Eritrea Travel Forum

Hi,
I am planning to visit Eritrea/Asmara within 3 weeks and would like to learn exact details about security, facts, night life and etc.

Thansk and best regards

Eritrea is probibly the safest country in africa, it is totaly safe from a crim point of view, just dont do anything politcly stupid.

Asmara is a nice city, lots of cafe's and bars, and the shuk is very nice as well.

When going out into other citys just donrt flash your money and keep a wadd of single nakfa with you to give to a few kids here and there.

The offical rate of exchange when I was there was something like 12-14 to a dollar, but if you speak to expats that live there (yes there are some) they can most likely give you 19-21 a dollar.

Hope that you have fun

Asmara is very safe. Border areas close to Sudan and Ethiopia do have problems (bandits, land mines), but you will not get permission to go there. To go to many places in Eritrea, you need to get a permit from the Ministry of Tourism on Harnet Ave (not open on weekends). If you are renting a car, you will need the license plate number before you can get the permit. If traveling by bus, they will put that on the permit. There are a lot of military checkpoints where they will check your papers. They are serious about it, so don't think about talking your way out of it.
I don't advise giving money to the kids on the street. They have families. This is just teaching them to ask for money. If you want to help out, there is an orphanage where you can take toys, etc...
At night on Harnet Ave, you see some drunks at night ... but it's not a big problem.