Eritrea is a small country in the horn of Africa, bordering Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti and the red sea. It is unique place to visit with desert, sea and beaches, large towns, old architectural beauty, scenic landscape and most of all for its people that smile all the way!
3 Days Eritrea Tour – Asmara City, Italian Heritage, Local Markets, and Mountain Villages
6 Days Eritrea Tour – Asmara, Keren, Massawa, Culture, Mountains, and Red Sea Coast
7 Days Eritrea Tour – Asmara, Keren, Massawa, Highlands, Coast, History, and Culture
Why Choose Eritrea For Your Tour
Eritrea is one of Africa’s most enigmatic and least-visited countries, offering the finest collection of Italian Art Deco architecture on the African continent in the capital Asmara (a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017), the ancient red-granite port city of Massawa on the Red Sea, the extraordinary highland landscapes and archaeological sites of the Tigrinya highlands, and some of the Red Sea’s most pristine and least-visited dive sites in the Dahlak Archipelago. Guided tours cost approximately $150 to $250 per person per day. Eritrea covers 117,600 square kilometres, bordered by Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti, with a Red Sea coastline and a population of approximately 3.5 million people.
Eritrea remains a challenging destination due to government policies that require all visitors to travel with official guides and obtain advance permission for photography and travel outside Asmara. Individual independent tourism is not permitted; all visits must be arranged through licensed Eritrean travel agencies or approved international operators. Despite these restrictions, the travel experience is reported by those who have visited as genuinely extraordinary for its combination of architectural uniqueness and the warmth of Eritrean people toward the very few foreign visitors they encounter.
Where To Go in Eritrea
Asmara
Asmara, the capital, was comprehensively redesigned by Italian colonists from the 1930s as a model fascist city, producing an extraordinary streetscape of Art Deco, Futurist, and modernist buildings including the FIAT Tagliero Service Station (an extraordinary Futurist aircraft-hangar-shaped petrol station on columns with no pillars), the Cinema Impero, the Opera House, and the Bar Zilli, all preserved in remarkably original condition in the thin highland air at 2,325 metres altitude. Walking the main Harnet Avenue is like stepping into 1930s Italian rational architecture transported to Africa. The city’s UNESCO inscription recognised the collection as one of the world’s most complete and intact examples of Modernist urban planning.
Massawa
Massawa, Eritrea’s historic Red Sea port, was once a prosperous Ottoman-era trading city and later an Italian colonial gateway. Its distinctive coral-stone buildings, Ottoman mosques, and the reconstructed Imperial Palace of Haile Selassie survive in varying states of decay and preservation, creating a deeply atmospheric old port quarter. The Red Sea around Massawa has warm clear water and healthy reef systems. The Dahlak Archipelago offshore is one of the Red Sea’s most pristine dive areas, accessible by liveaboard.
What is the Average Cost of a Tour to Eritrea
Guided tours cost approximately $150 to $250 per person per day. Asmara has a range of mid-range hotels from $60 to $120 per night. An Eritrean visa and travel permit costs approximately $70 to $100 USD; apply through Eritrean embassies. All visitors must travel with an official guide. Asmara International Airport (ASM) is served by Ethiopian Airlines, Egypt Air, and regional carriers. Tigrinya and Arabic are official languages; Italian is still spoken by the older generation. The Eritrean Nakfa (ERN) is the currency.
Asmara is one of the world’s most remarkable architectural cities, a complete Italian Futurist and Art Deco urban environment preserved in highland Africa by poverty, isolation, and the same political rigidity that makes reaching it challenging, which means the city has the quality of a perfectly maintained time capsule from 1935.