5-Day Eritrea Tour with Asmara Modernism and Massawa Coast

Fly into Asmara International and transfer to the Asmara Palace Hotel. At 2,325 metres, Eritrea's capital sits in a highland climate that is cool and clear even in mid-winter. Enjoy an easy first evening on Harnet Avenue, the palm-lined boulevard that anchors the old Italian downtown, followed by a welcome dinner at a classic Asmarino trattoria.

Spend the morning on a walking tour of Asmara's UNESCO-listed modernist core, including the Fiat Tagliero service station, Cinema Impero, the Catholic Cathedral of Santa Maria, Cinema Roma, the Nda Mariam Coptic Church, and the noisy Medeber recycling market, where tin cans become oil lamps and engine blocks become chairs. After lunch, descend 2,300 metres in two dramatic hours of switchbacks to the Red Sea port of Massawa. Check in at the Grand Dahlak Hotel and walk through the old coral-stone city as the Muezzin calls the evening prayers.

At first light, take a small boat from Massawa's harbour to Green Island, a mangrove-fringed cay in the Red Sea where you can swim, snorkel, and see the coast as the old Ottoman and Italian governors once did. Return to town for a seaside lunch, then explore Massawa's Ottoman royal residence, the 7th-century Mosque of the Companions, believed to be one of the earliest mosques in the world, and the Gurgusum coastline. Drive north through the highlands to Keren by late afternoon and overnight at Sarina Hotel.

Start early for the Monday market, Keren's great weekly rendezvous of camel traders, cattle drovers, silversmiths, and nine Eritrean ethnic groups gathering under an ancient fig tree. Afterwards, visit Mariam Dearit, the centuries-old baobab tree hollowed out around a shrine to the Virgin Mary, as well as the Italian and Commonwealth war cemeteries that mark the fierce 1941 battle that ended Italian East Africa. Return to Asmara in the late afternoon, check in at the Crystal Palace Hotel, and enjoy a farewell dinner in the Italian quarter.

Enjoy a final morning on foot through the old town, with an espresso at a 1930s café, one last look through the stalls on Harnet Avenue, and a photograph of Cinema Impero in the mid-day light, before transferring to the airport for your onward flight. Five days that will redraw your mental map of Africa.