Yes, Eritrea is safe and manageable to backpack on your own, but it takes more paperwork than most countries: you need a visa arranged in advance and a paid travel permit (about 150 to 200 nakfa) for every destination outside Asmara.
Permits come from the tourism office in
Asmara and are usually ready within a day, so build that into your first days. International cards and ATMs do not work, so bring all your money as US dollars or euros in cash and change it at the official rate of 15 nakfa to US$1. Budget hotels run about 300 to 600 nakfa (US$20 to 40) a night, and buses to
Massawa or
Keren cost only a few US dollars.
Ten to fourteen days covers Eritrea well, while five days is enough for Asmara and Massawa alone.
Give
Asmara at least 2 to 3 days, partly for its architecture and partly because travel permits can take up to a day to issue.
Massawa needs 2 to 3 nights, plus one more for a boat day to the
Dahlak Archipelago. The southern highlands around
Adi Keyh,
Senafe and
Mount Soira deserve 3 to 4 days. With two full weeks you can add
Keren (2.5 to 3 hours from Asmara by bus) and the western lowlands around
Agordat and
Barentu, which take 3 to 4 days including the long ride back.
Yes, you can travel most of Eritrea by public bus, though a few highlights require a hired vehicle with a driver.
Buses leave Asmara’s main bus station for
Massawa (3 to 4 hours),
Keren (2.5 to 3 hours),
Mendefera (about 1.5 hours) and
Dekemhare (about 1 hour), with fares mostly between 30 and 70 nakfa (US$2 to 5). Leave early, since departures thin out after midday. A car or 4x4 is needed for
Filfil,
Adulis and the approach to
Mount Soira, and a chartered boat is the only way to the
Dahlak Archipelago. Every destination must be listed on your travel permit, and checkpoints will ask for it.
The essential places in Eritrea are Asmara, Massawa and the Dahlak islands, followed by the southern highlands around Adi Keyh.
In
Asmara, plan 2 to 3 days for the
Fiat Tagliero Building, the
Asmara Opera House,
Cinema Impero and the cathedrals.
Massawa Old Town, 3 to 4 hours down the escarpment by bus, has coral-stone houses and Ottoman-era lanes, and boats leave from there for the reefs of
Dahlak Marine National Park. In the south,
Adi Keyh and
Senafe give access to
Mount Soira (3,018 meters) and the ruins at Metera. With extra days, add
Keren and the monastery at
Debre Bizen.
If you are short on time in Eritrea, skip the far-flung lowland spots and keep to the Asmara–Massawa axis plus the southern highlands.
Tio Beach lies far down the southern coast on a rough road and costs 2 to 3 days for the round trip.
Nakfa in the northern mountains needs a long day of travel each way, and
Teseney sits another few hours west of Barentu, so both make sense only on trips of two weeks or more. In Asmara, the
Tank Graveyard and
Medebar Market are easy to drop if you have one day. Keep
Massawa and the
Dahlak Archipelago even on a five-day visit.
Yes, our itinerary-planner does exactly that. Set your trip length in days, give your interests and travel style, optionally give start- and end location and/or some mandatory stops you would like to include and the itinerary planner creates your personalized routes for Eritrea in seconds. Try it out!
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