A review of my visit to the Accra Zoo

When you travel with children, you are giving away something that can never be taken away. Experience, exposure, and way of life. — Pamela T. Chandler

By Opie (Simply a mom on a mission to inspire) in Out n About on Mar 21, 2021Mar 27, 2021

With the pandemic and everything going on I am making this conscious effort with my husband to ensure that the kids do not miss out on exploring places. We simply want to drive home the fact that you can still take the kids places on a budget and let them experience environments outside of the home and school. I shared our experience when we went to Fort Prinzenstein all the way in 2017 but they were very young and couldn’t recall the experience.

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My first visit to the Zoo was when I had a school essay back in Primary school on the topic, “My visit to the Zoo.” My dad of blessed memory on hearing this ensured we went to the Accra Zoo to have the firsthand experience so I could write out my essay very well. I remember an ape or baboon called Lucy even up to this day. It was an unforgettable experience! I wanted the same experience for my kids and was quite sad when the Zoo was moved to Kumasi, however some of the animals were kept in Accra (most people are not aware of this).

So here goes, a personal review of our visit to the Accra Zoo.

Location: Within the Achimota Forest

Damage: GHS24 for the 4 of us

Road: It’s about a 3-4 minutes drive from the entrance of the Achimota Forest. Access road is a bit dusty and would need some works to be done on it. In my 6 year old daughter’s own words, “Daddy why are we driving in this creepy place?” hahahahaha

Opening hours: Mondays to Sundays between 9am and 4:30pm

Recommendation: Go with a car or anything that makes it easier to transport yourself unless you psych yourself to have a zoo visit and a walking exercise. In that case wear sneakers. The lions are kept in a separate location and that takes between 20-30 minutes of walking.

What we saw:

You will find these monkeys just at the entrance to the Zoo

The geese at the zoo. They looked like pregnant ducks to me..lol

Baby Antelope or deer (I seem to forget) and a tortoise keeping each other company

There were two giant tortoises in the shed but we couldn’t zoom in well to get a good picture

The fox. The kids can put an image in real life to the rhyme, “Fox, fox, fox! Go into the box, no, no, no! ………

The crane (It has a uniquely coloured head and weird claws)

The bird cage with a beautiful display of an array of birds including the local pigeon..lol

The zebra skin and the spine of an elephant

I am a Donkey, donkey follow me, hee haw!!!!

Task for the kids: Let them know they will be seeing real animals and encourage them to pay attention because they would draw whatever they saw or the favourite part of their entire experience when they get home. It gives you an opportunity to see things from their perspective too.

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Overall impression

It was beautiful to see the kids experience real life animals. They enjoyed every bit of it!

It was also quite a challenge having to capture images because of the netted cages (you really need to zoom in through the gaps in the cages).

It would have been so cool to have a signage with Accra Zoo boldly displayed. It would certainly make a nice background picture and help create the awareness of its existence when visitors post these pics on social media.

An additional revenue source could be generated by shuttling visitors through the zoo especially for those who come without any means of transport. The whole forest has a safari feel which makes me think the current location of the Zoo is highly under utilised. It makes me believe some of the animals were just dumped there to ensure Accra had a zoo. For a better Zoo experience I will advice you try out the Kumasi Zoo (It’s next on our places to go list!). This Accra Zoo is simply put, a “desert” zoo.

Have you visited the Accra zoo recently? What was your experience?

The OMT brand focuses on inspiration, education, entrepreneurship, youth and women empowerment and changing the African narrative a blog post at a time.

Citi News Focus: Accra’s forgotten Zoo in Achimota forest ⏬⏬⏬

Tags: Accra Zoo, Accra's forgotten zoo, exploring places with the kids, family diaries, family tourism, Ghana month, kumasi zoo, local tourism, places to go with the family, places to visit in Ghana, review of the accra zoo, the family of the travelling shades

Published by Opie (Simply a mom on a mission to inspire)

Hi! I am Opie, an introverted mother of two who becomes a talkative whenever topics of mental health and navigating life comes up for discussion. I looovveee to inspire positive change through my blog posts mainly targeted at mothers and of course every other person. I am also not just a Chartered Accountant but a mentor, coach and a quiet but daring explorer of life and places. My content is targeted at inspiring a simple lifestyle of thought, hope and love. The OMT brand focuses on inspiration, entrepreneurship, youth and women empowerment and changing the African narrative a blog post at a time. Like OMT's Digest's tagline goes: I am simply a mom on a mission to inspire! View all posts by Opie (Simply a mom on a mission to inspire)