I am thinking about taking a tour to Ethiopia later in the year. Is it practical to combine this with Djibouti, Eritrea, Somaliland. Is it safe to enter Somalia?
David Van Treuren
You need to be a member of TCC Forum to add comments!
This reply was deleted.
Replies
I solo backpacked Eritrea and Ethiopia. For Eritrea I got the visa in Tokyo (they were so excited that a foreigner was getting a visa from them that they made me write back to them when I returned with all of the details of the trip :). In Asmara I had to get a pass, which took the day to organise. You had to note down where you were going in Eritrea and how. I took local buses; when they stopped at checkpoints I was often made to get off and show the pass (you could see the locals groaning - why did the foreigner have to get on our bus, and make us wait at checkpoints? :)) However, overall the locals were amazing - directing me to the right bus at bus stops, as there were no signs or marking on the buses, and often putting me in the front seat. The station in Asmara (where some locals took me to the cafe and gifted me a bucket of fruit) was an old petrol station and in Massawa an old aeroplane.
In Ethiopia I booked flights around the country, supplementing it with buses for shorter trips. This worked well to get to the major historical cities. In Adwa I organised a driver and guide through the hotel for a three day trip through the nearby historical towns and Mekele. They were wonderful and pretty cheap. This was some time ago - not sure if Tigray is okay to travel through now.
The museums in Addis are wonderful (for a history buff like me). I walked all over the city, but I'm happy to walk long distances.
I just attended the MTP (most traveled People) Summit in Ethiopia- prior to it, I used a personal guide to visit most of the Unesco sites in the country over a 2 week period- it was safe and easy , but of course the guide had it all mapped out for me , I did a post summit trip into Somalia thru Untamed Borders, great security and didn't feel in danger but didn't get out of Mogadishu- getting into the neighboring countries was more difficult as they do not recommend land crossing and air goes into some other area prior to landing in either Djibouti or Eritrea a whole wasted day
I definitely agree. I feel like Mogadishu, Somalia is not so easy to visit but it's a very expensive country as of today. I was just in Somalia not too long ago and it's a very dangerous country. I almost got shot in Mogadishu; and literally a lot of banks/ATMs are really hard to withdraw cash. If you visit again or first time; then you would need to bring extra and enough cash. It is not a safe place as you get either get robbed or kidnapped. And you can't go around by yourself like South Africa.
Djibouti is very easy to visit since visa on arrival is only $23 dollars. I'm going to make a stop there after I do my South Sudan tour in Summer 2026!
Ethiopia is still sensible to go but watch out a lot of terrorist fires as they can come at anytime. I witnessed a lot of fires while I was in Addis Adaba, Ethiopia.
Don't regard with US Embassy warnings about visiting Somalia and the bordering countries. Do what you feel is best.
Pam,
thanks for the answer. So, that means you have to just get off the plane and back on in Somalia? Sounds like Eritrea makes it difficult to visit easily.
David
David,
It's very easy to visit Djibouti and Somaliland from Ethiopia. Eritrea is more problematic since land borders are closed with Djibouti and Ethiopia and there are no direct flights from those countries. You'd have to fly in there from other countries, like Egypt, Yemen, UAE, etc. As for Somalia, there are flights from Djibouti to Kenya that stop in Mogadishu. When I was there (2010), it wasn't safe to leave the airport, but I know of other people since then who spent the night. You'd have to assess the situation when you're there since it's fairly volatile.
Pam