Eritrea: Everything You Need To Know To Visit The North Korea Of Africa.

Eritrea, the small unknown country in the east Africa at the banks of the Red Sea, is home to one of the world’s worst dictatorships and is (un)popularly known as the North Korea of Africa.

This small nation with just over 6 million people, is one of the world’s biggest providers of refugees. The UK receives more Asylum seekers from Eritrea than from anywhere else.

Eritrea got its independence in 1991 after 30 years of war with its neighbour Ethiopia.

The country was also an Italian colony from 1890 to 1947. The slice of history from its colonial times is very well preserved. The capital Asmara looks more like an Italian city than a city in Africa.

The old Opera in the capital. Now it´s a coffe shop and an internet cafe.

Travelling to and around Eritrea is not easy. Their visa is one of the most difficult in the world to obtain. Don’t think that all the hard work is done when you receive your visa. You will also need to obtain permits to do basically anything in the country.
You can´t even leave the capital without one.

There´s also no ATM´S here and the internet is among the worst in the world here.

But don´t let all this scare you. I found Eritrea to be the most fascinating and the underrated country in all of Africa. This is the country where the biggest national hero suddenly walks into the coffee bar while I’m enjoying a warm coffee.

VISA

Don’t get too worked up thinking about the visa requirement. The embassy´s pages state that they only need proof of a hotel and flight bookings.
BUT the application needs to be approved by the government in Eritrea and not the embassy, so it will take a long time to get your answer. It can take months. The Eritrean visa is notorious to just get approved within a few days before you go there.

I got my approval letter not much less than day before flying to Eritrea even though I had applied months in advance. The other travellers I met experienced the same.

Visa on arrival?

Yes, but only if there´s NO Eritrean embassy in your home country. This is also only possible if you have received a visa approval letter from the Eritrean government in advance. The only way to get this letter is to use an approved government travel agency. If you receive the letter then the visa will cost you 70 USD on arrival.

How To Get To Eritrea?

The one and the ONLY way to arrive in Eritrea is by flight and the ONLY international airport is Asmara International Airport, just outside Asmara the capital of the country.
The airport is currently only serving international flights by FlyDubai, Turkish Airlines, and Egypt Air. Qatar Airways stopped all their flights to Eritrea by December 2016.

The local airline Eritrean Airlines flies to Milan, Dubai, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, but they currently don´t offer online booking.

The land borders with, Sudan, Djibouti, and Ethiopia are completely closed.

How To Get Around Eritrea?

Foreigners is not allowed to use local transportation to travel between cities. You will also need a permit from the Ministry of Tourism and Information for each place you want to visit outside of Asmara. So really only the way to travel around Eritrea is with pre-arranged transportation trough a local travel agency.

The famous train ride between Asmara and Massawa is not currently running.

Typical landscape in the Eritrean highlands.

Permits?

When visiting Eritrea, you will experience a bureaucratic permit nightmare like nowhere else in the world!!

While you are allowed to walk around the cities freely, you will need a permit to visit every place. Unfortunately, it is not just one permit but a separate permit for each place. And YES the permits get checked! Want to visit Massawa? Need a permit. Want to visit some islands in the Dahlak Archipelago? You will need a separate permit for each island! Want to visit the Military Tank Graveyard outside Asmara? Permit!

The permit you need. This one is for the Military Graveyard in Asmara.

All the permits have to be obtained from the Ministry of Tourist and Information on the main boulevard in Asmara (just across the big cathedral). The permit to the Military Tank Graveyard is easy to get( just bring your passport). The permits outside Asmara have to be arranged in advance by the local travel agency.

While I was in the office, there was an older French tourist who wanted to visit the southern part of the country. He was told it could take weeks to get the permit approved!
So if you think you can visit Eritrea without some prearranged paperwork. Think Again!

Money

First of all, there´s NO ATM´s in Eritrea that accepts foreign bank cards. So you will have to bring cash to exchange. USD, EURO and British Pound are all exchangeable, but USD is by far the best to bring.

