Kumasi is the Asante capital, and everything worth your time comes off that. Start at Manhyia Palace, where the kings lived until 1974, then give a morning to Kejetia, the largest market in West Africa. The craft villages ring the city: kente at Bonwire, adinkra at Ntonso, carving at Ahwiaa. Two days covers it; a third buys Lake Bosomtwe.
Accra is the capital of Ghana. Kumasi is the capital of the Asante, and has been since the 1680s. The king still sits at Manhyia, the market still sets prices for half the country, and the cloth is still woven by hand in villages you can reach before lunch.
The British built this house in 1925 for Prempeh I, returning him after 28 years of exile in the Seychelles. Asantehenes lived in it until 1974. The rooms are kept close to how they left them, down to wax figures of the king and the queen mother.
Kejetia runs to roughly twelve hectares and more than 8,000 stalls, rebuilt as a covered market that opened in 2019. Traders group by trade rather than by aisle, so cloth, tomatoes and salvaged car parts each have their own quarter.
Okomfo Anokye is said to have planted this sword where he called down the Golden Stool and bound the Asante states into one nation. It has not moved since. The site sits inside the grounds of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, which is stranger than it sounds.
Opened in 1954 for Prempeh II's silver jubilee, this single room holds the king's war dress, his ceremonial gold and a replica of the Golden Stool, along with the treasure bag attributed to Okomfo Anokye. The cheapest hour of context you can buy before the palace.
Bonwire has woven for the Asante court for centuries and the looms still run in the open along the main street. Weavers work narrow strips that are sewn into a cloth afterwards, and most will sit you down to try it. Eighteen kilometres northeast.
Ghana's only natural lake fills an impact crater 27 kilometres southeast, ringed by forested walls that drop straight into the water. The Asante hold it sacred: souls are said to come here to take leave of their god. Abono is the village most visitors use.
The British rebuilt this fort in 1897 on the site of an Asante one, and it held through the 1900 siege that Yaa Asantewaa led. It is now the Ghana Armed Forces Museum, running from the world wars to Ghana's peacekeeping deployments.
Ntonso prints adinkra with blocks carved from calabash and a black dye boiled down from badie bark. Each symbol carries a proverb, so the cloth is read as much as worn. The workshops hand you the stamps and let you print a length to take away.
Ten earthen shrine houses are all that survives of Asante court architecture, and UNESCO inscribed them in 1980. Besease, twenty kilometres east at Ejisu, is the one set up for visitors: four rooms around a courtyard, walls in adinkra relief.
Bobiri was gazetted in 1939 and is still the only butterfly sanctuary in West Africa, with around 400 species across some 55 square kilometres of wet forest. Trails run from a forestry guesthouse, and the research station means the trees are labelled.
A city of workshops rather than a market: over 200,000 artisans rebuilding engines.
The 1925 royal residence, lived in until 1974 and left close to how the kings kept it.
Opened in 1954 for the king's silver jubilee. War dress, regalia, a replica Golden Stool.
Ghana's only inland fort, rebuilt in 1897 and besieged in 1900.
The sword said to mark the founding of the Asante nation, on hospital ground.
A 1956 cultural complex with craft workshops and the Jubilee Museum on site.
Long-running Chinese kitchen on Harper Road, among the Adum shopping blocks.
West Africa's only butterfly sanctuary, gazetted in 1939, around 400 species.
A 13 sq km reserve around a reservoir, with over 140 bird species recorded.
Nine Sundays a year the Asantehene receives his chiefs in the courtyard at Manhyia.
The Wednesday half of the same 42-day Adae cycle, quieter and easier to get near.
Ghana declared independence in 1957. A national public holiday.
Kumawu, about 50 km northeast, holds its annual festival each March.
Both are national public holidays, so banks, offices and museums close.
Ghana became a republic in 1960. A national public holiday.
The largest Adae of the cycle, tied to the cleansing of the Golden Stool.
A national holiday for the harvest, taken seriously in cocoa country.
Kumasi's only airport, with a 2024 terminal built for 800,000 passengers a year. Africa World Airlines and Passion Air fly Accra in about 40 minutes.
Roughly 250 km on the N6, four to six hours. The rail line reaches Kumasi but carries no scheduled passenger service.
Shared minibuses leave from Kejetia and from under the Asafo Interchange, filling before they go rather than running to a timetable.
Cassava and plantain pounded smooth, swallowed rather than chewed, eaten with soup.
Rice pounded into balls, dropped into groundnut soup. Sunday food here.
Roasted corn flour stirred through palm nut soup until it sets.
A clear tomato and pepper broth with goat or fish. The default with fufu.
Palm fruit boiled down to a thick red soup, and the Asante favourite.
Boiled yam or plantain with a stew of blended cocoyam leaves.
A green soup of cocoyam leaves, lighter than palm nut.
Mashed plantain with palm oil and egg. Ceremonial, and good at any hour.
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