Sankofa Beach House is a special place dedicated to bringing together people with big ideas who are committed to having a great time. The Beach House exudes an atmosphere that nurtures and cultivates opportunities to think deeply about one's life experiences, while discovering different ways to enjoy life alone or in a group. Sankofa Beach House is a "boutique guest house" with seven rooms all totally different from each other. We have no "standard" room. The rooms are designed in a way that attracts different personalities to each of the rooms. In addition to rooms the Beach House is a destination for "Day Visitors" who come for the serenity, lazing in the sun, ocean swimming, beach walks and our custom lunch service. The Beach House is also a great venue for a wide variety of events. The Beach House is located on the outskirts of Accra.The quiet clean beach area is in Langma Village near "Kokrobite" Village and sits on almost four acres of beach front property with a large grass open space.
We stayed two nights at the Sankofa Beach House resort, in the lovely Front row house. The resort is extremely spacious and green. We ate all our meals at the resort since the quality of the food was very good and reasonably priced considering the surroundings. Although there are some simple restaurants within walking distance, at least if you walk east bound towards Big Milly’s. We enjoyed our breakfasts and dinners at the sea shore and liked the solitude. The only company were to nice dogs who always came and greeted us. The comfort in the Front row house was top notch. We also spent some nice time on the balcony overlooking the entire resort. The beach just outside our house was very nice. Rather strong waves which required some attention. We went for some walks in both directions. Unfortunately the beaches beyond Sankofa Beach resort carried a lot of garbage. Many houses and other resorts along the beach seemed to be abandoned and in very bad shape. The Paypal payment facility was very convenient and hassle free, although the WiFi was not operating seamlessly all the time.
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Date of stay: November 2019
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I wondered if we would ever make it to Sankofa Beach house, what with the terrible state of the road that leads to the place. Surely the other establishments along the way of which there are a few, would get together to ensure that something was done to improve the situation. After all it would be good for business, & customers vehicles for that matter.
We booked online for one night stay on the 2nd of July in two rooms, the A frame & Submarine rooms, for our family to spend the weekend together. On arrival we were not best pleased with the quality of the rooms, particularly the A frame. The photos on the website did not reflect the situation on the ground, the roof looked in poor condition & the interior looked old & did not look like it had been prepared properly for our stay. There was a separate building behind & to the side with a lot of stored stuff visible from the block we booked which we considered an eyesore. After a conversation with the person responsible on site & the manager by phone, we got placed in another block which had better rooms in a better location & cost less in total than the original! Even this block had temporary plastic coverings over the roof which were unsightly!
We were also surprised to find that the site did not have any visible security other than the managers on duty & staff on the day! Anyone could approach from the beach as someone did while we were relaxing in the open beach side buildings. He came up to us to beg for money & proceeded to pull up a chair to sit down with us until we asked him to leave! It was difficult to feel totally at ease once we returned to our rooms for the night.
As a family, being together by the beach & away from the hustle & bustle of Accra was nice & the staff did try to do their best for us after the bad start, but it’s the small irritating things, the lack of proper hospitality knowledge & training leading to staff getting defensive even when they are not in the right & not doing a great job that leaves a bad taste.
The site is nicely spread out & is light & airy so that both day trippers & residents can co-exist comfortably & indulge in various activities. We enjoyed the food that we had throughout our stay.
The place has potential, like many places in Ghana, but the owners need to address a number of issues like continuous maintenance, security on site day & night & proper staff training in the hospitality business. To not do so shows they don't care.
That access road though…!
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Date of stay: July 2022
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Room Tip:Book accommodation facing or close to the beach. (Not A-Frame or Submarine!)
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Masao and his team are fantastic! We organized an overnight New Year’s Eve getaway at Sankofa Beach House for friends and family in town for my sister’s wedding and we could not have had a better experience! Masao and his team, particularly Solomon, were incredibly welcoming and accommodating. The service was impeccable and the food is among the BEST food I’ve ever had in Ghana. They also had several delicious vegetarian options that our vegetarian guests could choose from. The beach was clean and the grounds impeccably groomed. I strongly recommend and couldn’t thank Masao and his team more for giving us such an incredible stay! Truly the best way to start the new year.
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Date of stay: January 2020Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Good food. The lentil soup was divine. The supervisor and his serving and cleaning staff were so helpful.
