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The car ride from Cape Coast to Accra was by far the worst part. Well over three hot, dusty hours of tooth-jarring bumps and insane traffic of the third world variety. Once you get there, however, things get better. If waiting in the airport isn't your thing, you can get one last taste of Ghana at the swanky restaurants located on the edge of the airport parking lot (including an immaculate, air conditioned Chinese restaurant (very surreal) and a pleasant outdoor cafe). But inside the airport, in the departures area (the arrivals area was a different story), you find yourself in an immaculate relic of Ghana's old affluence. That is, the airport is clean, modern, ambitious, and deserted. Helpful signs pointing to the "Internet Cafe" and "Shopping" lead to blank, cavernous halls. The airport has been condensed into one area on the second level, where you'll find a small cafe proffering cold drinks and bagged snacks, a stately duty-free shop full of high-end Ghanaian trinkets, and a surprisingly posh seating area complete with two (count 'em! two!) wide-screen TV's. There's not much to do once you're there, but there's a lot of room to walk around. It's sad to see so much space gone to waste--one can only imagine what the airport was like when it was first built. The staff seem to be really happy to work in the airport, and like anyone Ghanaian they're friendly. They'll cheerfully call you "obruni" right up until you're packed into the plane. Oh, and the bathrooms, like the rest of the airport, are deserted and clean.
