Somalia: Getting there & around

Daallo Airlines operates weekly services from Dubai, London and Paris to Djibouti, from where there are connections to Hargeisa (Somaliland) and Mogadishu (Southern Somalia). They also have flights from Djibouti to other smaller Somali destinations. Ethiopian Airlines offers flights from Addis Ababa.

There's a large amount of dhow traffic from Djibouti and Kenya, but piracy is rife - major merchant ships get shanghai'd in these waters so don't even think about sailing a yacht along Somalia's coast.

The land border between Somaliland and Djibouti is open, but it's a difficult two-day truck journey between Djibouti and Hargeisa. From Jijiga in Ethiopia there's bus traffic to Hargeisa.

Although the southern border town of Liboi was once a fascinating little place, there's no way you can get overland from Somalia to Kenya at present. Moreover, the entire border area is infested with well-armed Somali shifta (bandits).

In Somaliland there are a few sealed roads (the one from Berbera to Hargeisa is one of the few), and medium-sized buses and crowded 4WDs service routes between major Somaliland settlements. However, foreigners are asked to rent a car with driver and guide when travelling outside Hargeisa.