Live: Ghana Travel Requirements We Answer All Your Questions 🇬🇭

Welcome, glad you're here. So we are today going to be discussing why we want to go live. So the main reason for that is we want to engage with y'all. We really think this is a great opportunity for you to ask any questions that you have about moving to Ghana or about living in traveling to Ghana and life in general here in West Africa, specifically in Ghana. So the first thing that we want to do is discuss travel requirements. You have to be prepared before you get yourself to the airport to find out and certainly you have to change your ticket if you can. Right. So when it comes to travel requirements, the first thing that you're is so that's going to mean that your passport cannot be expiring within six months of your travel time. You need to go ahead and get that ASAP. I was just watching Good Morning America and they had a news report about how everything is really backed up at the U.S. passport office. Do y'all know about that? Have you heard about that? Leave some comments if you have. Processing and expedited shipping. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so that being said, number one thing you're going to want is a ballot. And oh, you also need two empty pages in your passport for your incoming stamp and for your exit. Wanted to drop by really quickly. We'll watch the playback. Thank you for coming in and we will talk to you soon. Hopefully you get some great information from here. We're dropping gems. Who is that? Little baby. Yeah, but hi. OK, so the next thing that you're going to want is the visa. Oh, my God, the visa. So, right. Get your passport because you can't even apply for your visa when you get one. You can get a single entry or multiple entry. Right. Yeah. The multi-entry is a little bit more expensive, but it means that you can enter the country multiple times, like it says. And when you are filling out your visa information, if you choose multi-entry, you don't have to worry about your flight. So that's something that is nice. Right. You don't have to have your flight before you get your visa. And visas are also backed up right now. They're taking quite a bit of time. So that's something that you don't have to wait. Now we've given you the first two items that you have to have before even thinking about coming to the country. So that's going to be your passport and visa. And I think the next one I would call is proof of yellow fever vaccine. Yes. So yellow fever is something that you have to get going anywhere equatorial. So whether you're going to South America, to some of the Caribbean islands, to certain parts of Africa, you're going to need to have your yellow fever vaccination. And that is something that you know, you only have to get it one time. So hold on to your paperwork that when you travel for the rest of your life, you have your yellow fever vaccination. It used to be every 10 years, but at least you're not. Yeah, exactly. And I see a comment here that saying visa on arrival is something that is available. And it's 250 US if you wanted to take that option. Now I will say that visa on arrival, although I have seen it work twice, I also have seen it not work. So I think it's something that you want to be really knowledgeable about before you enter into just assuming that you can get visa on arrival. I would take the time to check to make sure. Yeah, I'd want to have all of my people. So hi, there's six people in here. We'll just take a minute. I just said that a little below. Okay, nice. What's up, everybody? If you want, you can drop in the comments where you're watching from or how you found out we were sharing this video or why you're in the room, you know, anything like that. And also, if you can hit the like button, it really does help us out. It shows Facebook that people are interested in. So vaccinations, there's more than just one vaccination that you need to enter into Ghana. And the second vaccination that you're going to need proof of is COVID. So yeah, proof of your COVID vaccination is required. And they're expecting you to have the two dose COVID vaccine. So Johnson and Johnson, one dose, it's not, it's not happening. I saw someone's watching from the Netherlands. Oh, that's so cool. It's so, it's so cool. It used to be so far away from me when I lived in the US. But now that we're here in Ghana, you're a neighbor just up north. Yeah. So that's amazing. Thanks for watching. So yeah, when it comes to the COVID vaccine, what is really cool is that you don't have to take a COVID test anymore. So if you have your COVID vaccine, you don't have to pay that 150 U.S. to get swabbed into the nose. That's really nice. And then there is one sort of good bit of news. If you, before you leave and you arrive and are unable to prove that you did have that vaccination, Ghana is ready to go