Hamasien Hotel

Rooms and decor

Picture a faded pastel building, Swiss-Italian and built in the 1940s, standing in a quiet lane of Edaga Arbi, the old Italian quarter in central Asmara. The low railings around it are smothered in pink-purple bougainvillea, and wrought-iron balconies hang from the upper floors the way they do in old Roman backstreets. That's the first image of Hamasien Hotel, and it sticks with everyone who walks up. Most rooms here aren't ordinary hotel rooms but high-ceilinged suites, around 3 to 4 metres floor to ceiling, with original parquet floors that have been sanded and kept well, and classic Art Deco wooden furniture that looks like it came with the building rather than replacing it. Some rooms have small crystal ceiling lamps; some have tall French windows that open onto a bougainvillea-draped balcony. Step out onto that balcony in the morning and you see the tiled roofs of the old Italian quarter stretching off, Eritrean birds calling and the smell of Italian coffee drifting from a cafe nearby. It's a back-in-time feeling no brand-new hotel in this city can match. Reviewers agree the rooms charm harder than expected and leave a lasting picture of the trip.

Food and amenities

The heart of Hamasien is the internal courtyard, a small open space planted with trees and flowers, with little tables where guests sip coffee in the morning or a cold wine in the evening. The walls around it are pastel plaster, peeling a little with age — which, rather than looking run-down, gives the place the genuine feel that heritage-building travelers love. The main dining room serves both Eritrean food, such as injera (a flatbread made from teff flour) with zigni (a spicy meat stew), and the simple Italian pasta passed down from the colonial era. It's not Michelin cooking, but it's filling, warm and homey. There's an in-house bar pouring local Asmara beer and wine from the Eritrean Asmara Brewery, plus espresso from an old Italian machine that still works. Breakfast is plain European — bread, eggs, tea or coffee, nothing flashy — and many guests here walk out to Caffe Asmara or Bar Royal, old Italian cafes in the quarter that still pull espresso from vintage La Cimbali machines. We'd do the same, because the atmosphere and flavour are well worth it. Most of the staff speak both Italian and English, with the easy warmth Eritreans are known for, and they're glad to point you to places to eat and see without any fuss.

Location and getting there

Asmara earned its UNESCO World Heritage listing in 2017 as the most complete African modernist city on earth, which is why people call it Piccola Roma, Little Rome — Italy ran the place from 1890 to 1941 and left Art Deco, Futurist and Modernist architecture all over town. Edaga Arbi, where Hamasien sits, is the centre of that old Italian district. A few minutes from the hotel door you reach Harnet Avenue, the main street lined with old Italian buildings, palm trees and pavement cafes. Walk a little further to the Enda Mariam Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, an Eritrean church with a striking Byzantine-meets-modern design, and not far off is the Fiat Tagliero Building, the airplane-shaped Futurist petrol station that's the city's icon. Asmara airport (ASM) is about 15 minutes away by car, making arrival and departure days easy. For anyone in Eritrea to soak up the old city, Hamasien's location delivers in full — step out the door and you're already in an open-air museum of colonial architecture.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide. The thing reviews mention most is the old bathrooms and plumbing that match the building's age — tiles and taps in some rooms look worn, a few showers run hot unevenly, and on some nights the hot water runs out fast. Travelers who expect spotless, new-hotel bathrooms may not be happy, and Hamasien isn't the pick for that crowd. Second is the very slow Wi-Fi and internet, a citywide issue across Asmara rather than the hotel's fault, because the country's infrastructure is still limited — it can drop out for a whole night, so anyone working online should come prepared, pack a power bank, and download offline Google Maps for the Asmara area in advance. Third, there's no elevator in the old building, so rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors mean stairs; if you have heavy bags or limited mobility, ask for a ground-floor room when you book. Last, on payment — Eritrea still runs largely on cash, and the hotel may not take credit cards or only take them in a limited way, so bring USD or EUR to change into Nakfa at a bank when you arrive. These are more about the country than the hotel, but worth knowing up front.

Our take

From reading real reviews and listening to heritage-minded travelers, Hamasien Hotel sells one thing with real distinction: a genuine colonial building, a central Piccola Roma location, and rates from about $70 a night. It's a sibling of Embasoira a few buildings away, but plenty of people admit Hamasien has the more captivating architecture. If you love old buildings and want to sleep in a high-ceilinged parquet-floored suite, open the balcony onto bougainvillea-draped railings in the morning, then walk out for an espresso in a 1940s Italian cafe that's still open, Hamasien gives your Eritrea trip a memory no new hotel can. But if you expect spotless bathrooms, fast Wi-Fi and the convenience of an international chain, this place will disappoint you. Overall we give it 7.1/10, best suited to cultural travelers, old-building lovers, and couples after a character pick with a story to take home. Backpackers who want fast internet and pure comfort should probably look elsewhere.