Great activities on the lawn.. hammocks, table tennis, climbing.bine ropes etc.
The road to the hotel is not good and stressful. Google maps also gives a wrong route.
Some of the rooms on the website were taken ages ago and do not look like the photos...they are run down. I was however able to get a swap
The coastline is getting polluted with plastic and old clothes. I believe that's something the ministry of tourism and government should tackle.
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Date of stay: July 2022Trip type: Traveled with family
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Amazing visit to this gem. This resort is for anyone who likes the beach, great food, and service. I will definitely be back to visit again. Prince, William, and the entire staff are so welcoming and warm. We were 100+ satisfied. Thanks to the owners.
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Date of stay: September 2024Trip type: Traveled with friends
Room Tip:The road to the resort has a lot of potholes, so patience is key. It's not a resort issue. Once...
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I have visited a lot of beach resorts in Ghana, and every where I received a very warm welcome. It did not matter I stayed for some short time or I stayed a night. Sankofa beach house has the worst staff working. Specifically a person named EDWARD. A very stupid and a non-profeesional staff. Does not even know how to behave with visitors. Useless staff n useless place. The worst beach resort of Ghana.
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Date of stay: January 2015Trip type: Traveled with friends
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Response from Masao M, Owner at Sankofa Beach House
Responded Jan 20, 2015
Our response to this review is quite short. Edward and I have no recollection of this guest. He never complained to us and indicated he had a problem. We have no idea what his problem with Edward is since his visit was without incident. Edward is a supervisor at the Beach House and has been heregoing on five years. He is an excellent member of our team and a wonderful person. We have no idea what could prompt such a ill will by the writer.
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I found this place on the internet and went because of the photos and reviews. When I arrived I was happy the photos did it justice (which was a relief because the road leading up to the resort will probably be the roughest jeep wrangler worthy you will encounter in your entire trip!). On the phone I was informed they had a range of rooms from about $100-$160 a night and all were available. When I arrived the next day, I was taken to the $160 room and it was recommended because it had air conditioning (which doesn’t really work till 3-4am when you are freezing from the sea breeze but only faintly noticeable fan air before or after that time oddly.) he promised to fix it, but that didn’t happen during my stay.
The accommodation itself was basic and mostly clean (few dusty areas but hey) On the first night, we had fried rice and crab which was glorious (I love the cook Mr. Edward) but the meals got pretty much basic from then on. We were not told the price of the meals, the owner later told me it was 30 Ghana Cedis for regular meals and 45 for seafood dishes but that he would give a third off for a kid’s meal (chicken and chips).
The day before, I asked them how much it would cost to pick us up from the airport they said $10 on the phone, but when we arrived a friend picked us up so we didn’t need the ride. On the day we were leaving, I mentioned that I wanted to go into town and purchase a baseball cap for my son, I discussed this with the owner saying that I could get it on my way to the airport but he suggested I use their driver. Considering the airport was in the same area as the store, I thought I would just pay the $10 fee and go to the store rather than wait for my friend.
The assistant manager Mr. K, (very nice man also) took us to the store and I bought my son a Ghana baseball cap and bracelet etc. total cost about $25. Only to return to the hotel and get a bill for transportation from the owner for $100, for a ‘city tour’. Initially when I saw the bill I thought it was 100 Ghana Cedis and it took me a while to realize he intended to charge me $100 for a ride into town to purchase a $25 item. A ride I could have taken on my way to the airport, as I had mentioned to him earlier. I was stunned and disappointed and it left an extremely bitter taste in my mouth. I never ordered a city tour and if you were going to charge $100 for anything wouldn’t you tell the person beforehand?
He also tried to charge the full rate for the kids meal even after saying it was a third off, and then claimed he meant a third off for the noodles (a $0.50 packet with boiled water, which he initially said we could have free).
On one day out of the three that I stayed they had an event at the premises so the owner and a couple of other people came and spent the day on my porch to avoid the noise of the event. I didn’t want to be rude so I sat there and said nothing, but the reason I was told to take the $160pn hut was the privacy and here I am with 3 uninvited guests and at one point the owner asked if he could go into my hut and take some chairs out for them to sit on……….?
He claims it’s an informal laid back way of doing things but I found it unprofessional, intrusive and lacking at $160 a night.