and we will vaccinate you right there. I hear it's just 150 U.S. That may change, so don't lock me in on that one, but you're going to get vaccinated if you're coming to Ghana. That's true. So anyway, so now you know three things that you're going to need before coming into Ghana. Let's go, let's talk about it. You're going to need a valid passport. You're going to need a Ghana visa. We recommend multi-entry. You're going to need your yellow fever vaccination and you're going to need your COVID vaccination. What you're also going to need is a round-trip ticket. So Ghana doesn't play. Even though they said it was the year of return, they also said return your butt back to your home country. So you have to have a round-trip airfare, which means that yes, it is. So you know, you can get it for I think as far as maybe six to seven months out. You can get tickets that are changeable tickets. Just know the longer that you stay, the more the more visa extensions that you're going to need to get because Ghana stamps your visa for I believe it's 30 days. And so, you know, the longer you stay, the more stamps you're going to need. And you really should get an extension before your 30 days. We didn't but they made sure to collect their fees before we left the country. Yeah, at the airport. We overstayed. Yeah, I got 60 days. See, and I believe I got 60 days as well when I first came in. I heard that it's 30 days, but that wasn't the case for me. So, but I didn't want to spread false information. Yes, 60 days as well. And I think when you're thinking about your roundtrip ticket, right? So for us, we have a roundtrip ticket and we go back to the U.S. in June. And we've decided to do that year to make that something that we're always going to do. And we spend quite a nice amount of time there with our family. And we're also working. That's when we do the Juneteenth festival. So that's a really fun time for us. If you're in Portland, great opportunity, June 17th and 18th, we will be there at the Juneteenth festival, which is going to be held out in Portland. Easy to Google and it's free. So please stop by and say hi to us. Yes. We'd love to see you. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And we'll definitely get you on camera too. So after your roundtrip ticket, one of the things that you're going to need, and you need this before you even can get your visa, and that is a local contact. So you need to know someone where you're going, where you can have access to their phone number, their address, their full name. Otherwise you don't get a visa. So that's why it's really important to either book a tour group so you can get that information or have a host family or anything that's like where you can get access to somebody because they do check it. And they also require a letter that you, a reception or something like that. It's a welcome letter. Well, I know that someone who lives here in Ghana that is a resident and they're invited to stay in Ghana and you have given your address to the airport and to the government so that when it or let's say they think you've overstayed or any reason why they might need urgency in the U.S. Any of those things are reasons why they want to have your letter. So yeah, please. You also need the, uh, yeah, exactly. And the health declaration is a big part of the contract contact tracing for COVID. Or if something awful were to happen to you because it's got your address in the U.S., your emergency contact in the U.S., you know, we use Toby's mom. So yeah, that's, um, it's super important. And so that being said, we're going to give you some pro tips on what we think you need to bring. Wraps up the sort of required documentation section. Yeah. Let me break it down one more time. Required documentation to get to Ghana. Valid passport. It's at least six months left on it. Yes. Ghana visa. Multi-entry. Recommended. Not required. Vaccinations. Yellow fever. And you need to bring the proof of vaccination. But if you don't, that yellow fever one, that'll really mess you up. And round-trip ticket. A local contact. And that's everything. So what do you need to bring? Obviously all the travel documents we just covered. And then I recommend bringing, can you take it there? Are you speaking about, um, yellow fever or about COVID? Because I did hear that you can get your yellow fever shot here in Ghana, but also they've said you cannot. Okay. Yeah. You can get your yellow fever. I heard in Ghana, but you can't get on the plane without your yellow fever. So I would just get it before. So yes, if there's any questions, please continue to put them in the chat and we will answer them as we go along. I know it is. The yellow fever shot is very expensive in the U S we've paid, I think almost 400 for per shot. And in Ghana, I heard it was only like a hundred. It's a huge difference. So speaking about shots and medicine and whatnot, one of the first things that I recommend you bringing with you is medication and a little bit extra, you know, you never know what could happen and make sure you keep it in your carry on because the luggage gets lost, you know, so you want to have everything that's most important to you in your carry on bag. Oh, you said sound went out. Hopefully it comes back in. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Okay. What should you bring? Yes. Thank you for telling me about the sound. Medication. If you take any, bring a little bit extra of it that way and keep it in your, in your carry on because luggage can get lost or misplaced and you want to make sure you have any of your daily medications, even ibuprofen, Pepto Bismol, you're going to be eating new foods. I found, realized that I got headaches. Oh, that's so weird. So anyway, if you, if you, Toby's, I'm going to tell you what's happening because it's so weird. Toby's answering questions here and so he had it so that I could hear the sound and it was like we're on the radio or I was troubleshooting. So do you want to share about why you would bring medication? No. Okay. Next on the list. I think you need to have sensible shoes. So the ground here is very uneven. You're looking at sidewalks with potholes or sidewalks that end and then it's gravel or just dirt and it's a little bit of a hype often. So you're going to need to have shoes that really prepare you for something like that. Whether it's a, one of those trail sandals or athletic shoe of any type. What's a wedge? Like a heel? No heels. Absolutely not. If you're going to like out dancing, yes. Tevas. Absolutely. I have a pair of Tevas. Yeah, they're our favorites. Definitely highly recommend any shoe like that. Yeah, and nobody here in Ghana is really worrying about wearing high heels except for on Sunday, maybe on Saturday night, but even going dancing, people are in sandals, especially when you're on the, in any of the coastal cities, you know, you're in a beach town. So it's, yeah, you go for comfort instead of for fashion. And I think also, check what season that you're coming here in because the weather fluctuates. It, you know, it might be generally 85 degrees and sunny here year round, but there's still a rainy season and there's actually two of them and they're kind of intense. And if you weren't expecting that for your travel, it might be a little bit upsetting and you might feel as though you should have brought an umbrella because it's going to be raining a lot. Things are flooding. It's hard to get around and that season is actually coming up. The rainiest time of year here in Ghana is June. So, you know. Yeah, I don't, for umbrellas, I don't know if I'd bring an umbrella. It seems like when the rain starts, nobody just, you just stop where you are. You know, a lot of people aren't driving, a lot of people just hiding out at whatever market they're to. Bring an umbrella, but you'll be out there walking alone because everybody else is going to be hiding from the rain. Well, what I've noticed is not everywhere is covered, so. If you don't have an umbrella and you're not near the market, then you don't have an umbrella and you're not near the market. So, I would recommend if you come during rainy season and you're not used to heavy monsoon rains, they bring the appropriate gear for that. Remember, it's going to be very, very hot during this time too, about 100% humidity. So, it'll be, feels like 102 and raining. I love it, but I'm staying inside of my house during this time too, you know. So, I think after that, after clothing appropriate for the weather, I would say bring cash. Cash is king here. You know, you can use your card and withdraw from the ATM, but you're paying ATM fees on both sides. So, if you bring cash and I recommend you bringing $100 bills and you want them to be new, crisp, not folded or wrinkled up and printed after 2009. So, new $100 bills printed after 2009 is like the best way to go to the Forex and then receive the highest amount back without paying fees. Yeah, because we're going to be scrutinizing those bills. Yeah, not at all. And a little story, when I went to the bank to get our hundreds for our first trip here, the teller, I felt to get a little bit, what's the word? It's like she realized I was going on a vacation, right? And I was getting quite a few $100 bills and there was this like jealousy, angsty thing going on and she refused to give me as many brand new hundreds as I needed. She said, we're running low on these. Everybody wants the new ones. So, I went to a different bank. How about that? Anyway. So, what's next after? Are there important things to bring? Yep. Oh, sure, sure. If you're going to bring a water bottle, you probably want to get one of the water bottles. And if you don't, you're probably going to