Accra with Kids
Family travel guide for parents planning with children
Top Family Activities
The best things to do with kids in Accra.
Labadi Beach Horseback Riding
Local handlers guide gentle horses along the shoreline while your kids squeal with delight. The smell of coconut oil mixed with sea spray creates an authentic Accra memory. Vendors sell fresh coconuts for hydration, and the rhythmic sound of waves provides natural white noise for naptime afterward.
Museum of Science and Technology
This underrated museum in downtown Accra offers hands-on exhibits that work. Kids can crank generators, peer through microscopes, and climb into vintage planes. The air conditioning provides sweet relief from Accra's heat, and the planetarium shows give overstimulated kids a dark, quiet space.
Shai Hills Resource Reserve Day Trip
Just 45 minutes from Accra, you'll spot baboons, antelope, and exotic birds against rocky outcrops. The morning game drive feels like a mini-safari without the malaria risk. Pack breakfast to enjoy at the hilltop viewpoint where cool breezes provide natural air conditioning.
Artists Alliance Gallery Workshop
This Nima neighborhood gallery runs weekend art classes where kids create traditional kente patterns or bead jewelry. The gallery owner, Ablade Glover's daughter, personally teaches families. You'll leave with authentic souvenirs your children made, not tourist trinkets.
Jamestown Lighthouse Tour
The 107-year-old lighthouse offers 360-degree views after a manageable 100-step climb. Local kids often guide families, sharing stories about their fishing community. The nearby boxing gym lets you watch future Olympians train, and the smell of fried plantain drifts from street vendors.
Accra Mall Indoor Playground
When Accra's heat or rain hits, this air-conditioned mall playground saves the day. The soft play area accommodates different age zones, and the food court offers familiar options for picky eaters. It's also where you'll find the city's best-stocked pharmacy and western baby supplies.
Best Areas for Families
Where to base yourselves for the smoothest family trip.
Accra's embassy district offers the most reliable utilities and safest streets for family strolls
Highlights: Wide sidewalks, 24-hour pharmacies, international schools with playgrounds you can use on weekends, American-style supermarkets with familiar baby products
Convenient to Kotoka Airport with minimal traffic for early flights and emergency departures
Highlights: Accra Mall proximity, hospital with pediatric unit, tree-lined streets that provide shade for stroller walks
Accra's suburban expat hub offers the best balance of local culture and western amenities
Highlights: A&C Mall with indoor playground, international schools with weekend sports facilities, multiple pediatric clinics
The city's most walkable neighborhood puts attractions, restaurants, and beaches within strolling distance
Highlights: Labadi Beach access, Oxford Street toy shops, Fort Christiansborg for history lessons, street food that's safe for kids
Family Dining
Where and how to eat with children.
Accra's dining scene welcomes families - you'll never feel rushed or judged for messy eaters. Most restaurants have high chairs (though they might be the wooden variety), and servers automatically bring extra plates for sharing. The local custom of eating with hands means toddlers fit right in.
Dining Tips for Families
- Order 'red red' (black-eyed peas with plantain) - it's naturally sweet, protein-rich, and every kitchen makes it mild for kids
- Request 'light soup' instead of spicy versions - most restaurants will prepare a separate mild portion for children
- Beach restaurants in Labadi let kids play in sand while you eat - bring a change of clothes
These no-frills spots serve Ghanaian staples like jollof rice and grilled chicken. Kids love the sweet fried plantains, and portions are generous for sharing. The casual atmosphere means noise isn't an issue.
Movenpick and Kempinski lay on Accra's most over-the-top Sunday brunches: pancake mountains, chocolate fountains, dedicated kids' stations, face painters and full pool access. Expat families treat it as their weekly clubhouse, so your crew will have instant playmates while you linger over a second cup of coffee.
Labadi and Kokrobite beach shacks grill snapper the same hour it's pulled from the ocean, served with a pile of fries. Between courses your gang can build sandcastles while the surf drowns out any meltdowns. Pack baby powder. It lets you brush sand off in seconds before you hop back in the car.
Tips by Age Group
Tailored advice for every stage of childhood.
Accra will throw heat, scarce changing tables and friendly strangers who can't resist pinching baby cheeks. The payoff: wide beaches, hotel pools and Ghanaian "aunties" who'll scoop up your toddler while you finish your jollof.
Challenges: High chairs are rare, bathrooms almost never have changing tables, and locals may lift your toddler for a cuddle without asking, decide how you want to handle it.
- Pack a fabric clip-on high chair. Most eateries stock only adult-sized wooden seats.
- Pack children's paracetamol - local pharmacies stock different brands
Eight- to twelve-year-olds are the perfect age for Accra's tactile lessons: feeding baboons at Shai Hills, locking into drum-circle rhythms, comparing Ghanaian classrooms to their own. Slave-castle history turns from textbook paragraphs to something they can walk through and touch.
