Ghana

Here are my lodging picks in ascending order of cost, starting with the cheapest:

The residential Asylum Down area of Accra is a quiet refuge from the city's hopping streets, but still close to the action. Safe and tranquil, it's the recommended area to stay in Accra. For intrepid backpacker types, the pink-walled Lemon Lodge (2nd Mango Tree Avenue; 21/227-857) is not nearly as bad as its name may imply: seven basic double rooms with cement floors, double beds, private baths, and ceiling fans go for a laughable 54,000 cedis ($6) a night per person.

Right next door to the Lemon Lodge, the Korkdam Hotel (21/226-797, 21/223-221) is for more mainstream travelers. Twenty-one large and clean rooms come with private baths, air-conditioning, and TVs for 310,000 cedis ($35) per person per night. Fully cooked breakfasts are available in the hotel's dining room for only 17,000 cedis ($2.20).

Another good value in Asylum Down is the Beverly Hills Hotel (21/224-042) at the intersection of Samora Machel Road and Farrar Road. Although the street is busy, the hotel's 12 simple rooms are serene, cost $30 per person, and include air-conditioning, private bath, TV, and radio. Slightly larger rooms with all that and a fridge cost $40 per person. Breakfast is available upon request for 27,000 cedis ($3).

The nearby Gye Nyame Hotel (Ring Road; 21/223-221) offers 180,000-cedi ($20.25) per-person rooms with all those amenities in a carpeted two-story building, complete with a bronze African statue in front and a cozy wood-paneled dining room, where cooked breakfasts are a mere 20,000 cedis ($2.25).

Coastal castles and friendly fishermen

During the slave trade of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries, millions of human beings were shipped in chains from West Africa and funneled through Ghana's coastal slave fortresses. Often up to half perished in dungeons like animals. Visiting these huge structures (most are UNESCO World Heritage sites) has the emotional impact of stepping into a WWII concentration camp--many visitors simply break down into tears.

One of the most impressive is the Cape Coast Castle, roughly 90 miles west of Accra. Begun as a lodge by the Dutch in 1627, this white castle towers over Cape Coast town, and houses a superb museum on Ghana history and culture (built with help of the Smithsonian). The entrance fee is a mere 30,000 cedis ($3.40).

The best place to stay near Cape Coast is the unique Han's Cottage Botel (Kakum National Park Road; 42/336-23), about a 15-minute drive away. Thirty rooms (doubles ranging from 133,000 to 310,000 cedis/$15-$35) are situated next to a man-made pond filled with live crocodiles, and you dine on inexpensive meals (30,000 cedis each/$3.40) served on open-air, thatched-roof decks built over the water, with live music on the weekends.

Another 20 minutes north of Han's is the breathtaking Kakum National Park, not to be missed. This lush outdoor attraction is a mixture of rain forest and semideciduous forest, with 250-foot trees from the silk cotton family jutting high up above the canopy to create a dreamlike landscape. The highlight of Kakum is the 1,000-foot-rope-and-cable walkway strung up hundreds of feet above the forest floor-not for the faint of heart. Knowledgeable guides teach visitors about the endangered wildlife and are included in the park entrance fee (90,000 cedis/$10.10).

A 15-minute drive west of Cape Coast is the oldest and largest European structure in sub-Saharan Africa: St. George's Castle in friendly Elmina (entrance 30,000 cedis/$3.40). First built in 1482, Christopher Columbus visited it before he sailed to America. Around the monumental castle, you can watch fishermen chant while dragging their colorful boats ashore.

In Elmina, stay in the Coconut Grove Bridge House (42/345-57) right across the street from the castle. Ten spiffy rooms reside in a two-story stone house, with single rooms starting at $40, going up to double rooms for $45 per person per night (rates include continental breakfast). Meals like fried chicken and rice cost 31,000 cedis ($3.50). Guests can utilize the pool and sports facilities at the nearby Coconut Grove Beach Resort for free.