Upon arrival in Ghana’s capital, we transfer to our hotel. As guests’ arrival times vary, we have no group activities or meals planned.

We get our first taste of this vibrant and pulsating Atlantic Coast city on our full-day tour. Highlights include the historic Jamestown neighborhood; fountain- and statue-filled Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, dedicated to the memory of Ghana’s first president; a visit to a woodworking shop specializing in “fantasy coffins” – unique handcrafted coffins that are collected and displayed in museums worldwide; and the W.E.B. Du Bois Center for Pan African Culture, where the American sociologist spent his last years. Tonight, we gather for a welcome dinner at a local restaurant.

This morning we travel by coach to the former Gold Coast where Africans from across the continent were held in forts and castles before being forced onto the ships that would take them to the Americas. We reach the fishing village of Elmina in time for lunch at a local restaurant then embark on a tour of 15^th-century Elmina Castle. A one-time trade settlement whose dungeons held tens of thousands of enslaved persons, Elmina Castle today is a UNESCO site and Ghanaian national museum. En route to our hotel, we see Elmina’s Posuban Shrines, whose unusual statues have historic roots in Fante tribal culture. We dine tonight at our hotel.

Our enlightening odyssey continues this morning at the Cape Coast Castle, a UNESCO site that houses a museum documenting the slave trade. Between 1662 and 1867, more than 500,000 captive Africans were held here. This afternoon, we visit Kakum National Park where we have the opportunity to experience the rainforest from above on one of the world’s longest and highest canopy walkways and to hopefully glimpse some of the park’s resident Diana monkeys, giant bongo antelope, and African elephants, among other fauna.

En route to Kumasi today, we visit the Assin Manso Slave River Site, once a slave market and now a memorial site. Then we continue on to Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, historical and spiritual capital of the powerful Ashanti Empire (1670-1957), and modern home of the Asante people. This afternoon, we take a guided tour of the Prempeh II Jubilee Museum, with its rich collection of Ashanti artifacts, including colorful kente cloths and an authentic reproduction of an Ashanti house.

This morning we meet the Akan people, known for their rich culture heritage and skilled craftmanship. We see this artistry on display at a market selling locally crafted woodwork and at a weaving workshop that produces intricately designed kente cloths. Then we don the colorful cloths ourselves as we join in a time-honored ceremony to receive our Akan names. We continue our discovery of the “Garden City of West Africa” this afternoon at the Manhyia Palace Museum, housing a collection of gold jewelry worn by the Ashanti court.

It’s a day of travel as we leave Kumasi this morning for Akosombo, a tranquil town on Ghana’s Volta River. We stop for a light lunch en route and dine tonight at our resort hotel.

This morning we visit an artisan of the Krobo tribe, known for their crafting of traditional handmade Cedi glass beads. We watch a beadmaking demonstration then are invited to try our hand at fashioning these ornaments ourselves. Once known as “trade beads” for their use as currency during the slave trade, today the beads are valued for their beauty and artistry. Our afternoon is free to relax and enjoy the amenities of our riverfront resort.

We encounter some of Ghana’s remarkable scenic beauty on today’s boat excursion on the Volta River. We pass rolling hills and valleys, glimpse people in riverside fishing villages, and relax as we cruise amid the lovely scenery. Then we return to our hotel for lunch and an afternoon at leisure.

We leave Ghana today bound for the tiny nation of Togo, known for its natural beauty, friendly people, rich cultural heritage (more than 40 ethnic groups coexist here), and formerly as the Slave Coast for its role as the heart of the slave trade. We reach Lomé, Togo’s capital, midday and have lunch at a local restaurant. Later this afternoon, we visit the Palais de Lomé, an African arts and cultural center that once served as the country’s colonial headquarters.

One of the few world capitals that borders another country (Ghana), Lomé today reflects its German, British, and French colonial past, as we see on this morning’s city tour. We visit the Grand Marché, the vast central market with goods of all kinds, including the fame d “Nana Benz” stalls and their textiles. We also see the German-influenced buildings of the colonial period as well as the modern architecture that graces the city. Dinner tonight is a small group highlight as we participate in a cooking class at a local venue, where we learn about and savor traditional Togolese cooking.

We take a boat ride this morning from Le Lac to Togoville, a center of the practice of Vodun (voodoo) on the shores of Lake Togo. Here we explore the village, where a priestess teaches us about Vodun ceremonies. Then, a boat ride back to Le Lac, where after lunch we journey to Cotonou. We make a quick stop in Aného, scenically perched between the ocean and Lake Togo. From here we cross the border into Benin, traveling on to Cotonou. Dinner tonight is on our own, with several options at our hotel.

Once an active slave trading port, Ouidah today memorializes its ignoble past with monuments of the Slave Route, including the Door of No Return memorial arch, the site where more than one million Africans were taken to the ships that would bring them in bondage across the Atlantic. We travel this road ourselves on this morning’s illuminating tour. We also visit Ouidah’s Temple of Pythons, housing the snakes important to the Vodun religion. Later, we attend a Zangbeto mask dance, an important Vodun practice featuring swirling performers adorned with layers of palm leaves and hay.

A motorboat ride across Lake Nokwe this morning brings us to the floating village of Ganvié, with its colorful stilt houses. Here, members of the Tofinou ethnic group live much as their ancestors did when they fled to escape the slave trade in the 18^th century. Midday, we return to our hotel, where we celebrate our discovery of West Africa over a farewell lunch. This afternoon is at leisure in our day rooms before our evening departure for the airport and our return flights to the U.S.

We arrive in the U.S. today and connect with our return flights home.