Ghana · Northern Region
Where to Stay in Tamale, Northern Region
Tamale is a city of northern Ghana, the capital of the Dagbon kingdom, a hot savanna town of mosques and markets and the base for the elephants of Mole.
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Where to stay in Tamale
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Tamale turns on the town or the road north. The streets around the central mosque keep the markets, the cultural centre, and the art studio within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the city. The flat savanna spreads beyond.
Bicycles throng the roads. Out toward Mole and the bush, the town gives way to the shea groves, the savanna villages, and the road to the great park. A room out of town trades the streets for the open grassland, the quiet villages, and the road to the elephants.
The bush runs flat for miles. Stay downtown for the city, or out for the park. The savanna capital sits in the Ghanaian north.
About Tamale
Tamale is the northern capital of Ghana.
What is Tamale known for?
On the dry savanna of northern Ghana, it grew as the seat of the Dagbon kingdom, and it keeps the great central mosque of its people, the shea and smock crafts of the north, the base for the elephants of Mole National Park, and a lively world of drumming and dance. The flat savanna runs to the sky. Bicycles fill the busy streets.
What are the main landmarks in Tamale?
The central mosque is the pride of Tamale. The great mosque at the heart of the town, its minarets over the savanna city, is the emblem of the place, downtown. Elephants roam to the west.
The great park of Mole, where elephants walk the bush, lies out beyond the town, while the old mud mosque of Larabanga, the shea markets, and the drumming grounds mark the country around Tamale.
What is the history of Tamale?
Tamale is the heart of Dagbon. For centuries the Dagomba people have ruled this savanna from their kingdom of Dagbon, under a king called the Ya-Na. The town grew as their market.
Tamale rose as the great trading town of the north, where the trade of the Sahel came down to the forest, and Islam took deep root among its people. The north kept its own ways. In dress and music Tamale held to the north, its men in woven smocks, its festivals loud with drums and the fire of the Bugum.
The savanna held great herds. To the west lay Mole, the country's largest park, where elephants roamed the bush, and Tamale became the base for the wild north, keeping its kingdom, its crafts, and its faith. The drums still sound at the festivals.
Tamale keeps its savanna capital in the Ghanaian north.
Where is Tamale?
Tamale lies in the north of Ghana, on the flat savanna between the White Volta and the forest. The city sits on a broad dry plain of grass and shea trees, far from the coast, with the savanna stretching north to the Sahel and the Volta rivers winding through the land. The plain runs flat and dry.
Shea trees dot the grassland.
What is the climate of Tamale?
Tamale has a hot, tropical savanna climate. Warm weather holds all year, with a single rainy season in the summer and a long dry harmattan season through the winter. Summer rains green the plain.
Dry harmattan winds fill the winter.
How do you get to Tamale?
Tamale lies in the north of Ghana, on the road up from the coast. The great north road runs to it up the country from Kumasi and Accra, and flights land from the capital. Lorries roll up from the south.
Kumasi lies south down the road.
Updated August 2026