After my stay at Sankofa, I went to another resort (which Mr. K kept trying to dissuade me from) off the cape coast road and I felt so much better. The rooms are in a similar condition for between $50-$70 a night. The wifi was working (unlike sankofa), the food was the similar for about 30% less. The air conditioning worked the entire time and the staff were equally very pleasant. Breakfast was included in both places.
All in all a very disappointing experience. I paid the $100 fee for the ride because my friend came late to pick us up and we had to check out at 6pm (instead of noon) and I decided to count the $100 as a late checkout fee since he didn’t charge us. I deducted the third off the kid’s meals and paid up my balance but could not get out of there fast enough.
I don’t believe the owner should be in the hospitality business. He owns a home which runs itself because people come to pay to stay there. That’s good for him but that’s all it is, a way to meet new people and run his home at his leisure. In terms of his manner, I found him quite haughty and condescending but I guess he’s earned the right, he is a clever man.
Would I return to or recommend sankofa? Never. But I would whole heartedly recommend the other place. There are many places along the cape coast, unfortunately they don’t have websites, so you are limited by the few online. But if you are adventurous, you could show up, ask a taxi driver to take you to a resort or 2 along the cape coast and take your pick. If you must book something, book for the night you arrive and then take your time the next day to find what you like. Many beach front properties in Ghana, plenty to choose from.
Happy travels!
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Date of stay: May 2014
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Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Masao M, Owner at Sankofa Beach House
Responded Oct 13, 2014
I always appreciate the feedback we get from our guests on Trip Advisor. While we are not perfect and do our best to constantly getting better at what we do, I have learned that certain responses require thoughtful response. I appreciate the positive comments she had for us in her review. Certain portions of the review surprised me thus prompting this response. My greatest disappointment is that I have to see all of the negative comments and complaints for the first time on Trip Advisor rather than from the guest directly. She was here for about 3 nights and never complained of the air conditioning, meal pricing or wifi or the charge for the car rental. With respect to the "car rental," I never suggested that she would be better off renting the vehicle and driver with fuel to pick up a small gift item. In fact, I recall being surprised that she would request a vehicle for such a small errand and thought it was a poor idea. She never asked for the price of the car rental and I assumed cost was not important to her. When presented the bill she never complained and if she had I am sure we would have come to a better understanding. She seems to have confused the cost of an airport pick up with the cost renting a vehicle or City Tour. Even for a few hours, we would normally charge for a full day irrespective of the distance or time. After a few days of spending time by herself and child, we did have a very busy day at the beach. I asked her if she would like to share her terrace with a few guests who were friends of mine. She agreed to sharing her terrace in the afternoon with the day guests and they offered her sparkling non alcoholic juice. I assumed she was happy to have the company for a change. I would have never put on anyone on her terrace without her permission. As for the cost of the room, she picked the most expensive and popular room we have on the site. With two full rooms with ocean view, AC and full DSTV, one and half bath rooms and an ocean terrace. It's difficult to compare the room she chose with almost any other room in our area. Certainly, there is nothing at $50 or $60 comparable to what we offer. That is why our most expensive chalet is the unit most occupied here at Sankofa Beach House. I gave her complimentary late check out. Check out is 12 noon, she departed around 6pm. We do this often and its no problem for us.
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This is a really nice guest house complex right on a peaceful beach 10 minutes away from the activities of the main Kokrobite beach. I slept in a cabin that was 10 feet from the water and the sound of the waves all night was amazing. The owner is incredibly polite and customer-service focused. He custom-makes all your meals to your specifications and the ones I had were great. The rooms are very clean and all of them have running water. Every room or guest house is unique, charming, and interesting. You really feel welcome and like you are a special guest in someone's home. It's more expensive than some of the other places on the beach, but your custom breakfast is included and the level of service makes it feel worth the extra money.
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Date of stay: March 2013
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Cleanliness
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Trip type: Traveled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Masao M, Owner at Sankofa Beach House
Responded Dec 1, 2016
We are so glad you enjoyed your time at Sankofa Beach House and we hope to see you soon!
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If I could give this place a 0 I would. I worked with a tour company and they booked us here. She claimed she had a relationship with the property and had placed guests there before. The place was supposed to be luxury accommodations; I wouldn’t even say it was 2 star accomodations. The food was the only good part about staying here.
