How to Spend 24 Hours in Khartoum Sudan
If you have only 24 hours in Khartoum, you will not be able to see everything, but if you plan a little bit, even a day in Khartoum will not disappoint you. Khartoum is huge city. Its three cities in one: Khartoum 1, Omdurman on the west bank and Bahri (Khartoum North) on the northern bank.
If you are on your own using public transport in Khartoum, you wont have much options to hop around the city as you will lose lots of time to come from point a to b around this huge city. It is better to choose one or two parts of Khartoum.
With private transport you will have more freedom to efficiently move around the Khartoum, although traffic can be jammed specially on Airport street. For those exploring Khartoum mostly on foot, here is a map of Khartoum.
Things to Do in Khartoum
Shop for Golden Jewelry on Souq Arabi
Souq Arabi is main commercial area where you will be able to buy all kinds of souvenirs. Souq is divided into several shopping divisions, from gold market where window-shops are stuffed with golden jewellery to shoe area where you can find shoes of all kinds of leather, including snake and alligator skin.
There are many shops with clothes, fabrics, scarves, more clothes and more fabrics. Female travellers might get surprised as there are no fitting cabins in fashion shops (at least the shops at the souq) and mostly men work at female shops.
Souq Arabi is overlooking the Great Mosque (Mesjid al-Kabir). In this area you can also exchange some money on a black market. No need to look around, money exchangers will find you.
Nile Street and Tuti Bridge and Tuti Island
Nile street is probably the most “beautiful” (or the cleanest maybe) street in Khartoum. While being in this part of the city you have option do several things. As much you will be tempted to make photo of Tuti bridge, don’t! It is prohibited to take pictures of bridge since its considered a strategic point.
If the right person catches you in the act, you can get arrested or in milder case you will be warned and forced to delete the photos on your camera.
Tuti island lies opposite of Corinthia hotel and from 2009 is connected with massive Tuti bridge. Once you are on Nile street its easily accessible and for those who are looking for a bit of more peaceful environment, it seems like nice city escape.
Tuti Island is a quick introduction to life outside of Khartoum while still in Khartoum, although this my change in the future as city is prospecting and becoming more and more urbanized. On a walk on Tuti Island you will most likely find a nice view point – a beautiful cliff where you can see the confluence of Blue and White Nile.
Panoramic Views of Khartoum and Confluence of Nile
If you are too lazy to visit Tuti island, you can see it from one of the top floor restaurant in Corinthia Hotel. To escape from the heat, you can have a coffee or lunch in air conditioned Corinthia hotel.
The restaurant in 18th floor is the highest publicly accessible spot to see panoramic views of Tuti island and blue nile.
While you are there just 5 minutes walk down the street you can visit Sudan National Museum to see the artifacts of Sudanese archeological history or cross the Tuti bridge and explore the Tuti island.
Have a Picnic on Green Yard
Usually being used as an event venue for concerts and sports events. When there are no scheduled public events, green yard turns its function into a park in the evenings and becomes prime social area. Sudanese don’t go to restaurants in the evening like westerners would go.
If you want to mix with locals and see how they enjoy the evenings in Khartum, Green Yard is the most local public place to hang out in the evenings. Between 7 PM and 11PM locals gather with their friends or families, sit on the grass and and relax by drinking tea or coffee while children play.
It s a small fee to enter, a few SDG. Green Yard in Khartum is close to the airport, and you can see planes very low flying above the green yard just before the landing or taking off.
Things to do in Omdurman
Visit Omdurman Market
Omdurman feels totally different than other parts of Khartoum and is known for the biggest market in Sudan if not in Africa.
An endless maze of narrow allies and stands selling just everything one can think of for a cheaper price than Souq Arabi. However, Khartoum has an abundance of all type of souqs, in case you are in a hurry and don’t want to loose time on reaching Omdurman, there are smaller but similar souqs just on every part of Khartoum.