Learning: One city, four field trips: living history inside coastal forts, ecology among the botanic gardens' canopy walk, supply-and-demand arithmetic in Makola's aisles, and language variety in every street-side chop bar.
- Give them a disposable camera - they'll notice details adults miss
- Download offline maps - let them navigate using landmarks
Accra's fresh creative scene hands teens the Instagram props they crave, Afrobeat studios in Nima, technicolor murals in Jamestown, start-up pitches at iSpace, while keeping risk levels low enough for parental peace of mind.
Independence: Daylight solo missions work fine: Oxford Street's clothing stalls or Accra Mall's food court. After dark, switch to Uber. Plenty of teens bounce between hotel and nearby attractions while parents book a spa slot.
- Buy a local SIM card - they'll love having data for social media
- Let them plan one day's itinerary using Google Maps
Practical Logistics
The nuts and bolts of family travel.
Uber and Bolt both list a car-seat option, type the request in the notes and most airport drivers show up prepared. Trotros are cheap but sardine-tight; forget fitting a stroller. Hiring a car with driver runs about the same meter price as point-to-point taxis yet lets you pull over for naps or diaper swaps. Central Accra roads are paved but cratered. Bring a light stroller with real suspension.
Nyaho Medical Centre in Airport Residential keeps English-speaking pediatricians on duty and a 24-hour pharmacy. For real emergencies head to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. But arrive before 8 a.t. to dodge the queues. Accra Mall pharmacies stock imported formula and diapers, local brands cut smaller. Malaria prophylaxis for kids is standard. Raise it with your pediatrician before you fly.
Ask for ground-floor rooms or ones beside the lift, many Accra hotels still skip ramps. Insist on quarters far from nightclub zones, common in Osu properties. A working pool is non-negotiable for cooling down. Email ahead to confirm it's open, not just ornamental. Airbnb hosts will usually haul out cribs and a box of toys if you message early.
- Battery-operated fan for strollers - Accra's humidity is no joke
- Rehydration salts - kids dehydrate faster in this climate
- Long-sleeved rash guards - stronger sun near the equator
- Baby powder for instant sand removal at beaches
- Portable blackout curtains - streetlights and early sunrise
- Hit Makola Market before 10 a.m. for bargain bananas, plantain chips and sachet juices. Vendors expect banter, practice your Twi numbers and start at half the quoted price.
- Several museums and monuments quietly run "resident rates." If you've booked accommodation for more than seven nights, smile and ask. The desk clerk usually nods.
- Hotel pools often sell day passes cheaper than beach clubs for family swimming
Family Safety
Keeping your family safe and healthy.
- ! Keep a wad of and 5 cedi notes. Street sellers seldom carry change, and haggling too long draws a crowd.
- ! Slap on sunscreen half an hour before you hit Labadi, equatorial sun ricochets off pale sand and water, doubling UV dose.
- ! Arm the kids with "Me ho yε, medaase" in Twi. Persistent souvenir hawkers usually retreat once they hear the local tongue.
- ! Inspect every bottle seal, some vendors top-up with tap water. Stick to Voltic or Awake brands and you're safe.
- ! Hold little hands tight in markets. The mix of shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, stray motorcycles and open gutters is a trip-and-fall waiting to happen.
- ! Download WHO malaria-treatment charts before you board; Ghana's strains differ and local protocols may diverge from your pediatrician's script.
Book Family Activities
Top-rated family experiences in Accra.
Ghana Heritage Tours - Beyond The Return
A tour celebrating your cultural heritage, traditional and modern day Ghana. An educative, spiritual, journey of reflection, following the footsteps of your ancestors as we connect to motherland Afric
Cape Coast and Elmina Castles Day Tour
This tour will take you on a journey which will expose you to the activities of the slave trade era and the effects it had on communities, nations and humanity as a whole. Travelers will also get to e
African Drum and Dance Lessons
Get a feel for true Ghanaian culture by learning some well-known drumbeats and rhythms on a different range of Ghanaian drums. For the ones interested in working up a nice sweat you can learn some Afr
Makola Market Walking Tour
Get a rare and exclusive access to sections of the market which give you the best the Ghanaian way of life and trading. Learn the history and structure and organisations of our markets.
Full-Day Private Culture and History Tour of Accra
Experience real local life. Get to know how people commute daily in the city. Learn some great history of Accra.
Full Day Tour Waterfalls Quad biking and Aburi Botanical Gardens
This experience starts off with a tour of Aburi Botanical Gardens where the beauty of botany and the historical medicinal values of these trees. It continues to an adrenaline off road quadbike adventu
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