Travel Guide Tamale

Tamale, population 370,000, lies 611 km north of Accra. It is the capital of the Northern Region. The "great Muslim city of the North", as Accra likes to call it. The two large mosques set the tone and give the city its Sahelian ambience. This influence can be seen everywhere: in the structure of the houses, in the local cuisine, but also in the number of bicycles circulating here and there. Tamale, a sprawling town with tree-lined avenues, is also the hub of the country's largest region, which produces most of Ghana's rice and cotton. The town center is easy to spot, with its radio transmitter visible from afar, and houses the market and STC bus station.From a tourist point of view, the Cultural Center is well worth a detour, if only to glean some information about the region from the tourist office it houses. There's also a small craft store and a lively, arty restaurant where local musicians sometimes perform. Apart from that, a few bargains at the market (cotton clothes and leather goods) and evenings spent drinking the local Pito millet beer, Tamale doesn't justify a day-and-a-half trip from Accra. Whether you're going to Tamale for a specific reason, or as a stopover on your way to the Far North.