My Massigo Travel Review: English speaking tour company in Djibouti

Booking with Massigo Travel

I organized our tour via email with Musa after reading reviews on TripAdvisor. He seems like the best English-speaking guide in the country. I initially thought we were booking him specifically, but that isn’t the case, he acts as the lead organizer.

I first reach out to him over email and then we switched to WhatsApp.

Communication

Musa is incredibly communicative on both email and WhatsApp, which is a huge plus. His English is perfect, and honestly, if you’re looking for an English-speaking service in Djibouti, this feels like your only solid option from Googling.

Costs

The Tour: The 5-day/4-night experience cost $875 per person for what we wanted to do. We were able to pay by card upon arrival. It may seem like a lot, but that is roughly $175 per day, which includes a 4×4, a lot of fuel, three meals a day, and two staff members to guide and chauffeur you.
The Whale Shark Add-on: We paid an additional $220 per person for a full 8-hour day trip. Most people usually only do a 4-hour experience with transit from Djibouti City.
Tips: We tipped the guide and driver around 15,000 DJF each (splitting up the driver tip because we had two).
Is it fair? Yes. Even though the final day didn’t include dinner or a hotel stay the last evening, I thought it was a fair price considering the amount gas, staffing, and food required.

The Guide

We visited during Christmas, which was a busy time. We had both a driver and a tour guide, though the “guide” clarified early on that he was actually just a translator. It turned out he had never been to many of these sites himself, and it was his first time being a tour guide. I think he was hired primarily because his English was so good even though he hadn’t met Musa before.

Our guide was a total character, though. If something went wrong, he’d say, “I’m just the translator, I have no power”. But if I agreed with him and asked to be connected with Musa, he’d immediately flip and say, “No, I will fix it, I’m in charge!” Lol.

I’m not sure if he’ll be used again because he was doing this as a favor to Musa and didn’t seem to enjoy it that much. He had funny sayings the entire trip. For example, our guide once got annoyed at Lake Abbe Camp because he said there were no cats around (he feeds seven at home!). He said, “If there are humans, there should be cats”. As a cat lover, I totally agree. He was just so funny (unintentionally) the entire time.

Local and Political Culture

While he didn’t know much about the historical sites, he had a lot of cultural and political info and overall knowledge gained from working on many different sites as a building manager. (we actually ran into a driver from another tour company he said he fired from a site because he was too lazy lolllll).

The guide was honest about the local challenges. He’d point out abandoned buildings (like a massive, dead salt-exporting structure built by a Chinese company that failed because the government didn’t consult the local Afar people) and explain exactly what went wrong. We also passed a wind farm where only 17 of the promised 40 turbines were actually built because funding disappeared.

Abandoned salt export dock in the distance

Whale Shark Bait

When we were being briefed the day before our whale shark excursion, Musa arrived to explain the process to our guide, who had never done this before. It was absolutely hilarious because Musa wanted our guide to act as “bait” for the whale sharks. He told him he had to jump in with us, blow bubbles, and flail around in front of the sharks to get them to stay put so we could see them. Our guide did not want to do this at all; in fact, he didn’t even want to be on the boat.

He stayed on for the first half of the tour begrudgingly, but for the second half, he announced he was going fishing instead. This actually worked out perfectly for us as he caught a gorgeous fish that the camp fried for our dinner that evening.

The Drivers

We actually had two different drivers because they both knew different parts of the country better. The first driver took us to Lake Abbé and Lake Ghoubet,. The second took us to the Day Forest and Abourma, areas that are far less visited.

Timing on the tour

The timing on the tour was mostly on schedule. There isn’t much to “do” but the distances can be long for the driver and of course require stops.

For instance, after lunch on the way to Lake Assal, we were ready to hit the road, but the driver and guide were still finishing their smoke and khat break. Later, the driver actually got yelled at (via phone by Musa) because he was apparently driving too fast, hahaha. We were “supposed” to reach the camp later than we were on track for. This led to a weird situation at Lake Assal where we were rushed through the site, only to be told afterward that we weren’t “allowed” to arrive at the next camp before 5:00 p.m. We ended up just hanging out at a nearby viewpoint to kill time. It all worked out.

It’s hard to explain but just know you’ll get to all the sites you want!

The Car

Our 4×4 was comfortable, the AC worked well, and we had plenty of space.

The one funny thing was the left-side door by my seat; it required a specific trick to open. It was fine, though; I just played the princess and had someone open the door for me everywhere, or I’d just climb out the other side.

We did get a flat tire once on the way to Abourma, but the driver had it fixed in 20 minutes.

The car’s sound system was the best part: the only song it would play was “La Isla Bonita” by Madonna. It was hilarious.

Our Itinerary

Day 1: Into the Desert (Lake Abbé) – Picked up by Massigo Travel in a 4×4, drove to Lake Abbé to explore the surreal limestone chimneys and steam vents. Stay: Lake Abbé Camp (Afar huts). You can also do Lake Assal as a day trip from Djibouti City.

Day 2: Salt & Volcanoes (Lake Assal) – Watched the sunrise at the chimneys before driving to the salt-crusted shores of Lake Assal to swim in the brine. Visited the black lava fields of Ardoukoba Volcano. Stay: Lake Ghoubet Camp.

Day 3: Whale Sharks & The Mountains – Spent the morning searching for whale sharks in the Gulf of Tadjoura (where your guide famously acted as “bait”) before driving up to the cooler Day Forest mountains. Stay: Day Forest Camp.

Day 4: Ancient Art & Trekking – Trekked through the Goda Mountains to see the prehistoric rock art at Abourma and experienced the local Afar culture firsthand. Stay: Day Forest Camp.

Day 5: Coastal Reset – Drove through the mountains, stopping for tea in Randa, and descended to the coast to explore the town of Tadjoura. Dropped off at: Loubatanleh Hôtel.

Would I use Massigo Travel again?

Yes. The price, organization, and service were very well done. We saw (most) everything we wanted and more than we expected; the little mishaps just gave the tour character and gave us funny stories for days.

For more context, you can check out my Instagram stories.

Djibouti Guide