The Official rate in Eritrea for USD is 1 USD = 15 Nakfa. There´s a money exchange at the airport arrival and most of the hotels. There’s at least 2 official moneychangers on the main boulevard in Asmara. Keep the receipt if you want to take money out of the country. You should also be able to exchange Nakfa back to USD when leaving the country, but ONLY with a receipt.

The Black market rate is 1 USD = 25/40 Nakfa. But be aware that exchanging the money on the black market is strictly illegal, and locals can be punished with prison if caught. Even though black market is illegal, I exchanged most of my money there. You will easily find the Black Market if you stay some days in Asmara. But be CAREFUL!

NB: If you didn’t bring enough money, I noticed that the better hotels offered to give you cash with your credit card for a hefty fee of 10%.

Taking local currency Nakfa out of the country is also strictly illegal.

The Cost?

The cost of living and travelling in Eritrea highly depends on how you exchange your money. If you go with the official rates, Eritrea will be surprisingly expensive but if you go for the black market rates then Eritrea would be rather cheap.

There´s some things I never managed to get my head around in Eritrea. To buy a beer or a soft drink in the supermarket was A LOT more expensive than buying them in bar or restaurant. A local Asmara Beer was priced 20 Nakfa in a bar or restaurant but would cost you 35–40 Nakfa in a supermarket. Similarly, a soft drink would cost 9–12 Nakfa in the bar or restaurant but 40–50 Nakfa in the supermarket.
The most common food in Eritrea is pizza and pasta (No Joke). Still some Italian influence here! A spaghetti bolognese would cost you from 100–200 Nakfa and a pizza from 140– Nakfa.

Stay Connected?

When I say it´s bad, I do mean extremely bad. Out of the 100 countries that I have been to (except North Korea), Eritrea by far the worst in the world when it comes to getting online.
You are not even ALLOWED to have internet in your home in Eritrea.

From Wikipedia:

Internet users: 48,692 users, 180th in the world; 0.8% of the population is connected.
Fixed broadband: 122 subscriptions, 192nd (last) in the world; 0.0% of the population.

While all the hotels I stayed in during my 10 day trip to Eritrea offered “WiFi”, but it was ridiculously slow. I did not even once manage to log on to my Gmail account. I could not even send a snap on Snapchat or post a photo on Facebook during my visit..Posting a photo on Instagram took 10 minutes!!

Your sim card will also NOT work in Eritrea. The phone network in the country is not connected to the international service. But when travelling to the southern part of the country and you get less than 20 Km to the Ethiopian border so you will manage to connect to Ethiopian phone network.

The Online information about Eritrea, is VERY outdated.

Most of the information online on websites like TripAdvisor, Wikitravel/Wikivoyage is out of date. The top 2 rated restaurants on TripAdvisor had been closed for many months when I visited Eritrea in February 2017. Most of the restaurants/bars and even some of the hotels on websites like Wikitravel and Wikivoyage has also been closed down for a long time already.

Language?

Eritrea is a multilingual country. Eritrea has no official language, and it´s on the Constitution that all “equality of all Eritrean languages. There´s at least 9 local languages with Tigrinya, Tigre, and Dahlik being the 3 most common ones.

But, a thing that really surprised my in Eritrea, is the level of English speakers.
“Everyone” spoke English, from the waiters in tiny restaurants and bars. To people selling fruit in the market. I would go as far and say that Eritrea has the best level of English speaking people I have ever experienced outside a native English speaking country.

Every restaurant I went to had an English menu too.

Food?

Italian food is the most common food – Spaghetti, penne pasta (often from Barilla, you know the one) and Pizza is served in every restaurant. The pizza is often from old Italian stone ovens. Even though the pizza ingredients are not as good as the ones you get in modern countries. But it is definitely much better than most south-east Asian countries.

