Eritrea · Highlands
Asmara
A 1930s Italian modernist city preserved almost whole on a cool African plateau, where a petrol station has concrete wings and the day runs on macchiato.
Asmara sits at more than 2,300 metres on the Eritrean highland plateau, and its centre is one of the most complete early modernist cityscapes anywhere: art deco cinemas, rationalist offices and futurist service stations, most built by the Italians in the late 1930s and still in everyday use. The winged Fiat Tagliero is its emblem, and the whole centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Life runs at the pace of the cafes, with macchiato at the bar and an evening stroll along palm-lined Harnet Avenue, and the air stays mild and dry for most of the year.
Suggested stay
2–4 days
Language
Tigrinya, Arabic
Currency
ERN
Timezone
UTC+3
Why you'll love Asmara
Modernist city the UNESCO-listed centre is a working museum of 1930s design, from art deco cinemas and rationalist offices to the Fiat Tagliero, a service station with wings like an aeroplane
Cafe life Italian coffee culture never left, and the day turns on macchiato and pastries at the bar, then the evening passeggiata along palm-lined Harnet Avenue
Highland air at more than 2,300 metres the city is mild by day and cool at night, a world away from the heat of the Red Sea coast below
Down the escarpment the road and the old railway drop to the Red Sea at Massawa in hairpins and tunnels, below the clifftop monastery of Debre Bizen
Best time to visit
Sep-Jun
22-25° days
15.339° N, 38.933° E
UTC+3 · Africa/Asmara
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Weather & when to go to Asmara
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Sep-Jun
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Asmara
No month to avoid. July and August bring the main rains, with heavy downpours most afternoons and cooler, cloudier days, though mornings are often clear. The rest of the year is dry and sunny, and from December to February the days stay mild while nights on the plateau turn properly cold, so pack a warm layer.
Top things to do in Asmara
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Fiat Tagliero - the service station with wings
culture arts history ⭐ Highly recommendedBuilt in 1938 to a design by the engineer Giuseppe Pettazzi, this futurist service station has a central tower flanked by two long cantilevered concrete wings, so the whole building looks like an aeroplane about to take off. Local legend has Pettazzi drawing a pistol when the builders refused to take the supports away. It is the emblem of modernist Asmara.
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Harnet Avenue - macchiato and the evening passeggiata
culture arts food 👍 PopularThe palm-lined main avenue is the city's living room. Mornings start with a macchiato and a pastry standing at the bar of an Italian-era cafe, and in the early evening much of the city strolls its length, past the cinemas, the Catholic cathedral and the pastel facades of the 1930s.
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Cinema Impero - art deco on the main avenue
culture arts history 👍 PopularOpened in 1937, the Impero is the grandest of Asmara's art deco cinemas, its name spelled out in giant capitals across the facade, and it still screens films and hosts events. Cinema Roma and the Capitol, two more of the city's 1930s picture houses, are a short walk away.
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Medeber - the recycling market
culture arts shopping ⭐ Highly recommendedIn the lanes of open-air workshops beside the central market, craftsmen turn scrap into everyday goods: old tyres become sandals, oil drums become stoves and buckets, and grain and spices are ground to order. The hammering never stops. The market stalls around it sell berbere, pottery, baskets and incense.
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Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary - the Catholic cathedral
history culture arts 👍 PopularFinished in 1923 in a Lombard Romanesque style, the red-brick Catholic cathedral stands on Harnet Avenue, and its tall bell tower is the landmark of the city centre, visible from much of the old grid.
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Enda Mariam - the Orthodox cathedral
culture arts historyThe main church of Asmara's Orthodox Christians blends Italian-era design with the highland church tradition, with large mosaic panels on its facade. On Sundays and feast days the compound fills with worshippers wrapped in white shawls, and the chanting carries into the surrounding streets.
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Great Mosque - the minaret over the market
history culture artsBuilt in 1937, Al Khulafa al-Rashidin, the Great Mosque, pairs a rationalist design with a slender minaret that rises over the market district. It sits a short walk from both cathedrals, and the three together are the clearest picture of the city's mix of faiths.
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Zigni, injera and the coffee ceremony - highland food
foodEritrean kitchens serve zigni, a spicy beef stew, and shiro, a chickpea stew, on injera, the soft sour flatbread, and breakfast is often ful. Pasta and pizza are local dishes too, a legacy of the Italian years, and the slow three-round coffee ceremony, with beans roasted in front of you, is how guests are welcomed.
Best areas to stay in Asmara
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Harnet Avenue and the centre
First-time visitors $$Art deco grid of cafes and cinemas
Explore hotels in Harnet Avenue and the centre →
Geza Banda
Quiet and leafy $$Leafy quarter of Italian-era villas
Explore hotels in Geza Banda →
Airport road
Big-hotel comfort $$$Big hotels on the southern edge
Explore hotels in Airport road →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Asmara
Getting to & around Asmara
Getting there
Fly into Asmara International (ASM) on the southern edge of the city; almost every visitor arrives by air
Flight
Asmara International Airport (ASM)
The airport sits on the southern edge of the city, around 15 minutes from Harnet Avenue by taxi; taxis wait outside the terminal, and most hotels will meet a flight if asked.
