What You're Actually Dealing With
The Risks That Actually Catch Visitors
Eritrea has almost no conventional tourist scam industry. What catches visitors is the regulatory framework — permits, currency rules, photography restrictions — and the consequences of getting them wrong.
Visitors who attempt to leave Asmara for Keren, Massawa, Dekemhare, or anywhere else without a travel permit are turned back at the first checkpoint or detained for processing. The permit requirement is not always clearly explained at the visa stage, which is why some visitors arrive thinking they can move freely and discover otherwise at a roadblock.
- Go to the Ministry of Tourism in Asmara (on Harnet Avenue) on your first or second morning in the country and obtain permits for every destination you plan to visit.
- Permits are free or nominal cost and issued the same day for most destinations — the process is a morning's work, not a major obstacle.
- A registered guide handles permits as part of their service; if you're using one, confirm they've sorted permits before departing Asmara.
Photography restrictions are extensive: no military installations, no government buildings, no police posts, no ports, no airports, no bridges, no checkpoints, and no uniformed personnel. In practice this covers a significant portion of what a visitor might want to document. The rules are enforced sporadically but the consequences when triggered range from deletion of images to confiscation of equipment to detention.
- Ask your guide or hotel what is and isn't photographable in each location before raising a camera — local knowledge of what's currently being enforced is more useful than general rules.
- If stopped, immediately stop shooting, be cooperative, and offer to delete the images in question. Compliance resolves most situations.
- Asmara's extraordinary architecture — the art deco buildings, the futurist petrol station on Harnet Avenue, the cubist Africa Pension building — is all photographable and gives you more than enough material.
The black market rate for USD to nakfa is significantly better than the official rate, and people in Asmara will offer to exchange informally. The offer is real. The risk is also real: exchanging outside official channels is illegal and penalties include detention and confiscation of all foreign currency carried. There is also a practical scam within this — counterfeit nakfa notes sometimes circulate in informal exchanges.
- Exchange only at Himbol Financial Services or government banks. Keep every receipt.
- Decline all informal exchange offers, regardless of the rate offered or how trustworthy the person seems.
- On departure, retain enough official exchange receipts to account for the difference between what you declared on arrival and what you're carrying out.
Asmara taxis have no meters and foreigner pricing is standard. The airport to central Asmara should cost around 200-300 ERN; drivers quote higher to arrivals who don't know the rate. Within the city, short rides should cost 50-100 ERN. The overcharge is modest in absolute terms but systematic.
- Ask your hotel what specific journeys should cost before you need a taxi — arrive knowing the number.
- Agree the fare before getting in; state it as a fact rather than a question: "Nai Hotel Asmara, 200 nakfa" works better than asking "how much?"
People occasionally approach arriving tourists offering guide services. In Eritrea, guides are supposed to be registered with the Ministry of Tourism, and using an unregistered guide can cause complications at checkpoints where the guide's credentials are checked alongside your permit. An unregistered guide may also be unable to navigate permit situations on your behalf.
- Book a guide through your hotel or through the Ministry of Tourism — registered guides have documentation that helps at checkpoints.
- Ask to see a guide's Ministry of Tourism registration card before committing to use them.
- The government-registered guide system, while limiting, produces a more reliable travel experience in a country where the rules are enforced at every road junction.
Eritrea has one of the most restricted information environments in the world. Communications are monitored. Discussing politics, the government, or the president critically with locals puts those locals at risk — not you, primarily, but them. Internet access is very limited, slow, and monitored. VPN use is technically restricted. Social media platforms are often inaccessible without a VPN.
- Do not discuss Eritrean politics with local people you've just met — the conversation creates risk for them, not primarily for you, and that asymmetry matters.
- Be mindful of what you post from Eritrea while in Eritrea; save analysis for after you've left.
- For journalists: the same advice that applies in Equatorial Guinea applies here — consult the Committee to Protect Journalists before visiting with professional intent.
The Destinations — Honest Takes
Eritrea is compact and the permit system concentrates visitors on a manageable circuit. Each destination is genuinely worth the paperwork.
Asmara is the reason Eritrea ends up on serious travellers' lists. A city of 800,000 people at 2,350 metres, it has more intact modernist and art deco architecture from the 1930s Italian colonial period than almost anywhere outside Europe — a futurist petrol station designed to look like an aeroplane, a cinema whose facade is a pure Novecento composition, a market building with Moorish detailing next to a brutalist government block next to an Orthodox church. The UNESCO World Heritage designation came in 2017. Walk Harnet Avenue at dusk when families come out and the city operates on its own unhurried schedule.
