Djibouti is a tiny country with outsized contrasts, which makes it so interesting to visit. It has a small economy but borders on the entrance of the Red Sea, one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. The military is staffed with half the personnel of the New York City Police Department yet hosts military bases of several countries. There are long stretches of flat, arid land which skirt flora-rich and sizable mountains, the highest over 6,600 m / 21,500 ft. About two-thirds live in the capital of the same name and ten percent live as semi-nomadic pastoralists. There are streetlights and thoroughfares in Djibouti City and otherworldly landscapes a few hours away. The official languages are Arabic and French but Somali and Afar are the most widely spoken. It’s not a country that can be summed up in a single sentence and as you travel through it, you’ll be amazed at the diversity and have fascinating experiences along the way.
Where is Djibouti?
Djibouti is surrounded by Eritrea to the north, Ethiopia to the west and southwest, and Somaliland (breakaway region of Somalia) to the south. The coast faces the Gulf of Tadjoura and the Gulf of Aden. Here’s a map from geology.com:
The area of Djibouti is 23,200 km2 / 9,000 mi2, about the size of the state of New Jersey or North Macedonia.
Who are the Djiboutians?
Djiboutians are represented by mainly two ethnic groups, Somali (60%), and Afar (35%) but also includes Yemeni Arabs, mixed individuals and others (5%). About 95% of the population is Sunni Muslim, while the remaining are mainly foreign-born residents who practice other religions.
The Somalis and Afar look and dress similarly and most visitors can’t tell them apart, as our guide Moussa explains:
In 1977, Djibouti became an independent country. From 1967 to 1977, it was the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas. Issa is the major clan of northern Somalis and a majority of Djibouti Somalis belong to it. From 1896 to 1977, it was named French Somaliland in English and Côte française des Somalis in French (literally, French Coast of the Somalis).
The country’s population is almost 1.2 million and the name of the country comes from its capital, also named Djibouti. The etymology is disputed and there are several theories about its origin.
Why We Went to Djibouti?
My wife Khadija, being of Somali descent, wanted to explore the country even though she had previously been to the capital. Also, as we were already going with our travel buddy Ric Gazarian, creator of the Counting Countries podcast and founder of the Extraordinary Travel Festival, to nearby Sudan and this was an opportunity for us to easily add Djibouti.
How Long to Spend in Djibouti?
We spent five full days in January 2023, which is enough to see the city of Djibouti, Lake Abbe, Lake Assal, the town of Tadjoura and the Goda Mountains. I recommend spending a few more days to swim with whale sharks (best from November to February), go to remote areas for birdwatching and see savanna towns that have few tourists.
Mount Moussa, located where Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia meet, has been off-limits to visitors for many years.
What to Eat in Djibouti?
The cuisine of the country is mostly a combination of Ethiopian, Somali and Yemeni dishes, but modified. For example, you can find laxoox, which is similar to Ethiopian injera, but made of wheat instead of teff grain.
In Djibouti City, there are a variety of ethnic restaurants, though not so many of each. What we remember most about our dining experience was not the food but the extreme travelers we met there by chance.
One of those travelers was Canadian physician and non-stop traveler Ron Perrier at the Signature Indian Restaurant and I highly recommend this place with a great mango lassi.
A few days later, we discovered that Ruy and Dennis, living in Palm Springs, CA, were in Djibouti. We arranged to have drinks with them at a restaurant which I didn’t write down the name.
Even though the country is Muslim, some restaurants in Djibouti serve alcohol, including European restaurants and upscale hotels.
We found the best café in the city at Villa Camille with specialty coffee, vegetarian food and pleasant seating. Interestingly, there we observed military officers from different countries meeting each other.
Djibouti hosts naval and ground-military bases belonging to Germany, Spain, Italy, France, U.S., UK, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and others at a very little distance from one another. The naval bases are hidden from vehicular and foot traffic by high walls and consequently ships aren’t visible.
Is Djibouti Safe?
We found Djibouti City to be reasonably safe and never had a concern about where we walked during the day. We drove at night but nothing looked suspicious. However, you should employ common sense and reasonable precautions when going about.
Outside the main city are small towns, scattered villages and nomadic encampments. There are hardly any problems in these thinly populated areas but very few visitors go there.
There have been a few terrorists attacks over the years by Al-Shabaab, the Somali jihadist group, but these types of incidents could happen anywhere.
Is Djibouti Expensive?
The country is somewhat more expensive, especially in Djibouti City, than most other African countries, but less than large metro areas in Europe and Asia. While street food can be relatively affordable, dining at restaurants, especially Western-style ones, can be considerably pricier.
Where to Stay in Djibouti?
Djibouti City has many lodging options and we stayed in two mid-range hotels with acceptable facilities: Hôtel l’Europe and Red Sea Hotel. In Tadjoura, we stayed at the Hotel Corto Maltese, a basic resort by the coast. All our stays were included in our tour fee, so I don’t know the regular rates.
How to Get Around Djibouti?
The price for our 6-day / 5-night tour, including transportation with driver, meals, lodging and a guide was approximately $1,000 / person for each of the three of us. Our guide was Moussa Ballah (WhatsApp +253 77278015) who was friendly and had been to the country’s attractions hundreds of times.
What Languages Are Spoken in Djibouti?
The vast majority of the population speaks Somali or Afar as a first language. French is the language of instruction and about half the population has proficiency in it. Arabic is the language of religion and of some small Arab ethnic groups.
Djibouti City
The capital has few attractions (not even a museum, but one is being developed). It’s a city with a mix of old and new buildings, a busy port, and many shops selling produce and retail items. While you can walk around the European and African quarters, the rest of the city is spread out and you will need a car.
European Quarter
The European Quarter is a mix of European and Arab architecture, with whitewashed houses and Moorish arches.
Most of the buildings are relatively well maintained and streets generally have only scattered litter.
The Hamoudi Mosque is considered by many to be the most iconic structures of the city. It was built in 1906 by Haji Hamoudi, a wealthy Yemeni immigrant and has a 1,000-worshipper capacity.
The very small Cathedral of Djibouti was built in 1964 and is the main church of the city. Interestingly, the architecture is monolithic and modern.
African Quarter
South of the European Quarter is the lively African Quarter. The much messier streets are full of vendors offering fruits, clothes and household items. Here, as everywhere in the country, women cover their heads, mostly in a variety of colorful scarves and shawls
The streets are in various levels of deterioration. It was Friday, the only weekend day in Djibouti, and many of the shops were closed.
People’s Palace
The People’s Palace convention center was built by the Chinese in 1984. In front is a statue which honors those who died fighting for independence. It looks like a European posing as an American Indian with a feather but it’s an Afar nomad with a comb in his hair.
Landmarks
There are unexpected monuments on some roundabouts including, for some reason, one of Gandhi.
Others include whale sharks, a lighthouse and an Air Djibouti plane.
Lake Abbe
The highlight of Djibouti is the fanciful landscape of Lake Abbe, in the southwestern part of the country, bordering Ethiopia. Lake Abbe is a salt lake, the largest and last of a chain of six connected lakes on the Ethiopian border. It’s above the point where the Arabian and Somalian tectonic plates are separating, causing the crust above to eventually crack. Magma pushes to the surface and deposits dissolved calcium carbonates creating towering chimneys, some as high as 50m /160ft. This unusual landscape was a location for the 1968 film, “Planet of the Apes”.
As we approached in our RAV4, we first encountered the chimneys in the distance with the lake barely visible behind.
The limestone is brittle and contorted in twisted shapes.
At sunset, there was a fierce dust storm which I was caught in and could hardly keep my eyes open to find my way back to our RAV4.
As the sun was setting, the Afar shepherds were bringing the goats and sheep back from the lake.
Ric snagged some excellent drone shots including this one at sunset.
We had two options for sleeping and we chose the stone huts over the tents.
We returned to the landscape at 6am to watch the light changing as the sun rose. Here’s a photo of Khadija for the few minutes when long shadows were casted.
In many places, the simmering geothermal water emits steam from the ground and through the chimneys.
The semi-nomadic Afar people have established a settlement near the lake’s shore. They make extensive use of donkeys as pack animals including carrying water from the lake. Lake water is for washing and cleaning but rainwater is for drinking even though there’s limited annual rainfalls.
The lake has flamingos which always fled when we approached the shore.
Moussa provided us with his analysis of Lake Abbe’s geology.
Koutabouya
We stopped in Koutabouya (in Afar, kouta is shell and bouya is river or water flow), a tiny village next to a watering hole where residents lead a semi-nomadic life, 170 km / 100 mi from Djibouti City and 30 km / 18 miles from Lake Abbe. Ric and I were in the tent of Abdul who lives here with his two wives, many children and grazing animals. He worked one year in Djibouti City at an unappealing, low paying job, so he quit and returned.
The huts in the village are made of branches held together by woven mats from bark. They can be quickly taken apart and reassembled, as well as carried by a camel. Moussa explained the process.
From the RAV4 outside the village, we gave a young girl a bottle of water, which she immediately started drinking but kept looking at us suspiciously.
Port to Ethiopia Highway
Part of the way to Lake Abbe from Djibouti City is on the RN-1 which goes to the Ethiopian border crossing at Galafi. A majority of landlocked Ethiopia’s international trade is delivered through the port of Djibouti. When we drove on it, we were passing trucks filled with solid and liquid cargo and, at one point, they were stopped by soldiers and inspected.
Lake Assal
Lake Assal is a crater lake in the Danakil Desert in central Djibouti. It’s also a closed depression at the northern end of the Great Rift Valley. More than 150m / 500ft below sea level, it’s the lowest point in Africa. It’s composed of extremely salty water (the salinity level is 10X that of the ocean) and is adjacent to a white salt flat. The salt is so thick you can stand on it in places.
Individuals extract salt in slabs by hand…
make salt sculptures to sell to the few visitors who come every day…
and take it away on camels, as has been transpiring for centuries.
Goda Mountains
We went to the Dittilou area in the Goda Mountains, north of the town of Tadjoura where we stayed one night. The highest mountain is 1750 m / 5700 ft and the valley and mountains are one of the greenest in the arid country.
We went on a 3-hour, round trip hike up an active riverbed with sections of huge boulders, often slick, that we had to climb over.
I snapped a photo of Ric as he was catching his drone after he used it to survey the area.
We had lunch at the Dittilou Camp located halfway up one of the mountains. The highlight was the vervet monkeys looking for an opportunity to steal our food.
Not far away from the camp, there was a minuscule village with a boutique shop for visitors where we bought a colorful hemp-trivet. The young lady there was reluctant to be photographed until Khadija offered to join her.
Final Thoughts
For decades Khadija told me and others about the flag of Somalia with a five-pointed star 🇸🇴, representing the five historical regions where the Somali people have traditionally lived (Italian Southern Somalia – Mogadishu, British Northern Somalia – Hargeisa, Ogaden, Ethiopia, British Northern Kenya and French Djibouti).
When the Republic of Somalia became independent in 1960, the peoples of British and Italian Somalia agreed to unite and had fond hopes of someday having the other three regions join them. Instead, the Republic had a civil war and British Somalia is now a de facto separate country called Somaliland (read about our visit there) but that’s another story.
She thought that travel in Djibouti would be easy for her, as she spoke Somali. However, when she was in the RAV4 going to Lake Abbe, she couldn’t understand the driver and guide when they were speaking to each other.
She then realized that they were speaking in Afar, which was a surprise to her that it was so different from Somali. This shows you that even if you’ve been to a country, as she had in Djibouti, you can learn something new and meaningful if you return. That means that even though we have seen so much here, someday we should return to learn more about this fascinating country!