end up with a lot of bottles. So, having one of those is good. Yeah. Tell me which lady. What's that? I just want to talk. Yes, save me. I was in Tiger in Oregon. So, yes, water bottle, definitely important. Another thing I recommend is a USB fan, a portable fan. Oh, my God. I'm going to show you mine. And listen, I tried to get Toby to get one of these fans. I'm in front of her. I'm like, come on. Come on. You need a portable fan. You know, what kind of princess has to run around with a portable USB fan? You know, it wasn't that expensive. It wasn't that cheap either. But boy, I'll tell you, now I think she's a genius. This thing goes, like, everywhere. It's got pretty good power. This is the fan. And it's USB charge. And it's really strong. High, medium, low. This is as loud as it gets. So the power goes out here. And that means if the fans stop working, the AC stops working, you can have all the windows open and the wind isn't blowing. So that's when this little fan comes in handy. I use this thing every single day. Every day. Oh, and you should see her on the airplane. Actually, I think the fan, drink, tablet going on there. Listen, I don't like to get too hot. And I like to be comfortable. So it's really important. And oh, protein snacks, especially for the first 48 hours. You know, it's true. Snacks here are very different. You're not going to. It's not the same. So you'll be in your little hotel room starving. So bring some snacks. Yeah. If you like jerky, bring jerky, candy, anything that you like that's going to offer you a little bit of comfort and nutrition. I would bring it. Nature Valley bars are great. But if you bring snacks for yourself, bring a few for your friends, especially if you're coming to see us, because we like snacks. I need chocolate covered olives, pretty much. We'll get to some more about gifts in a little bit. So as far as another portable item you should bring. I want to say this one. I think this is pretty cool. Portable battery charger. You get one that's powerful enough that it'll help you recharge your laptop. Look into that. But you at least want one for your cell phone. Unless you're somebody that doesn't go everywhere with their cell phone. I don't know those people. And you know what? Buy it and use it for a couple of weeks before you even go to the airport. So you kind of like have an idea how to use it, how long it lasts before it dies too. Yeah, absolutely. I agree. That's something else we use all the time because the power goes out or you go on long road trips. And a lot of people here still don't even have electricity. So you just you need your own power supply. So another thing to bring, I think it's really important, is your favorite personal hygiene products. Tampons and pads are not all made the same. And so definitely if you have preferences on things like that or on your favorite deodorant, you know, if you want a deodorant that doesn't have aluminum in it, that's what I like. It's we actually started to find it. And that's the thing, eventually you will find the stuff that you like. But if you're here either for a short time or you want some of the comforts from the West in the beginning of your time here, you're going to need to bring them with you. Because you do have to kind of go and hop around to find where your stuff is, where your favorite products even like razor blades. We brought a few packs of those for our favorite razors. Yeah, we still have quite a few because you shave a lot less here because you do. It's just a lot more relaxed. You can be a little bit more free. So when you bring these toiletries, also consider bringing gifts for your Ghanaian host or for even like your taxi driver or people that you're going to encounter, the receptionist at your hotel. Anybody that's helping you will get a lot of joy from just even a little American candy or soap or something. Yeah, small toiletry. Anything that shows that you care about what they've done for you and you want to acknowledge that. Those little gifts from afar go a long way. Yeah, they really are. And they're really received well in this house too. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers bars and gummy candies. You know, I'm just saying. So yeah, hit like Dollar Tree or Winco or wherever, you know, get some snacks. So what's the other things that we like to bring? We're going to talk about bug spray and what we think, what we use and what we think about that. Yes, mosquito repellent. Yeah, it's kind of a thing. Yeah, we want some mosquito repellent probably. Yes. I don't really know how to talk about like what's the best mosquito repellent, but I can talk about what we do do. What we do do. What we do do. Oh yeah, that's the punchline to a great joke I just heard. Not jokes. What? Remember? This is serious. Oh no. What was that? Oh, sure. Sure. Hello. Happy to have