Eritrea
Eritrea Discovery Tour

Arrive in Asmara and transfer to hotel accommodation. Overnight Sunshine Hotel or similar.

Today, a city tour of Asmara reveals its remarkable colonial architectural legacy. Recently having gained World Heritage status, over 4,000 buildings have been inscribed as possessing special architectural value. Art Deco and Modernist cinemas, theatres, cafes and even petrol stations characterise a city playground for pre-WW2 designers in their quest to fulfil Mussolini’s vision of a fitting capital for Italy’s new African Empire. Asmarinos maintain vestiges of Italian lifestyle too. Café culture thrives in the comfortable year-round climate, so grab a cappuccino or order a pizza, you are after all in Piccola Roma. Overnight Sunshine Hotel or similar. (BLD)

Please note: Depending on arrival times of clients some of the city tour may also be done on Day 1.

(Approximate driving time 3 hours)

Leaving Asmara, head north through the highlands, past steep terraces of coffee and orange groves, to Keren. Set on a plateau at 1,392m and surrounded by dusty ochre mountains, this is one of the country’s most attractive towns. Holding a strategic position, Keren saw heavy fighting during WW2 and the Eritrean War of Independence. Sudanese influence is very apparent these days, in the way people dress, their language, and food – aromatic Sudanese tea is excellent. At the heart of Eritrea’s agricultural community, the town’s Friday livestock market is an unmissable spectacle. Camels, cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys all have their place on an extensive hillside site. The town centre market also offers a colourful sensory overload, with vegetables, fruits and all manner of other goods piled high for crowds of shoppers. Overnight Sarina Hotel or similar. (BLD)

Today, we continue our tour of Keren, this time focusing on the historical and architectural areas of the town. Visits include the Mariam Dearit shrine where a statue of the Virgin Mary inside an ancient baobab tree is the focus for a regular Christian festival. Elsewhere, British and Italian WW2 cemeteries see the graves of hundreds of young men who died during the Battle of Keren in 1941.  If there’s time we’ll climb a lookout tower atop a former Italian administrative building for overview of the town. Overnight Sarina hotel or similar. (BLD)

(Approximate driving time: 4.5 hours)

Driving now to the Red Sea coast, our destination is Eritrea’s main port city of Massawa. The route passes through Filfil, where a last remnant of tropical forest forms part of the Semenawai Bahri or ‘Green Belt’ area and where there’s a good to see vervet monkeys and hamadryas baboons. Elsewhere, the landscape is stark and arid, and as the road descends towards the sea, temperature and humidity rise markedly. Overnight Grand Dahlak Hotel or similar. (BLD)

For centuries an important seafaring centre, today we visit the archaeological site of Adulis – among the greatest ports of the ancient world, linking the Roman, Egyptian and Greek Empires. Later, we continue to the Gulf of Zula – a deep cleft in Eritrea’s coastline, part of Africa’s Great Rift Valley system. We return to Massawa at lunchtime and spend the rest of the day exploring the town. Among sleepy atmospheric streets, Ottoman, Egyptian and Italian buildings characterise the central port district. Destruction wrought during the War of Independence is still clearly visible, in the case of the former Governor’s Palace, left as a reminder of conflict, elsewhere as a testament to years of underinvestment. In the evening, we investigate the simple and decidedly ill-lit harbour-front restaurants that still manage to serve up delicious seafood – take a torch. Overnight Grand Dahlak Hotel or similar. (BLD)

(Approximate driving time: 3 hours)

Return to Asmara, with more time to explore the capital. Overnight Sunshine Hotel or similar. (BLD)

(Approximate driving time: 4 hours)

This morning we travel to Decamhare, a town south east of Asmara that served as the industrial hub for Italian Eritrea, and once rivalled Asmara to be the colony’s capital. At its peak in 1938 almost half the town’s 12,000 inhabitants were Italian citizens. Known for its vineyards (Do try Eritrean white wine – well-chilled) and flour mills, despite considerable fighting in the War of Independence, Decamhare still has good examples of colonial architecture. We continue to Adikeyih through a valley of beautiful sycamores. Overnight Central hotel or similar. (BLD)

(Approximate driving time: 3 hours)

Quohaito is an pre-Axumite archaeological site about 20km from Adikeyih, located at 2,600m on the edge of the Great Rift Valley. Legend says it was constructed in 750BC, during the time of Queen Sheba. However, to date little authoritative investigation of the site has been completed. Relics include an engraved stele 4-5 metres high, and buildings of Axumite period, and many much older cave writing and tombs. Later, we continue farther north to the town of Senafe, close to the Ethiopian border, from where a rough 20km track leads to the country’s second highest mountain, Emba Soira 3,018m. After taking in views of the mountainscapes we return to Asmara, arriving late afternoon. Overnight Sunshine hotel. (BLD)

Time for a last cappuccino before transfers to the airport for onward flights. (B)