---
type: Country
title: Eritrea
description: Harry's observations from the "North Korea of Africa" — heavy state control and no internet, yet the safest, calmest streets of his fifteen African countries.
tags: [eritrea, africa, east-africa]
timestamp: 2026-07-12T12:00:00Z
---

# Eritrea

Harry spent three days in [Asmara](/places/asmara.md) with
[Kieran](/people/kieran.md) in 2025, shortly after the country began
opening to tourism.

## Observations

### From [Tourists Don't Visit this Secretive African Dictatorship 🇪🇷](/videos/b7uIyBvDGAI.md)

- **Access**: the visa used to cost $1,000 and tourism was nearly
  impossible; since the war ended the country has opened up and tourism is
  slowly starting. Immigration still took nearly two hours. Harry
  recommends the guide Phil (eritreavisit.com), who also arranged the
  permit the tank graveyard requires.
- **State control**: one ruler since independence in 1991, state-only
  media, indefinite military service (women serve too), no free movement
  out of the country, and filming bans that surface without warning. Harry,
  having just visited North Korea, calls the "North Korea of Africa" label
  overstated — similar, but less tightly controlled.
- **Connectivity**: no ATMs, no SIM cards or data; wi-fi exists only in a
  few hotels and internet cafés (15 nakfa/hour), at speeds too slow for a
  speed test to load, with VPNs needed for most services. Plan to be
  offline.
- **Safety**: the standout. Unlocked bikes left outside a market went
  untouched; Harry walked at night with camera and pizza feeling completely
  safe — safer than London, in his and Kieran's estimation.
- **History**: Italian colonisation left pizza, espresso, gelato, cinemas,
  and art deco; British administration followed; UN federation with
  Ethiopia turned into annexation and a 30-year independence war costing
  over 300,000 lives, won by underfunded fighters who captured and reused
  Soviet-funded Ethiopian tanks.
- **People and culture**: quiet, kind, multilingual (the football-shirt
  shopkeeper spoke five languages; schoolkids learn everything in English),
  proud and patriotic, with cycling as the national sport and Premier
  League football on every bar screen. Locals told Harry the country is
  now developing fast — "come back in two years and everything is changed".
- **Money and costs**: hotel $60/night; airport taxi $20 (from video –
  unverified); bike rental 200 nakfa/day; large pizza 160 nakfa ($8–10
  (from video – unverified)); draft beer about $1 a pint — among the
  cheapest in the world.
- **Quirks**: only carbonated water is sold (a plastic-saving measure,
  Harry was told); some bars serve no beer before 7pm.