Since I did this route by van with a german traveler and I haven’t used public transport, I could not report the experience. I took this report from Sevi Ioannidou, with her permission, in West Africa travelers group on facebook.
She crossed the Noe-Elubo border to Ghana, starting from Abidjan and ending at Cape Coast.
It was a long journey with multiple changes but she have been told not to use the big direct STC bus from Abidjan to Accra because it’s used by many people who are carrying goods with them, causing big delays at Customs control. And as she saw online, this bus departs daily from Abidjan at 09:00 in the morning and arrives into Accra at 23:38.
So she decided to split the trip into several vehicles hoping to get to my destination earlier.
At 07:00 am she took the big ocean bus from Gare de Bassam in Abidjan (2.800 CFA = 4,60 USD) to Aboisso and it took 2,5 hours in a comfortable air conditioned bus ride.
Immediately when she arrived there, a mini bus (2.000 CFA = 3,3 USD) to Noe (the Ivory Coast border crossing) was departing and it took them around an hour.
At this point she took a taxi to cross the border to Elubo. She was told that the price for this 2 km is 200 CFA but the driver asked for 1.000 CFA saying that he will wait for her at both sides to finish with paperwork. He sure did but in the end he asked for more money for this waiting time, classic trick.
After finishing with the Ivory coast side, she started the Ghana side process: first the health office where she gave my yellow fever certificate and Covid vaccination.
After that she filled up a form at the immigration and then proceeded to an office for VOA (150 USD) where she had to fill another form. It took less than half an hour for the whole thing at Ghana’s side. The only thing she needed to provide when filling the form, apart from your personal details, is the address and contact number in Ghana. She gave her friend’s details but they told her that hotel address is also fine. VOA is double price than the one at the Embassy but super easy, comparing to all the documents you need to upload to get it in advance plus the waiting time is several working days. So, she gave it a try and before noon she was already in Ghana! During the whole process her bags were in the taxi and nobody asked to check them.
Then the taxi driver dropped her off at the bus station. The mini buses going to Accra (passing trough Cape Coast) were empty so she took one to Takoradi. (55 Cedi + 15 Cedi for luggage = 6 USD). She got a local sim card and exchanged money in this bus station. On the way they were stopped for checks two times, one was from the Customs but they didn’t open her bags.
From Takoradi to Cape Coast she took another mini bus (around 45 Cedi = 4 USD). This part of the trip was slow, there’s only one lane road and big trucks made the one hour trip double time. So she finally arrived at Cape Coast at 18:00.