you. Yeah, what we do for our bug spray solution is we got some nice citronella oil. When we were back in the States, the bottle was like this big and we put like three or four drops in these little tiny squirt bottles with water to shake it up and just dust ourselves really good, you know, and it's not a hundred percent, but like only the most persistent ones come after us. Most of them. I, okay, so let's talk about it. It's, um, it doesn't work that well, the citronella oil, and if you use too much of the essential oil, it can burn your skin because it's strong. So you use enough to keep the bugs away and then you've got weird little rashes, you know, from the citronella oil. If you use a light dose, then you've got mosquito bites all over yourself. So, well, but I'm not trying to get malaria, right? Right. And I'm not trying to spend like all this money on weird chemotoxic bug sprays. I'm just not going to do it. So the citronella oil mostly does it and it's not killing you. It's true. It mostly works. And I think that's something to just keep in mind is that it mostly. And it's economical. That bottle. It lasts. It's lasting us like. Six months. It's a two ounce bottle of citronella oil. Two? Yes. And it's lasting us at least six months, maybe even closer to a year. But as we enter into rainy season, you need a lot more because there's a lot more mosquitoes and the rainy season mosquitoes are the ones that carry the malaria. So it's a, yeah, it's a kind of a, it's a thing, but they do sell citronella oil here in Ghana as well. We've been here almost two years and But mom got it. But she was also hanging out in the bush at malaria hour. And that's something that you're not supposed to do. Just stay inside around between four and six, you know, go out after that because that's when the malaria mosquitoes are most active and hungry and hunting. You just don't get that by mosquitoes. So the next thing that we suggest that you bring is, and I guess you're not really, you are bringing your international phone plan and your wifi, your data. You need to have that internationally because your service isn't going to work over here. And so we have Google Fi. So we have international calling and data, but it's, it's a little bit expensive to use the data. It's actually expensive to use it. It's not expensive, your monthly bill, but once you start using it, it's a little bit pricey. And it's a better overall solution for us since we spend so much time here for visitors who are coming from the United States. I know that Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all offer a very similar $10 a day sort of carrier plan internationally. And I know there's good enough coverage here in Ghana that you're going to see coverage for those three big ones. So yeah, if you're willing to spend that little, little bit extra on top of your normal monthly bill, just $10 a day should keep you pretty connected. And it's not really a little bit extra. You think you imagine that you're here for, you know, two weeks, you're going to be spending $140 on phone service. So something that extra, yeah, extra. So something that I think about, if you were coming here for like a short term stay, let's say you wanted to come for one to two months, I recommend that you go and get a Ghana card. So you can get a Ghana card at any of the Cal banks in, or I'm sorry, you can get a Ghana card at a Cal bank in Accra near the airport, or you can get one in Tukra, which is the Western region. A Ghana card is like a state ID or official state issued identification. Yes. Now to use, to get a SIM card for your phone so that you can start using the local cellular and Wi-Fi data plans, you're going to need to have this Ghana card. But once you do, you can go to any of the local phone companies, MTN, Vodafone. I think there's a few other ones. ATELGO, I believe is another one, but you can go to those and get a SIM card, throw that in your phone, and all of a sudden you have service. And so that's super cool too, with a Ghana card and a local Ghana number. Yeah, yeah. And it's really helpful. Your Ghana card lasts a year. It's great. Even at the airport, all of a sudden they need less of your information for you to like fill it out by hand because you have to scan with a Ghana card. So I recommend that you can get the health insurance when you have your Ghana card. So anyway, those are some of the things that we really think that you should bring. Oh yeah, a Ghana card non-citizen is $120 US. So if you're here for more than two weeks, it's going to pay for itself just for helping you be able to use your phone and not have to use your international data. I'm obsessed with this channel. Yes, that's what we like. Can you see our sweet little background? We made it cute for y'all. Yeah, we have this African print shirt and a painting and a little plant. I should have worn this for today. This, uh, our brother Isaac made this for Toby. I had this made for Toby. Oh, what are you sitting on? This is kente that I ended up, I got in Kumasi in next week's video. You will see last week. Oh, next week in next week's video, you'll get to see this feature actually. And speaking of, have y'all heard about our tour? Oh, well, our family NGO, HUG, which stands for Humans of a Unique Group, is now doing tours and they're awesome. We've done one and it was amazing. