Aburi Things to Do

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The main attraction of Aburi is the old Botanical Garden. This park was started by the British and opened in March 1890. Today the gardens measure a total of 65 hectares at the top of the hill of Aburi: at heights between 370 and 460 metres above sea level. This height makes that the climate here is always cool, much cooler then further towards the coastline.

All the plants and trees you see in the Botanical Gardens were planted around the old sanatorium, in the middle of the park. The British collected all the plants they could find in their colonies as well as the trees. The result is a great mixture of local trees and ones from other exotic places. Some interesting places in the Gardens are the giant Kapok-tree that is right in front of the former Sanatorium, a "lying" palmtree very close to this Kapok, the "palm-walk" that is 275 metres long: a long lane with giant palm trees at both sides of the road, that is the mainentrance to the park and an interesting "strengling ficus" at about 150 metres behind the Resthouse.

Besides these extraordinary trees, there are nice places in the Botanical Garden like a retired helicopter that was left here by the British, a romantic lane, "Lovers Lane" that is all covered with roses, and an area with the "brown gold" of Ghana: cocoa. And besides all the plants and trees, the gardens are a great place to enjoy butterflies, birds and multi-coloured lizards.

The Aburi Botanical Garden is visited by many people every year. Some famous people have planted trees as a memory to their visit, like Queen Elizabeth of England in 1961 and Prince Charles in 1977.

To enter the Gardens you have to pay an entrance-fee of 20.000 cedis ($ 2,-) but when you stay in the ABG Resthouse, inside the gates you only have to show the bill of the Resthouse to get a free entrance.