Eritrean “American” Piazza, Ham and Cheese,

IF you want to try some more authentic local food like sInjera, Zigni and Tibsi was the 3 most common local dishes I came across.

IsInjera: A flatbread with a unique, slightly spongy texture. Traditionally made out of teff flour. It is a national dish in both Eritrea and it´s neighbour Ethiopia.
Zigni: a spicy stew made with lamb or mutton.
Tibsi: sauteed meat, onions and berbere served with a sauce.

Drinks and Alcohol?

Only drink bottled water. Unfortunately, bottled water is rather expensive. 1L bottle costs around 30+ Nakfa (2USD, with official rate). When buying soft drink, (Coca Cola and Sprite most common) check if it´s a local or imported bottle/can. The imported ones, normally from Sudan is a lot more expensive than the locally made ones.

Coffee – I’m coffee addicted and I’m picky. But I can easily say that the coffee in Eritrea is one of the best in the world. Easily. Even the smallest coffee houses have world class espresso machines, that even top coffee houses in my home country Norway would be jealous of. A cup of delicious black coffee is around 10 Nakfa.

Alcohol.

Alcohol seems quite liberal in Eritrea. They produce their own beer, gin, rum, vodka, wine and some strange local strong homemade drinks. Imported liquor is also available but very expensive (of course) compared to the local.

Gin seems to be the favourite among the locals. and it´s even cheaper than beer. A double Gin costs normally around 17 Nakfa even in good hotels and restaurants.

Local beer Asmara beer, (the only local beer) is surprisingly good and available everywhere. The local beer is sold in glass bottles with no label in restaurants and bars. It costs normally 20 Nakfa but all the way up to 35 Nakfa in high-end places.
BUT if bought in a supermarket, the cost of beer on cans would be 35-40 Nakfa.

The and only local beer in Eritrea, Asmara Beer.

Important beer is Heineken and will cost you 80-90 Nakfa.

I got the reason explained in the comment section on my Asmara post:
BTW beer is more expensive in supermarkets b/c the Gov doesn’t allow the Beer Company to usually sell directly to the Supermarket. So they buy it first from the Bar and then sell it to the customer. Another reason why things Beer/Coke etc cost more in the supermarket is the Bottle Deposit Fee is included which can be ~20 Nakfa.. Thank you Bereekt.

Accommodation?

There´s no hostels and Couchsurfing is strictly illegal in Eritrea.
A hotel will normally cost you around 900 Nakfa / 60 Usd a night (Breakfast included)
In Asmara I stayed at Sunshine Hotel, it seemed to be the most popular ones by tourists. And I met around 7-8 other tourists there during my stay, with a very popular Piano bar during the weekend.

In Keren, I did I stayed in Sarina Hotel which is a good hotel with big rooms and balcony. 900Nafka / 60 usd.

In Massawa, I stayed in Dhalak Hotel which is a huge hotel.
Great Resturant and location and by far the most popular hotel in Massawa. 750 Nakfa /48 Usd for a simple single room. Meet a few foreigners there.

All the hotels had free Wifi but like already mention, the speed was awful.
All the hotels also had onsite restaurant and bars and money exchange (official rate).

Electricity?

Power cuts and blackouts are very common. I experienced multiples of them every day during my 10 days stay in the country. While all the hotel´s I stayed in had generators that kicked in when the power cuts happen, most of the restaurants did not have it.

The day I left the country there were rumours going around about the Gourverment cutting the electricity for 3!! days. Reason – to prove a point to the locals.

There´s no street light during the night so be sure to bring a flashlight.

The power plugs in Eritrea are standard 220V European plugs.

Saftey?

Eritrea is by far the safest country I have visited in Africa. I will also put it into my top 5 safest countries that I have ever been to. The locals were super friendly and welcoming.

But be careful not to criticise the Government or the country with or in front of the locals. The secret police are everywhere. And I got to know that a boatman I used was not actually a boat man but a secret police agent.

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