- The owner (Macao?) was dismissive and rude. He is 60% of the reason why we hated our experience. He spoke down about and to his staff. He didn’t address most of us directly and when he did it was rude and obnoxious. No need to elaborate further on this in this forum, I think there were personal issues at play here. - The water was not clean. If you caught water in a glass or bottle and held it up, it was brown as if dirt was in the tank. My face broke out as a result. Many of us brushed our teeth with bottled water for fear of getting sick. It was advertised that this place had hot water, I would be lying if I said I took luke warm showers because the water was freezing. - We stayed in the biggest house. They never told us they locked us in at night (and obviously never told us how to unlock the doors) we found out the hard way very late one night when 2 were locked out and 3 were locked in! Thank God this did not end in a life threatening situation. - Since we were in the main house, the staff worked out of there, preparing all meals for the property. The worst part of our trip was that one of our passports was stolen, we believe by a woman on the staff. She never returned after we expressed that we thought it was her, the owner and manager were extremely unhelpful and refused to help at all with the issue. We never saw her or the wallet and passport again. They kept defending her saying their staff would never do that, but two days prior they also told us how hard it was to keep staff and everyone had been there less than a month because of the terrible treatment of the owner. - The next day we decided we wanted to leave. We believe we had an issue because of a miscommunication between our tour operator and the hotel owner but he would no allow us to leave, because she had not paid him yet. Totally understandable, except he refused to communicate with us at all. I was told by our driver that he could not drive us off the property, no words were spoken from the owner to the four women in our group, just to he young man who was with us. Instead, the owner blocked the driveway with his staff, water jugs, and later, cars. He refused to speak to us during the almost 4-hour time he held us captive on his property. He said he didn’t care if we missed our flights (he shouted this from across the lawn). The manager said he didn’t think he wouldn’t get the money, but it was a point of principle at this point. On the FIRST day, the owner and tour operator discussed payment and agreed to accept payment directly from the tour operator, NOT from us, so holding us up was just to be difficult. After having a passport stolen the night prior, this was beyond frustrating and you really couldn't do anything except feel helpless. - One room had AC. As we paid for luxury and this is what it was sold to us as, I have to inform you that this place - The beach is gross. The sand isn’t clean and I was in the ocean for about 5 minutes and a plastic bag clung to my legs. Some of this can be controlled by the guest house. - The wifi was terrible. There were 2 hotspots, one that I don’t think even have minutes on it. The owner also gave it away to one of the other guests during our stay without asking. We were also told there would be wifi throughout and that is NOT true. - There are so many other things I could complain about but I think a hostage situation is significant enough. Don't stay here.
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Date of stay: December 2016
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Trip type: Traveled with friends
Room Tip:I would suggest staying somewhere unless you like BASIC accomodations.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Masao M, Owner at Sankofa Beach House
Responded May 17, 2017
Bingo! I feel like I have hit the lottery. It's unfortunate that guests can rate rate their accommodations, but owners of guest houses and hotels can't rate their guests. This is my chance. If there was a rating lower than zero, they would get one. Of all the guests we've accommodated over the past 15 years, they were clearly the worst. First, let's address the issue of theft. The only confirmed case of theft at the Beach House during their stay is their tour group leader's failure to pay a balance of over $1,300. This amount is still outstanding as I'm writing this response. After asking for an additional nights stay at the Beach House, the guests attempted to "sneak off" the premises after breakfast the following morning. Fortunate for us, we had a Ghanaian Government security personnel on site who detained the driver, their vehicle the guests and their personal effects while we spent three hours negotiating with the group leader a guarantee for payment of the balance. The stand off was resolved when the leader gave us her US passport as a guarantee for payment. Since their departure we have lost all contact with the leader. The Ghana Police, Ghana Immigration and US Embassy are all waiting for her to re-appear. Contrary to what the tour leader told her guests, I've never met the woman before in my life. From reading the review it seems as if the tour leader deceived the group regarding the nature of the accommodations which she booked for them. They were booked in our least expensive rooms. Nowhere in our advertising do we claim to be a "luxury" accommodation, but rather we are a boutique bed and breakfast. We are not connected to the public water system given our location. We tank in treated water from the Ghana Water Corporation. I have to assume this is the first visit to Africa for most in the group. Making a decision to brush one's teeth with bottled water (which we offer complimentary to all guests during