点评:We booked via email with Kwame, with four months notice. We suggested a route for our dates and he quoted with his preferred hotels and price. We asked to stay in other hotels which he said he would book and we also informed him we weren’t birders but interested in elephants, cats, pangolins etc. He confirmed this was fine and our trip would concentrate on this.
On the first day of our tour Kwame came to pick us up from our hotel (after he first went to the wrong hotel) with our guide Yaw and driver Justice/ Justus. The first stop Kwame choose to take us to was the memorial park but he didn’t seem to be aware it was closed (hmmmm…?) so when we arrived we couldn’t visit so instead took us to the “art centre” next door, really not a very nice introduction to the trip taking us to buy things as the first thing we would do.
We had Justice (Justus?) the driver for 2-3 days and he was a very good driver and had an upbeat attitude. He then had to sort out another tour’s vehicle which had broken down so he replaced himself with another driver Nicholas. We later met this other private tour group and they confirmed they were impressed with the efficiency of Justice sorting out a replacement vehicle so their tour wasn’t impacted.
We had Nicholas for the rest of our trip (trip totalled 20 days), again another very good safe driver, happy attitude, always in a good mood and never got stressed (even with other drivers or the condition of the roads which were terrible).
We were very happy with both drivers.
On the first day of our trip after visiting the arts centre, Kwame left us and we started our tour down to the Cape Coast. All was going well til midday when we pulled in to a hotel we hadn’t requested. Yaw then showed us the itinerary he had been given by Kwame just one month earlier and it listed all of Kwame’s original hotels, not the ones we had requested. Also Kwame had not informed Yaw that we were not birders nor that we had requested to view other animals so Yaw had not prepared for this.
After we discovered this Kwame told us and our guide that he had booked all our hotels but when Yaw called the hotels none had any record of our reservations so Yaw had to book, this was all very stressful and wasted time during our trip. The first night hotel we wanted was full so had to stay at another which was ok but we would of preferred to have stayed at our choice, Kwame said he had tried to book it when we’d requested but it was full but had forgotten to inform us. I don’t believe this is true because Yaw didn’t have any of our hotels on his itinerary and none of the hotels had any bookings when Yaw called them.
Due to this, Yaw did consider our request that we weren’t birders and suggested alternative options of places to visits. We appreciated Yaw reworking the plan at short notice. We had made it clear to him that we were very keen to try to see pangolins but each time we went to a national park we didn’t see any wildlife apart from a few birds. We booked a stay at Zaina lodge in Mole National Park ourselves (as requested by Kwame) and at this park we took the safari tours with the lodge and saw a total of 4 elephants, a handful of monkeys (velvet, green, pata), a few antelope (kob, bush buck), small group of baboons in the three nights we were there.
Each time we arrived at a national park Yaw would inform the park guide (which every park requires all visitors to have) that we wanted to see pangolins, and they would say that the time we had arrived wasn’t the best time, we should of arrived early/ later. And each time Yaw would seem surprised. Unfortunately he didn’t take the initiative to call any of the parks in advance to ask them this so we could have organised our days accordingly, therefore we didn’t see any wildlife apart from some birds and the animals mentioned in Zaina.
Please check very carefully the hotels that Kwame suggests as we found their reviews very poor and why we wanted to avoid them. And our worries were realised with the Hans Cottage which we spent just two of the six planned nights. Avoid it, was horrible, see my review.
On the last days of our trip we also had issues with Kwame advising that meals were not included for days we had booked our own hotels, however at the time we agreed the booking with him he never notified us of this. At the end of the trip he said there was only a few dollars left which we were shocked by, because at the Hans cottage we shared one meal between us each time and when we moved to a better hotel after the two nights that new hotel’a restaurant prices were cheaper than the Hans cottage. So not sure how Kwame was calculating our meal costs in his quote as it definitely wasn’t sufficient.
As we are not birders we have no idea if the birds found in Ghana are unique to the region that you won’t find anywhere else in the world.
If you can see these birds in alternative countries then I would suggest you go there instead as Ghana is not ready for tourists. And due to the lack of other wildlife, i would suggest you consider other countries with greater chances and numbers (like Southern Africa, Amazon etc).
Otherwise if Ghana is the only place to view unique birds then I’d suggest you do your research very carefully to ensure you will be satisfied with what the tour includes, level of service and hospitality standards of the parks, hotels, restaurants you’ll be visiting.
We wouldn’t recommend, as basic customer service, hospitality, tourism services were lacking in basic quality across Ghana, during the majority of our trip from all (hotels, restaurants, national parks, park guides).
Also don’t let Kwame take you to the “arts centre” in Accra, where people are all touting you to buy their replicated arts. He plus Yaw didn’t have any knowledge of quality craft shops that we had to bring to their attention which have social benefits for the population like Trashy bags, wild gecko, global mamas.