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's a lot of work. We learned a lot. We did. Yeah, it was so cool. And the experience, um, we've been sharing it on our YouTube channel and, um, Toby keeps trying to touch me and it's hot. And if you put your hands around my waist again, I'll kill you. We'd have to sit really close right now. It's probably like 90 degrees in here. We can't have on a fan, the fan that we have because you couldn't hear us. So I'm not sweating, but I'm close. I'm not dead, but I'm close. He keeps grabbing me like this. She was leaning off the side and I couldn't see her pretty face. I was trying to get her to come over here. Come here. So back to the tour. Sorry for the interruption. So, okay. The tour that we did was incredible and it was, um, really intimate as well. We got to have our tour-ist get adopted by a Ghanaian family and, um, get written into their family's book. Yeah. And so now they have a place to come anytime they want to visit Ghana. They have a home, a homecoming. And that was the kind of tour that we just finished. The next tour that we have coming up is, um, in July. It's July 24th and it is a 10-day, nine-night tour. So it ends August 3rd and we want to welcome you to experience Ghana, the gateway to Africa. Our upcoming 10-day and nine-night tour includes airport welcome and drop off, all of your sleeping accommodations, daily breakfast, transportation, excursions, personal photography, cultural events, networking opportunities with Ghanaians and with the diasporan communities throughout Ghana, and lifelong connections to the motherland. We're also going to be able to provide you with the local contact that you need for your visa. So if that's something that you're interested in, I highly recommend that you start following those requirements that we shared earlier in the video. So if you don't have a passport, get it right now so you can get that and our non-profit, HUG African Tours, is dedicated to providing a safe and worry-free touring experience for you. All the spots. Yeah, and we know everywhere awesome to go. We have built an amazing community here in Ghana and I can't wait to, like, meet you and welcome you here. Like, come on. Come on down. So again, the tour is July 24th to August 3rd. You can also book private tours with us, so if you had a different time that you wanted to go, we can arrange something with you. We also are doing day tours around Cape Coast and in the so we would love to have you on one of those if you're interested. So there's going to be a link provided in the description box and that is actually a Google form and it's a way that we'll be able to connect with you more and give you further information about this tour and upcoming ones. So yeah, we're just, we're really excited about what this next venture is going to bring for us and for the team that we have working with us, which is mostly Ghanaian and that's something that's really special is we've been able to bring jobs here to Ghana and not just for ourselves but for our Ghanaian family that are very, very, very skilled in the hospitality industry and so yeah. Anyway, thank you all for your support today, watching this video and your comments and it just, it feels really good to have this channel. Did you know that we're almost at 2,000 subscribers? Yeah, we're pretty big news. I'm tripping. It's so like, what? When did that happen? I swear we were just begging people for a thousand. We got a few likes. Just give me a like or two, please. And yeah, we have and I guess I hope that you guys don't think that I'm bragging because truly I feel like I owe all of this stuff to y'all for your just constant support and for sharing. So yeah, thank you. We have a short, those are the little short videos that has 56,000 views and a video that we've, yeah, a video we put out two weeks ago about welcoming our first tour to the motherland has 11k views and so we're just, we're forever grateful, grateful to God, grateful to y'all. So, Audra, hi. Glad that you made it in. Hope that you get some really useful information from this video and yeah, I think that we're finished. I'm ready to turn on the air conditioning. Thanks for coming out, you guys. We really appreciate being able to connect with you. Thanks for your comments and we hope to see you again soon. Yes, smash that like button. Bye.