their stay) is not that unusual in Africa. In 15 years, we've never had a complaint about water quality. The showers all have hot water. Often, guests are not familiar with how the hot water works and perhaps the writer was confused, but, as far as I know, they never complained until this review. Even if there was a problem with the shower, we would have given them hot water if they had asked us. The guests were staying in the Main House that has three rooms. We are a small bed and breakfast and run food services from the kitchen in the Main House. As a consequence, we need access to the kitchen at all times and we secure the the Main House in the evening and reopen the house in morning at 5:30. These guests were operating under an unorthodox tour schedule whereby, they would leave the Beach House, never give us any indication when they were returning, and typically arrived at 11pm, 1 am 2 am, 3 am and once 7 am the following morning. In each case, the Manager stayed up all night awaiting their return. In the case where some of them got locked out, they did not return all together and failed to inform him that there were others still arriving. One night we ran bar service for them until 4am. We start the next day at 6am. One night they came in at 11pm after having been out all day. The next morning one of the guests complained about a lost passport and money. Our kitchen staff was preoccupied with both breakfast service and lunch prep. There was never really any opportunity for the staff to enter the room in broad day light and take anything. What is more likely is that the passport and money were stolen at either the crowded holiday mall where they changed money, or while moving around all day and night, by the vehicle driver or tour leader. According to the Manager, one of guests in the group believed this was more likely. Nevertheless, the Manager assisted them in filing a police report. The police came to investigate the incident and found no reason to suspect our staff. Lastly, after giving the group a complimentary welcome drink upon arrival at the house I realized that the tour leader and I were not getting along. I asked the Manager to handle all interaction with the group and free me to take care of our other guests. It's true, I actually went out of my way so that I would not have to interact with this group that much. I can see I made a wise decision.
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I have NEVER been treated so disrespectfully when entering into a hotel!! We called the day before going to Sankofa Beach House to set up a reservation to spend the night. When we arrived and parked, the owner barged out of the reception area gesturing rudely at us. We waited in the car to see if he would come speak to us. First, he went to the driver of a bus who had entered just before us. When we opened our window, he did not say hello or welcome, instead he launched into a tirade, "I was telling the other man you can't park here unless you are staying," and "are you with the other man?" and then "oh are you staying?" We replied that we had been planning to but because we would not stay anymore after his treatment, to which he said, "fine" and stormed off. It was truly ridiculous! I don't know how he has gotten positive reviews!! We went and found another place and enjoyed good customer service and a lovely two days at the beach. DO NOT bother going here!!
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Date of stay: January 2018
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Traveled with family
Room Tip:We didn't even stay because the owner was too awful!!
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Masao M, Owner at Sankofa Beach House
Responded Jan 8, 2018
Amazing story! If the reviewer indeed had a reservation, I would know his name. While a person called me the day before suggesting they were sending me someone for lunch or possibly a nights stay, there was no reservation. When the family arrived, they pulled up at at the same time as a broken down empty tro tro. I first talked to the driver of the tro who jumped down and engaged me in a bizarre conversation about accommodation after I informed him where he was parked was for guests in residence. He insisted he was inquiring about a room reservation. I took a breath and allowed him to carry on this fantasy conversation, although I was quite busy sorting out meals for other guests. I asked him if he was with the other vehicle that pulled in at the same time. I thought perhaps he was escorting the other vehicle. He said we were too expensive and pulled out. I would disagree about the "tirade" but if that is the reviewer's impession, I can't change that. I repeated what I had shared with the tro tro driver about parking, the gentleman said he was leaving and that was the end of the conversation. That was the entirety of the conversation. I'm not quite sure how these few words rose to a level of disrespect, the likes of which he had never experienced, but I'm not sure what his life experiences have been like.
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It is a local beach, and clean where landowners rake the beach themselves. It is usually very clean and smooth in front of the Sankofa land, and not sure about conditions for surfing. Never done it.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida87 contributions66 helpful votes
"The road to the resort has a lot of potholes, so patience is key. It's not a resort issue. Once you arrive, the staff is waiting and ready to serve. "
There are more places to choose from in the Kokrobite area.
LOCATION
GhanaGreater AccraKokrobite
NUMBER OF ROOMS
7
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