Written by Chris Scott
You have done your homework preparing for your trip to Ghana using the Bradt Travel Guide and the internet. You have made your hotel bookings online and you have arrived in the country. To get to your hotel, you charter a more expensive, less hassle, airport taxi found to the left of the exit to ‘Arrivals’, or a public taxi found across the road from ‘Arrivals’ in the public parking area. You give the driver the name of your hotel, only to receive a comment to the effect that the hotel is closed temporarily for some reason or another and such and such hotel is a better choice. This is a scam. Many drivers have made prior arrangements with certain hotels to get hefty commissions when they bring tourists. Insist on your hotel – whatever.
Or … you have chartered a car-hire company to take you around to major centres outside Accra. You are approaching a certain city and the driver says he will call on his mobile, or yours, the hotel you have booked over the internet to ask for directions. Often the driver will feign the call and then give you some excuse why you can’t go there – ‘they are fully booked’, ‘they are overbooked’ – and then take you to the hotel where, again, he would collect a big commission. Insist on talking to the hotel yourself or, better still, call the night before to confirm your reservation.
For more info on travelling in Ghana, check out our guide:
