5-Day Asmara and Massawa Heritage Tour with Green Island

• Meet your tour guide upon arrival at Asmara International Airport, and after completing customs formalities, transfer to your hotel.
• Begin discovering Asmara on a guided tour of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, known for its interesting and unusual character.

Overnight in Asmara.

• Explore Asmara city with your tour guide. The city's elegant streets and adjoining promenade are comfortable for walks by day or night. Asmara is home to more than 400 art Deco buildings officially recognized by UNESCO. One of the city's most attractive features, and of the country in general, is its safety, making it a pleasant place to explore. While touring Asmara, visitors may feel as if they are in Rome. Many Italians used to call it "Asmara Bella," meaning "Asmara the beautiful."
• Visit the Catholic and Coptic cathedrals, the mosque, the market, the Caravanserraglio, the Italian cemetery, the National Museum, Cinema Odeon, Cinema Roma built in the 1920s, and the tank graveyard, which holds remnants from the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia from 1961 to 1991.

Overnight in Asmara.

• Drive to Massawa through the green belt, following the route primarily toward the Keren road.
• Then turn east, gradually descending along the much-admired Filfil-Solomon road, usually called the Green Belt. The Italians originally built this as a weather road, and it was later turned into a fine tarmac road by the Government of Eritrea. Visitors may feel as though they are driving above the clouds, as the clouds can often be seen below the hillside. Bird-watching is glamorous in Filfil Solomon, and visitors can enjoy a coffee break at Sabur or Medhanit.
• Continue driving east as the descent goes on. Visitors may stop at Mai Wu'uii, the famous hot spring located 40 kilometres from Massawa.
• Continue the journey and witness the desert plains before reaching the port city of Massawa.

Overnight in Massawa.

• Go sightseeing in the city with your tour guide. Massawa displays a combination of Turkish and Italian architecture, clearly reflecting its Ottoman and Italian colonial history. Among its notable sites are an old Turkish palace and the modern port built by the Italians at the turn of the 20th century, while a mosque more than one thousand years old still stands to this day.
• Visit another great attraction, the famous Gurgusum Beach, considered one of the finest beaches in the world. It is clean and safe, and there are no sharks at all, so visitors can enjoy swimming in Massawa. The waters are relatively cool from October to March. However, from April to September, the weather is hot and humid, so visitors can adjust their timetables accordingly.

Overnight in Massawa.

• Start early in the morning with a 10-minute boat trip to Green Island, the most accessible island from Massawa, consisting of a beach and mangrove swamp.
• Drive uphill to Asmara while enjoying the magnificent scenery and lush vegetation. If time allows, there will be stops along the way at interesting sites and for encounters with locals.
• Transfer to the airport for departure.