge of this West African country's landscape and peoples, I would have had a hard time knowing whether I was coming or going. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A good travel handbook to carry with you!
Review: Having been in and out of Ghana many times over the past ten years I would like to comment on this Bradt Guide to the country. During this past July and August I used this guide to travel along the coast, slowly, from Accra all the way over to near the Ivory Coast border. It took about a month of visiting many little villages, historical sites, and staying in small guest houses and hotels. I found this guide an excellent resource. A major part of the Ghanaian government tourist development plans relates to ecotourism. Developed with the aid of international agencies, this plan calls for protecting the environment while increasing tourism. New national parks are being developed and many over hunted animals protected. This Bradt guide is an excellent source for this new tourism. My only suggest is a personal one. I am a city person and if I were doing this guide I would expand the section on night life in Accra and Kumasi. There are alternative travel sources available. The Internet has a growing number of sites related to Ghana, Ghanaian culture and history, and current events. Using web based data along with this Bradt guide will provide any traveler with a great vacation!

Rating:
Summary: A good travel handbook to carry with you!
Review: Having been in and out of Ghana many times over the past ten years I would like to comment on this Bradt Guide to the country. During this past July and August I used this guide to travel along the coast, slowly, from Accra all the way over to near the Ivory Coast border. It took about a month of visiting many little villages, historical sites, and staying in small guest houses and hotels. I found this guide an excellent resource. A major part of the Ghanaian government tourist development plans relates to ecotourism. Developed with the aid of international agencies, this plan calls for protecting the environment while increasing tourism. New national parks are being developed and many over hunted animals protected. This Bradt guide is an excellent source for this new tourism. My only suggest is a personal one. I am a city person and if I were doing this guide I would expand the section on night life in Accra and Kumasi. There are alternative travel sources available. The Internet has a growing number of sites related to Ghana, Ghanaian culture and history, and current events. Using web based data along with this Bradt guide will provide any traveler with a great vacation!

Rating:
Summary: A very personal, wise, and absorbing guide
Review: I was in Ghana for nearly three months and covered much of the country with the help of Philip Briggs. Ghana is a fantastic place, and to get the most out of it you need a detailed book which covers a lot of area and which points you towards many possibilities. Unlike the first reviewer, I found Briggs' style absorbing and reassuring. Too many guidebooks give you the impression that the writer has travelled around in his or her private vehicle and not explored any of those places without specific tourist attractions. It is clear, however, that Philip Briggs researched his book as most of us travel: independently, on public transport, simply and adventurously. If you lack initiative and intelligence then it may seem like an account of one man's travels, but what a thorough and inspired account it is! Briggs gives us valuable insights into history and suggestions as how to conduct ourselves in a radically different society. He provides us with wry, witty comments on survival in Africa. He gives us pointers to travelling off the beaten track, and opportunities which he never took himself (and I explored them, and was amply rewarded). Most important of all, he provides refreshingly descriptive and optimistic account of his travels in Ghana. If all travellers were as obviously delighted with every little tenet of the country as Briggs is, then the encroaching tourism in Ghana would be nothing to worry about.

Rating:
Summary: Great Chrissie Present
Review: I was presented with this guide as a christmas gift a month prior to leaving for a six week journey through Ghana in 1999. I was thrilled to discover a more comprehensive guide book than those produced by Lonely Planet. Given time to compare notes before travelling it was only to my benefit to carry this guide. As with all guide books information tends to date quickly, therefore it becomes important to future editions for a traveller to make their own contribution to assist others on their journey. As a single female traveller in Ghana this guide book was an easy to use and essential tool, not only did it assist me but others I met along the way. I'd recommend this Guide to Ghana and any future editions to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Most Travel Guides just focus on the southern areas of Ghana, near Accra, Takoradi, Cape Coast and along the coastline. This book covers the entire country and every possible way of getting around.

For example, the Lonely planet's West Africa Guide did not provide information on how to get from Bolga to Wa. This book gave us the bus company, time and price of the trip. When arriving in Bolga we asked how to get to Wa and most of the people there were not really positive, but sure enough the book was completely accurate.

Another example was when we were in the Volta Region climbing Mount Afedzeto. There were no places to stay, but the guide says that if one asks for the Peace Corps on duty, that member will gladly give you a room. Sure enough we had a very comfortable place to stay for the night.

This book is well written and the best on the market. There is an incredibly helpful guide to the animals one will see in Mole national Park and a great general guide about how to get around and what to are "cultural taboos."

The author's writing style makes the book easy to read and allows you to know him well after only reading one section.

It is the only guide book that is fitting for such a diverse and delightful country.

Rating:
Summary: A Complete, Comprehensive Guide
Review: Most Travel Guides just focus on the southern areas of Ghana, near Accra, Takoradi, Cape Coast and along the coastline. This book covers the entire country and every possible way of getting around.

For example, the Lonely planet's West Africa Guide did not provide information on how to get from Bolga to Wa. This book gave us the bus company, time and price of the trip. When arriving in Bolga we asked how to get to Wa and most of the people there were not really positive, but sure enough the book was completely accurate.

Another example was when we were in the Volta Region climbing Mount Afedzeto. There were no places to stay, but the guide says that if one asks for the Peace Corps on duty, that member will gladly give you a room. Sure enough we had a very comfortable place to stay for the night.

This book is well written and the best on the market. There is an incredibly helpful guide to the animals one will see in Mole national Park and a great general guide about how to get around and what to are "cultural taboos."

The author's writing style makes the book easy to read and allows you to know him well after only reading one section.

It is the only guide book that is fitting for such a diverse and delightful country.

Rating:
Summary: Guide to Ghana
Review: This guide is an excellent addition to the body of travel books covering Ghana! As an ecotourism professional working in Ghana I have found Phillip Brigg's book has become the most popular guide book for tourists visiting the country. Brigg's has done a better job than most in actually travelling around the country to verify the situation at various locations. I would recommend this book to all prospective travellers to Ghana!

Rating:
Summary: Let's be objective
Review: This guide was absolutely helpful during my travels in Ghana and I have never gone birdwatching in my life. The guide is written in a friendly way, contains plethera of information, and is certaily more accurate than anything one is able to come by locally. While it is great to take the locally available information and find out about things not necessarily covered by the guide, unless you are happy only knowing that the town you want to travel to is "not too far", you will find this guide a great resource. Unlike the previous reviewer, my conversations with other travelers in Ghana were more along the lines of how extremely useful this book has been.

I spent a month in Ghana and apart from a few restaurants or hotels recommended in the book being closed, and types of roads not being marked on the maps, I found that traveling was much easier with the guide. The fact that there is such a thing as Guide to Ghana is excellent in itself because anyone who has traveled there knows how valuable quick and accurate information is. This guide delivers 95% of the time and is certainly better than any other I have seen. So if you would like some guidance, take this guide. Otherwise you might have a birdwatching free experience that might also involve avoidable bad food and lodging accompanied by hours spent in heat to find it.