Getting Around Ghana on Public Transport

When traveling across Ghana, using public transport is almost unavoidable therefore hopefully this guide to public transport in Ghana will help you to get familiar with public transport options.

 Surprisingly, public transport in this West African country can be either comfortable, relatively quick and on time either uncomfortable, slow and in “African-time style”. The latter is, obviously, cheaper but not that much. I would recommend you to try both “types” of public transport in Ghana, since both experiences are interesting in their own way.

 

Guide to Public Transport in Ghana

The most common way to get around Ghana are buses, trotros (minivans) and taxis.

Travelling by Bus in Ghana

Buses are usually used for longer distances and between most major cities. There are plenty of bus companies that offer the same routes. Roughly, I would divide the into two groups.

 In one group, there are bus companies with better quality buses. These kind of companies have ticket offices where tickets can be bought in advance or just before the departure. In my experience, it is better to buy tickets in advance, especially if traveling before or during peak season, holidays etc, when ticket can be sold out faster. If you are not able to buy ticket at one bus company, you can always try with another one.

These kind of buses have comfortable seats (especially V.I.P. bus company), air condition, they more likely depart on actual time, are relatively fast and don’t stop on the way to pick up more people. Each of bus companies usually has only one station in one city and different bus companies are usually not situated together at the same station.

 

Guide to Public Transport in Ghana bus travel

Good Bus Companies in Ghana

  • STC (State Transport Company),
  • V.I.P.,
  • GH Express.

Bus ticket prices in Ghana don’t really differ, but V.I.P. is just a little bit more expensive. Each of them usually leave couple of times in a day.

When traveling with bus in Ghana, note that you will always have to pay extra for your bigger pieces of luggage. At the STC company, STC staff will weight you luggage and you will pay per kilogram. It is not too expensive, but you are in Ghana, so you can always negotiate with staff. V.I.P. and GH Express don’t weight but just have “fixed” prices for the luggage, depends on the size.

 

Guide to Public Transport in Ghana Taxi prices

In the other group of bus transport in Ghana, there are other (smaller) companies. Their buses are at lower quality and don’t use timetables. Tickets cannot be bought in advance since these bus companies don’t have  their own offices. Buses also pick up more people on the way and can be very slow, but tickets are cheaper.

Trotros

Trotros are simply old minivans.

Guide to Public Transport in Ghana bus travel trotro

Public Transport Prices in Ghana

  • Accra – Kumasi: 40 GHS, 4 hours (V.I.P. bus company)
  • Kumasi – Tamale: 40 GHS, 6-7 hours (STC bus company)

 

  • Standard trotro fare around Accra: 1 – 3 GHS
  • Standard taxi fare around Tamale: from 1 – 2 GHS

 

  • Short distance (approx 3 km) by taxi in Accra or Kumasi: 5 GHS
  • Tamale – Bolgatanga: 12 GHS (trotro)
  • Bolgatanga – Paga border: 12 GHS (shared car)
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Guide to Public Transport in Ghana taxis have yellow belt

 

Transportation from Accra via Alfao to  Lome Togo

An air conditioned comfortable mini Van  go  straight from Accra to Lome!  Or you can find share taxi close to STC Accra to the border with Togo and after crossing border from Ghana to Togo in Aflao town find another local shared taxi. Those dont run on schedule, they leave once the minibuses are full.

You can take mini van  from Madina in Accra to Aflao around 3pm too. They have mini vans almost all day long, waiting time can be anything from few minutes to several people in order to get enough people. It costs 29 GHC, if it has Air Condition icosts 32GHC. After crossing the border you can get a bike to your destination in Lome! 

STC Coach drives from Accra to Lome in Togo, three times a week. Departure schedule on route Accra – Lome is Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. STC Buses usually leave before 6 AM from Accra. Be early! 1st class coach only, price is 45 GHC plus 1000 CFA. You can find more info on their website : https://stc.gov.gh/fares/ Site is in english and french, but beware, it gets hacked from time to time. 

There’s also some night-time departures which probably aren’t useful to someone actually stopping in Lome rather than continuing to Cotonou or Lagos.

 

ghana public transport