- Agree taxi fares before getting in — 50-100 ERN for city rides, 200-300 ERN from the airport
- The architecture is the attraction and it's largely photographable — stay away from anything that reads as government, military, or infrastructure
- Obtain travel permits for any destination outside the city at the Ministry of Tourism on Harnet Avenue before you need them
- The Asmara café culture — macchiato at the Bar Vittoria, Zilli, or the Central Market cafés — is a specific and genuine pleasure that costs almost nothing
Massawa is a Red Sea port city 115km from Asmara, reached by a spectacular descent from the highland escarpment — one of the great road journeys in East Africa, dropping 2,000 metres in 100km through hairpin bends above the Danakil plain. The old Ottoman quarter on the island of Massawa has crumbling coral-stone architecture, a 16th-century mosque, and the ruins from the 1990 Ethiopian bombardment that are still visible thirty years later. The port is working and functional and not photogenic in the permitted sense. Visit in the cooler months; summer heat is serious.
- Travel permit required from the Ministry of Tourism in Asmara before departure
- The port area is restricted for photography — the old city on the island is not
- The drive down from the highlands is extraordinary; going with a driver who knows the road makes it more enjoyable than navigating it independently
Keren is Eritrea's second city, 90km northwest of Asmara in the highlands, and the one destination most visitors say they wished they'd spent more time in. The Monday camel market — where highland farmers trade camels, cattle, and goods in a weekly spectacle that has been running for centuries — is one of the most authentic market experiences in the Horn of Africa. The Italian-era war cemetery outside town is sobering and beautifully maintained. The town itself is relaxed in a way that Asmara, with its tourist significance and government presence, sometimes isn't.
- Travel permit required from Asmara before departure
- The camel market runs on Mondays — plan your visit accordingly
- Very low risk and low foreigner-pricing pressure; Keren sees few enough tourists that the economic dynamic hasn't developed around extracting from visitors
The Dahlak Islands off the coast from Massawa are among the most pristine coral reef systems in the Red Sea, almost entirely unexplored by divers because access requires a special permit on top of the standard travel permit. The reefs are intact, the water is clear, the fish life is undisturbed, and virtually no dive tourism infrastructure exists. Getting there requires chartering a boat from Massawa. The effort is significant; the experience, for anyone who makes it, is extraordinary.
- Requires both a Massawa travel permit and a separate Dahlak Islands permit — obtain both from the Ministry of Tourism in Asmara before attempting the journey
- Boat charter from Massawa must be arranged through official channels; your hotel in Asmara or Massawa can facilitate this
- Bring everything you need including food, water, and diving equipment — nothing is available on the islands
Qohaito is a pre-Aksumite and Aksumite archaeological site on the southern highland escarpment — ruined temples, carved stelae, a dam system, and rock art spread across a plateau with dramatic views into the Danakil Depression below. It's one of the most significant archaeological sites in the Horn of Africa and almost nobody has heard of it. The site at Metera nearby has additional Aksumite ruins. Both require a travel permit to Senafe district and, ideally, a guide who knows the plateau.
- Travel permit to Senafe required from Asmara before departure
- A guide with knowledge of the site is practically necessary — Qohaito is spread across a wide area and the significant features are not marked or obvious
- The area near the Ethiopian border requires particular attention to current security conditions — check with the Ministry of Tourism before visiting
The Eritrean railway from Asmara to Massawa is one of the engineering wonders of East Africa — a narrow-gauge line built by the Italians between 1887 and 1911 that descends 2,000 metres in 118km through 30 tunnels and over 65 bridges and viaducts on the way to the coast. The line was destroyed in the liberation war and restored by Eritrean veterans in the 1990s using original tools and methods. Occasional tourist excursion runs operate on sections of the line — ask at the Asmara railway station or your hotel about current schedules, which vary and are not reliably publicised.
- The railway excursion schedule is irregular and not available online — checking in person at the station is the most reliable method
- Very low risk; the railway experience is one of the most legitimate and remarkable things Eritrea offers
- The engineering of the descent section — the switchbacks, the tunnels, the viaducts over vertiginous gorges — is worth experiencing even if only part of the line is running
Before You Go — The Checklist
- ✓ Apply for your visa at least 4-6 weeks in advance with an invitation letter and proof of accommodation — there is no visa on arrival under any circumstances.
- ✓ Go to the Ministry of Tourism in Asmara on your first or second morning and obtain travel permits for every destination you plan to visit outside the city.
- ✓ Declare all foreign currency honestly on arrival and exchange only at Himbol Financial Services or official banks — keep every receipt for departure.
- ✓ Keep cameras away from anything that reads as military, government, port, airport, checkpoint, or bridge — when in doubt, ask your guide first.
- ✓ Bring sufficient USD or euros in cash for your entire stay — no ATMs accept foreign cards anywhere in Eritrea.
- ✓ Use a Ministry of Tourism registered guide if travelling outside Asmara — their registration helps at checkpoints and their permit knowledge saves significant time.
- ✓ Buy comprehensive travel insurance including medical evacuation — Eritrea's medical facilities are limited and serious cases require evacuation to Ethiopia or further.