Ghana Experience – Part 2 – The Resort

The hotel that Shirley had recommended was the Ramada Resort, Coco Beach. It’s on the eastern side of Accra. After perusing the hotels online, I was looking for something in the $100/night range. This one was $116, fairly reasonable. The pictures online and the various review sites also made it seem like a pretty decent place, so I had booked it for 9 nights. See http://www.ramada.com/hotels/ghana/accra/ramada-resort-accra-coco-beach/hotel-overview for a pretty decent overview (the pictures are very accurate, but there are somethings that they can’t show).

It was pretty late when I got there on Thursday night, so I just checked in and went right to bed. The next morning I followed the signs to the “breakfast restaurant” and partook of the included breakfast buffet. Then I went back to my room and further examined it.

At first glance, it seemed pretty standard – nicely made up beds, desk and chair, small table with two upright chairs, piece of furniture that contained a small refrigerator and the TV on the top (although just an older, i.e. not-flat-screen, model), and ductless a/c unit above the door out on to the small patio (I was on the first floor, upper floors in that building have a balcony instead). However, when looking closely, there were a few items that made it not quite up to US standards.

The brochure listing how to use the phone, where things were located, etc, was missing. When I went to take a shower (it was one of those with the curved glass), one of the upper connections on each door was missing/broken, so you couldn’t slide the door on the normal two rollers, so you had to physically grab both sides of the curved section and maneuver it manually. Plus there were no handles on the inside, so if you managed to close it all the way I’m not sure how you could get out of the shower again! I just left them far enough open so I could get in/out easily and kept the shower head from pointing toward the door. Also the shower pan sloped toward the middle instead of toward the drain so you accumulated a very shallow puddle in the middle. Since that puddle had soapy water in it that also meant that you couldn’t step in the middle without risking slipping and falling. I just kept my feet braced to the outside edges of the pan and gingerly avoided the puddle.

Everything else seemed pretty good in the room – except that I discovered after being there for several days that the bedbugs were coming out at night and so I came home with quite a few big red spots from the accumulating bites.

Outside, things were better. The view of the beach was fantastic, although the reviews mentioned that no one goes swimming in the ocean as it’s quite polluted (see later section on infrastructure). The pool was nice, the restaurant was under a covered thatched roof and served good food (see later section on food). The staff were also very friendly (see later section on people).

On Friday a large group of about 20 high school students from the UK and their chaperons arrived for a week-long cultural exchange. They spent the weekend, then went into the interior and spent the rest of the week interacting with students at a Ghanaian school. There were also a couple of business men there and a few others. Sunday afternoon it was very crowded as the resort allows local individuals to come use the pool (for a small fee). But on Monday the students were gone, the business men had also left for a hotel in the city closer to where they needed to be, and the place was practically deserted. The breakfast restaurant converted from buffet to ala carte as they had too few guests to make the buffet work. I estimate that there were only 4-8 guests in the entire resort – although it was just a fully staffed as when the place was much fuller on the weekend. But it was strange sitting in the restaurant for dinner that evening and there were 6-7 staff and I was the only one occupying a table!

My typical day was to sleep in until around 8, get dressed and have breakfast at the next building, go back to my room for a while and watch some football (the 2015 Copa America was going on at the time), go out by the beach for a while, then go to the lobby (which was air conditioned nicely) and chat with the on duty staff or read a newspaper, then wait until Shirley came to pick me up. After getting back from lunch and afternoon activities, I’d rest a bit, watch some more football, then have supper in the restaurant before retiring for the night.

I like sitting at the tables on the bluff overlooking the ocean – and watching the surf. But after a while you notice that you have trouble seeing very well, and then realize that your glasses are getting a coating of salt because of the spray from the surf. And all that salt is accumulating in your hair, on your body and clothes as well!

The pool was open from 8am to 6pm, but with the sun coming up at 6am by 8 the sun was too intense and I was looking to avoid a sunburn. And only a few times did I get back by 4 so I could enjoy it in the afternoon (by then the sun had dropped behind a few friendly palm trees and I could swim in the shade). The sun sets at 6pm and there is no using it after dark, so I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked.

After several days of a practically empty place, more guests started arriving on Thursday evening and the breakfast buffet was again available on Friday – the day before I left. I checked out at 5:30am that day, Shirley picked me up at 6am to take me to the airport so I could check in for a 9am flight back to the US.

I’d go there again. It certainly was convenient to where Shirley lived. But I’d bring some spray that would kill bedbugs!