Somalia Travel Guide

Foreigners and overseas Somalis will need a visa. This can be arranged in three ways: Plane travel may be problematic to and from Somalia. However, air may be the safest means of travel to and from the country.

The official currency of Somalia (except Somaliland) is the Somali shilling (shilin), denoted by the symbol Sh.So., or in Arabic, شلن‎‎. The ISO currency code is SOS. As of Apr 2026, many businesses trade only in US dollars, and refuse to accept Somali shillings as dollarization of the economy has accelerated.

Somalia was without an effective government for 17 years; this has had a negative effect on the roads and transit. Traffic is dangerous in Somalia. There may be landmines in different parts of the country. Roads are in poor condition and dangerous, especially in the Mogadishu and Jowhar regions. The main roads in the north-west from Hargeisa to Borama, Berbera and Sheikh have been resurfaced and demined.

The two official languages of Somalia are Somali and Arabic. Many Somalis are multilingual. Somali is the mother tongue of the Somali people, the nation's most populous ethnic group, and Arabic is a secondary language for most people. Like Arabic, Somali is an Afro-Asiatic language (but not Semitic like Arabic) and it has plenty of loanwords from Persian and Arabic, e.g. albab-ka (door) is from Arabic.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the easiest method for staying safe in Somalia is not to go in the first place. Kidnappings, armed clashes, piracy, and warlording are not as common in Somalia as before, but do not let that give you peace of mind.

Water is mostly contaminated in certain parts of Somalia. Stick to sealed, preferably non-Somali, bottled fluids. Do not drink out of wells. Most are filled with harmful bacteria that most foreigners are unaccustomed to. If you have a guide, they will probably provide you with food and water.

The public telecommunications system was almost completely destroyed during the civil war. Local cellular telephone systems have been established in Mogadishu and in several other population centres. International connections are available from Mogadishu by satellite. International outgoing connections also work from the cellular infrastructure. Somalia has the cheapest cellular calling rates on the continent, with some companies charging less than the equivalent of one US cent per minute. Compe…

Somalis, in general, are humble, hospitable, and welcoming. They consider it shameful to not give a guest a warm welcome, which is why you, as a tourist, will be showered with hospitality, even if you end up making a few blunders here and there.