It Started with a Travel Guide
Eritrip began with a personal journey.
When travelling back to Eritrea, I realised that many of us in the diaspora often visit the places we already know — family homes, familiar towns and areas connected to our background. But Eritrea has so much more to discover.
There were already travel guides available, but many were bulky and not easy to carry around. So I created a pocket-sized travel guide with three simple elements: a guide, a street map of Asmara, and a road map of Eritrea.
It was designed to help people explore Eritrea more easily, move around with confidence, and discover places beyond the familiar.
The guide was warmly received, but as family life grew, Eritrip was paused for a while.
Now Eritrip is being revived as a family-led cultural brand, bringing together the original travel guide, a new family board game, T-shirts, posters, wall art, maps, books and cultural products.
The board game is the highlight of this new chapter, and it is currently available for first batch pre-order.
Eritrip is not just about products. It is about helping families explore, play, wear, display, remember and pass culture from one generation to the next.
The Start of Journey
The Evolution: A Board Game is Born
In 2025, Eritrip took a new shape, inspired by family game nights, my children, and a desire to help young Eritreans learn about their heritage in a fun, screen-free way. The Eritrip Board Game was born: a playful, educational, non-digital experience designed to spark conversations, teach geography, celebrate culture, and bring people together. Alongside it, we launched more posters and cultural tools, each one designed to make Eritrean heritage visible and interactive.
Rebuilding and Expanding the Vision
When the world shifted during the pandemic, so did my focus. I returned to Eritrip with fresh energy, not just to reprint the guide, but to expand the product line. I began designing new T-shirts that expressed pride and identity, and introduced language posters featuring the Ge’ez alphabet, aimed at helping diaspora families keep the language alive. The mission deepened: Eritrip would not just help people navigate Eritrea, it would help them hold onto it.
The Starting Point
By 2014, the Eritrip travel guide was completed. We launched it through Mosob, shared it on WhatsApp, sold it on Amazon, and introduced it at community events — including the 25th Anniversary in Bologna, Italy and Sweden. The response was encouraging, and for a time, momentum grew. But as life unfolded and challenges came, Eritrip slowed — though never disappeared.
A Personal Turning Point
In 2011, after years of working and serving the community, I travelled to Eritrea to rest and reconnect. My last visit had been in 1997, and I wanted to explore the country alone, with fresh eyes. As someone who loves travel and collects guides, I searched for something to help me navigate Asmara and beyond. What I found was limited and outdated. That's when I met Tedros, a remarkable gentleman who became a close friend and played an instrumental role in Eritrip’s birth. Tedros sourced guides, researched routes, and even carried out mystery shopping tasks, visiting cafés, hotels, and restaurants to evaluate service. His efforts helped build the foundation of the Eritrip guide. Additionally, Desta Haile, whose beautiful writing and editing helped shape the content into something truly meaningful. Eritrip wouldn’t exist without their contributions. That same year, I met my wife, a personal chapter that made 2011 not just a turning point for the brand, but a profound moment in my life.
The Foundation at Mosob
Eritrip’s roots go back to Mosob, the family-run Eritrean restaurant we opened in London in 2004. Mosob was more than a restaurant — it was a living celebration of Eritrean culture. Our guests came not only to eat, but to experience Eritrea: from the music and traditions to conversations about our history, and even having their names written in Ge’ez script before they left. It was in that space — between food and storytelling — that the idea for Eritrip quietly took shape.
Meet our team
Henry Otim
Project Manager
Fieven G. Tewelde
Adminstrator