Getting around
Walking
The centre is compact, flat and safe, and the architecture is best seen on foot along Harnet Avenue and the grid of streets around it
Free
Taxi
Shared taxis run fixed routes along the main avenues and can also be hired outright; they are unmetered, so agree the price first
TBC
Car with driver
Arranged through hotels or travel agencies for day trips to Keren, Massawa and Qohaito, once your travel permit is in hand
TBC
Day trips from Asmara
Massawa
1-2 daysRed Sea port
Eritrea's Red Sea port, with an old town of coral-stone houses, arcades and mosques on islands joined by causeways. The drive is half the point, falling from cool highland to desert heat through Nefasit, Ghinda and Dogali. Most people stay at least one night.
Getting there
car | bus
About three hours by car or bus, dropping from the plateau to sea level in hairpins
Keren
Full dayMarket town and battlefield
A lower, warmer town ringed by mountains, with a weekly camel and livestock market, the Commonwealth and Italian war cemeteries from the 1941 Battle of Keren, and Mariam Dearit, a small shrine to the Virgin set inside a baobab tree.
Getting there
car | bus
About two hours north-west by car or bus
Debre Bizen
Full dayClifftop monastery
An Orthodox monastery founded in the 14th century on a peak above the escarpment, known for its library of old manuscripts and its views toward the Red Sea. Only men may enter, and visits need permission arranged in Asmara before you go.
Getting there
car | walk
Under an hour by car to Nefasit, then a steep walk of two to three hours up to the monastery
Qohaito
Full dayAncient ruins
The scattered remains of an ancient town on the edge of the plateau, from the era of the Aksumite kingdom: standing columns, an old stone dam and rock-cut tombs, with a sheer view down into the gorges below. The stele at Metera is nearby.
Getting there
car
Two and a half to three hours south by car, via Adi Keyh
Asmara-Massawa railway
Half dayHeritage steam railway
The Italian-built narrow-gauge line winds off the plateau through tunnels and over viaducts, worked by restored steam locomotives and a vintage Littorina railcar. There is no timetable: trips run only when chartered in advance, usually by groups, so ask in Asmara.
Getting there
train
Chartered train from Asmara station down the escarpment toward Nefasit
A little history of Asmara
Asmara began as a cluster of villages on the highland plateau of Hamasien, and its name is usually traced to a Tigrinya phrase about four clans being made to unite. Italy occupied it in 1889, and within a few years the colony's capital was moving up from the heat of Massawa. The railway arrived in 1911. In the late 1930s, as Italy prepared and fought its invasion of Ethiopia, a building boom gave Asmara the modernist centre it keeps today, with cinemas, service stations, villas and offices in art deco, rationalist and futurist styles.
British forces took the city in 1941 and ran Eritrea until 1952, when it was federated with Ethiopia; ten years later it became an Ethiopian province. Independence came in 1993, after a war that had begun in 1961, and Asmara became the capital of the new state. In 2017 its centre was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Italian troops occupy Asmara, a highland village on the plateau of Hamasien
The Italian colonial administration begins moving the capital of Eritrea from Massawa up to Asmara
The railway from the port of Massawa reaches Asmara
A building boom around Italy's invasion of Ethiopia gives Asmara most of its modernist centre, including Cinema Impero and the Fiat Tagliero
British forces take Asmara after the Battle of Keren, beginning a decade of British administration
Eritrea is federated with Ethiopia
The federation ends and Eritrea becomes a province of Ethiopia
Eritrea becomes independent following a referendum, with Asmara as its capital
Asmara's centre is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as a modernist African city
Know before you go
Payment
Cash only
English
Limited
Wifi
Limited
Power
Type C / E / L
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+291
Bring cash. Foreign cards and ATMs are unreliable to unusable here, so plan on carrying what the trip needs and changing money on arrival.
FAQs about Asmara
▸ When is the best time to visit Asmara?
Any month outside the main rains. From September to June the plateau is mostly dry and sunny, with mild days and cool nights, coldest from December to February. July and August bring heavy afternoon downpours on most days and greyer skies, but the city still works for a visit, and the highlands turn green.
▸ Do you need a permit to travel outside Asmara?
Foreign visitors have long needed a travel permit to leave the capital, including for Massawa, Keren, Debre Bizen and Qohaito. Permits are issued in Asmara, list your destinations and dates, and can take a day or more, so apply soon after you arrive, carry copies for the road checkpoints, and confirm the current rule locally.
▸ Is Asmara safe to visit?
Asmara has a reputation as one of Africa's calmest capitals, and walking the centre after dark is normal. Carry your passport and any permits, do not photograph government buildings, soldiers or checkpoints, and check your own government's current advice before you travel, especially on border areas, which are often off limits.
▸ Can you use cards or ATMs in Asmara?
Plan on cash for the whole trip. International cards are rarely accepted and foreign cards generally do not work in local ATMs, so bring enough hard currency with you, change it at banks or official exchange offices, and keep the receipts.
▸ Is there internet in Asmara?
Only just. A few hotels and internet cafes offer slow, patchy connections, mobile data is largely out of reach for visitors and foreign SIM cards often do not roam, so download maps, documents and anything else you need before you arrive, and expect to be mostly offline.
▸ Why is Asmara called a modernist city?
Most of its centre went up in a few years in the late 1930s, when Italy poured money and settlers into the colony and its architects used it to try out the newest styles. Art deco, rationalism and futurism all left buildings here, and much of the ensemble survived largely unchanged, which is why UNESCO listed it in 2017.