Things to Do in Eritrea

About Eritrea

Asmara slaps you awake at 2,400 meters. Cool, thin air. Italian espresso drifts from 1930s cafés along Harnet Avenue. Fiat Tagliero attendants still wear white gloves. Eritrea doesn't ease you in, it jerks you through centuries. One morning you're cycling past that futurist petrol station shaped like an airplane taking off. Next day you're snorkeling the Dahlak Archipelago where olive-green sea turtles outnumber tourists. Coral untouched for years. Your breathing is the only sound. Massawa's old town squeezes tight. Ottoman coral-stone houses lean close enough for alleyway handshakes. Red-hot berbere and roasting coffee beans drift from kitchens where women still grind beans with mortar and pestle. The train to Nefasit costs 200 nakfa ($13) for wooden bench seats. It's a 1910 Italian steam engine climbing through eucalyptus groves and stone villages. Cheaper than the airport taxi. The catch? Electricity cuts most nights. ATMs empty on weekends. You'll need $20 in crisp USD just to cross the border. But then you're sipping macchiato in Cinema Impero. The art-deco movie palace still runs its projector. Well-dressed Eritreans debate politics in Tigrinya and Italian. You'll realize this is the only country where you can dive pristine Red Sea reefs in the morning and dance to Afro-jazz in a 1938 ballroom that same night. That combination doesn't exist anywhere else on earth.

Travel Tips

Transportation: Flag a blue-and-white minivan anywhere along Harnet Avenue, 5 nakfa ($0.30) gets you across Asmara. Just shout your stop. The 120-km drop to Massawa takes three hours on the rebuilt Italian highway. Shared taxis cram into the chaotic garage behind Asmara's main mosque. They leave only when full, 300 nakfa ($20). Sunday still sees steam trains huffing up the old Eritrean Railway to Nefasit, 200 nakfa ($13) for tourists. Bring water. No buffet car, and the slow climb to 2,800 meters will dry you out. Dahlak islands demand permits from the Port Authority (300 nakfa/$20) plus a fishing-boat captain who knows the reefs. Negotiate in Massawa before you board, never after.

Money: Eritrea runs on cash alone. Street rate: 15 nakfa to the dollar, not the official 15.5. Change with hotel receptionists, banks won't give you this rate. ATMs exist but are empty by Thursday. Bring crisp USD 50s and 100s printed after 2013; older series get rejected. A traditional coffee ceremony in a family home costs 100 nakfa ($6.50) if they like you, nothing if they like you. Credit cards are useless. Even the Sheraton can't process them. Keep receipts when changing money back, airport security will ask how much you brought in.

Cultural Respect: Shake right-handed, always. Add the left hand to your right elbow and you've just shown real respect. Before any business talk, ask "Dehan nay?", How are you?, or don't start. Photography trips alarms. Skip military buildings, even the broken ones. The old tank graveyard outside Asmara sits technically off-limits, yet guards pocket 100 nakfa ($6.50) "guide fees" and wave you through. Women cover shoulders inside churches. Men ditch hats. Simple. Coffee ceremonies run in threes. Accept every round. The third, baraka, blesses the house. Refuse and you'll feel the chill. Tigrinya dominates daily life. But Italian from the 50-year colonial stretch still works with anyone over 60. English? Hit-or-miss outside hotels.

Food Safety: Hot injera straight off the clay plate, the sour pancake base is fermented enough to kill most bugs. Skip raw vegetables washed in tap water. Instead order tsebhi stews simmering for hours in clay pots at places like Asmara's New Rome Restaurant where locals queue. Fresh fish in Massawa is safe if grilled over coals right on the dock. Insist on watching them clean it. Bottled water costs 15 nakfa ($1) everywhere. But check the seal, refilled bottles taste salty. Carry rehydration salts. The combo of altitude, heat, and spice sneaks up on you.

When to Visit

Eritrea's calendar splits into two stories: cool highlands, furnace-hot coast. Asmara (2,400 m) hits 22°C (72°F) January through March, cobalt skies, Italian boulevards, no sweat walking. Hotel prices spike 35% when diaspora Eritreans flood home for Christmas and Timkat (January 19). April paints the highlands emerald. Farmers plant teff, air smells of rain on eucalyptus. Pack layers, nights drop to 8°C (46°F). May through September is the sweet spot. Massawa's Red Sea coast sits at 32°C (90°F) while Asmara stays 25°C (77°F). Hotel rates drop 25% before Europeans arrive. October brings Orthodox Meskel festival to Asmara's Martyrs' Stadium, yellow daisies, brass bands. But also coastal humidity's last gasp. Massawa hits 38°C (100°F); diving boats run early morning only. November is goldilocks month: 28°C (82°F) coast, 20°C (68°F) highlands. Italian villa rooms cost 1,200 nakfa ($80) instead of December's 1,800 nakfa ($120). The Danakil Depression? Attempt only December through February when daytime 'cools' to 34°C (93°F). July brings 48°C (118°F); salt caravans rest at noon. Flights from Dubai run $580 return year-round except July-August when they jump to $720, not Eritrean weather. But everyone fleeing the Gulf's 45°C (113°F) summers.