Palm avenue
Towering trees on both sides.
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Aburi Botanical Gardens is a garden in the town of Aburi in Ghana's Eastern Region, on the Akwapim hills above Accra. Covering 64.8 hectares, it is a leading centre of horticulture in Ghana and West Africa and a favourite escape from the capital's heat. It opened in March 1890, founded by Governor William Brandford-Griffith and Dr John Farrell Easmon, a Sierra Leonean physician. The site was previously a sanatorium built in 1875 for Gold Coast government officials. Alexander Worthy Clerk supervised the clearing of the land, and William Crowther, a student from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, became the first curator in 1890. The gardens helped spread cocoa production in southern Ghana by supplying seedlings and know-how, and later rubber after 1893. You walk long avenues of towering royal palms and come out on broad green lawns under huge trees, some draped in climbers. Flowering air plants decorate the trunks, and visitors wander among local and imported species. The gardens also hold the shell of an abandoned helicopter, where many stop for photographs. The gardens lie about 27.6 km from Accra in a straight line, and the air here is relatively cool. The mountain road is winding, so choose the morning to avoid weekend traffic. The paths are easy and suit families, but do not pick the plants. Bring food if you want a picnic on the grass, and leave the place clean.
Towering trees on both sides.
Green grass under huge trees.
An abandoned shell in the gardens.
Aburi, Eastern Region, Ghana
Yes, it is about 27.6 km away in a straight line, and the air is relatively cool.
Yes, with easy paths and broad lawns that suit picnics.