翻译:我们通过电子邮件与 Kwame 预订,提前四个月通知。我们为我们的约会建议了一条路线,他引用了他喜欢的酒店和价格。我们要求住在他说他会预订的其他酒店,我们还告诉他我们不是观鸟者,但对大象、猫、穿山甲等感兴趣。他确认这很好,我们的旅行将专注于此。
在我们旅行的第一天,Kwame 带着我们的导游 Yaw 和司机 Justice/Justus 来我们酒店接我们(在他第一次去错酒店之后)。 Kwame 选择带我们去的第一站是纪念公园,但他似乎没有意识到它已经关闭(嗯……?)所以当我们到达时我们无法参观所以接下来带我们去了“艺术中心”门,真的不是一个很好的介绍,把我们带去买东西作为我们要做的第一件事。
我们有 Justice(Justus?)司机 2-3 天,他是一个非常好的司机并且态度乐观。然后他不得不修理另一辆抛锚的巡回赛车辆,所以他用另一名司机尼古拉斯代替了自己。我们后来遇到了另一个私人旅行团,他们确认他们对 Justice 整理出替换车辆的效率印象深刻,因此他们的旅行没有受到影响。
我们在剩下的旅程中有 Nicholas(总共 20 天),又是一位非常好的安全司机,态度愉快,总是心情愉快,从不感到压力(即使有其他司机或道路状况很糟糕) .
我们对两位车手都很满意。
在参观完艺术中心后的第一天,Kwame 离开了我们,我们开始了前往海岸角的旅行。一切都很顺利,直到中午,我们才把车开进了一家我们没有要求的旅馆。然后 Yaw 向我们展示了 Kwame 一个月前给他的行程表,上面列出了 Kwame 最初的所有酒店,而不是我们要求的酒店。 Kwame 也没有告诉 Yaw 我们不是观鸟者,也没有告诉 Yaw 我们要求看其他动物,所以 Yaw 没有为此做好准备。
在我们发现这个之后,Kwame 告诉我们和我们的导游他已经预订了我们所有的酒店,但是当 Yaw 打电话给酒店时,没有人有我们的预订记录,所以 Yaw 不得不预订,这在我们的旅行中非常紧张和浪费时间。我们想要的第一晚酒店客满,所以不得不住在另一家,这没关系,但我们更愿意住在我们选择的地方,Kwame 说他曾在我们要求时尝试预订,但客满但忘记了通知我们。我不相信这是真的,因为 Yaw 在他的行程中没有我们的任何酒店,而且当 Yaw 打电话给他们时,这些酒店都没有任何预订。
因此,Yaw 确实考虑了我们不是观鸟者的要求,并建议了其他参观地点。我们感谢 Yaw 在短时间内修改了该计划。我们已经向他明确表示,我们非常想看到穿山甲,但每次我们去国家公园时,除了几只鸟外,我们没有看到任何野生动物。我们自己在 Mole 国家公园的 Zaina 旅馆预订了住宿(应 Kwame 的要求),在这个公园,我们和旅馆一起进行了野生动物园之旅,总共看到了 4 头大象,几只猴子(天鹅绒,绿色,pata),我们在那里的三个晚上,有几只羚羊(羚羊、丛林羚羊)和一小群狒狒。
每次我们到达国家公园时,Yaw 都会告诉公园导游(每个公园都要求所有游客都有)我们想看穿山甲,他们会说我们到达的时间不是最好的时间,我们应该早/晚到达。每次 Yaw 都会显得很惊讶。不幸的是,他没有主动提前打电话给任何公园询问他们,所以我们可以相应地安排我们的日子,因此除了 Zaina 中提到的一些鸟类和动物外,我们没有看到任何野生动物。
请非常仔细地检查 Kwame 建议的酒店,因为我们发现他们的评论很差,以及我们为什么要避开它们。我们的担忧在 Hans Cottage 实现了,我们只在计划的六个晚上中度过了两个。避免它,太可怕了,请参阅我的评论。
在我们旅行的最后几天,我们也遇到了 Kwame 的问题,他建议我们预订自己的酒店的日子里不包括餐点,但是在我们同意与他预订时,他从未通知我们这件事。在旅行结束时,他说只剩下几美元了,这让我们感到震惊,因为在汉斯小屋,我们每次共享一顿饭,当我们在新酒店住了两晚后搬到更好的酒店时”餐厅价格比汉族山寨便宜。所以不确定 Kwame 在他的报价中是如何计算我们的餐费的,因为这绝对是不够的。
由于我们不是观鸟者,我们不知道在加纳发现的鸟类是否是该地区独有的,您在世界其他任何地方都找不到。
如果你能在其他国家看到这些鸟,那么我建议你去那里,因为加纳还没有为游客做好准备。由于缺乏其他野生动物,我建议您考虑其他机会和数量更大的国家(如南部非洲、亚马逊等)。
否则,如果加纳是唯一可以观赏独特鸟类的地方,那么我建议您非常仔细地进行研究,以确保您对旅行的内容、公园、酒店、餐厅的服务水平和接待标准感到满意拜访。
我们不推荐,因为在我们所有旅行的大部分时间(酒店、餐馆、国家公园、公园导游),加纳的基本客户服务、款待、旅游服务都缺乏基本质量。
也不要让 Kwame 带你去阿克拉的“艺术中心”,那里的人们都在兜售你购买他们复制的艺术品。他和 Yaw 对我们必须提请他们注意的优质手工艺品商店一无所知,这些手工艺品商店对民众具有社会效益,例如垃圾袋、野生壁虎、全球妈妈。