Sufi Dancers at Hamed al-Nil Mosque
If you have only 24 hours in Khartoum and its Friday, whirling Sufis in front of the Hamed al-Nil mosque are a must see. Event starts at 4 pm with some intros, but actual Sufis appear between 5:30 and 6 PM.
The first hour two men dressed in white gelabiyas beat on the drum in the circle of other people, hop around and sing. Men from the crowd can join them, but have to pay a small sum of the money into the pouch on the floor.
Noisy, atmosphere with amazing rhythms from the tambours (drums), clapping and zikr – chanting will soak you into sufi ceremony! Of course there are rules when it comes to the ceremony. While forming the circle around Sufis, women are not allowed to stand in the first row of the circle, but in the second row.
I didn’t know that so someone approached me and told me to go stand in the back of the circle quite in a rude way.
The easiest way to reach Hamid el Nil Mosque from Khartoum by public transport is to start from Arabi Bus Station and look for minibuses heading to Hamed al-Nil Mosque. To reach the Mosque should take around 20, 30 minutes if there are no traffic jams on the way.
While it is fairly easy to go there by bus it is a bit more difficult to get back to Khartoum after the event is over. In the night buses are less frequent and although I was with a local, it took us to ask around for direction where to catch the bus that still drives to Khartoum.
After a little less of an hour of walking through Omdurman we finally found the waiting spot for bus heading for Khartoum.
Friday Camel Market
Why not buying a camel? Definitely one of more interesting things to do in Khartoum.Darfur is the major camel-raising region in Sudan, and the majority of camels for sale in Khartoum come from the west, bred by the many tribes of the Juhayna Arabs.
Most camels are destined for the Egyptian market, which has a high demand for their meat. The Beja and Rashaida represent eastern Sudan; their Bisharin camels are highly prized in the Gulf States for racing.
Nuba Wrestling in Bahri
Nuba Wrestling takes place in Bahri ( Khartoum North) each Friday at around 4 PM. The modern Nuba wrestling differs much from its ancient and original form. Wrestlers nowadays fight wearing shorts and t-shirts but the real ones, the wrestlers fight naked while covered in ash. The wrestling match usually takes place in Souk Sitta (literally means market no. 6) in Hajja Yusuif east of Khartoum, and the games starts ba’adan Asr.
Explore Khartoum with Local Guide
Hire a Tuk Tuk (Ricksha) and Explore Residential Neighbourhoods of Khartoum
Hire a ricksha (tuktuk) and just drive through the parts of the Khartoum to get a feel of different neighbourhoods – or even better, if you have a chance, let locals show you the hidden parts of the city, local neighbourhoods.
Have you travelled to Sudan, did we miss any other things to do in Khartoum? Leave a comment below.
Great post! Hopefully it’s somewhere I’ll get to one day. It seems there’s plenty to see and such a variety too. I’m not someone who likes to pack a day though so I’d need to spend a few days enjoying everything.
Agree with you. I am also slow traveller, rather than collecting stamps in passport i take time and really feel the country. I spent one month in Khartoum.
Never heard of this place! Thanks for the informative post. Happy Travelling
Yeah, Sudan is more offbeat destination:) Who would have blamed you:)
So exotic, but you know what I love most from your pictures? The colour of the sand:) And I am so happy when I see authentic travel:) Loved it
🙂 Thanks, Sudan is special experience even for more advanced travellers.
Interesting post. I’ve never considered Sudan as an attractive destination but now I see it has its charms.
Sudan has more specific charms:D
So much to do in Khartoum! Thanks for your insight into this very different but fascinating culture. It’s amazing just how important markets/souks are around the world. I love going to them and reading about them. Thanks for sharing
Spent a month in Khartoum and havent seen everything, just souqs are countless 🙂
Really well written! I love your style of writing 😀 Although.. after what I read I’m not sure I’m going to visit this place in the nearest future 🙂
I hope to go back this year, to see even more:)
Wow, very informative post. I think I would go to the camel market just to see the camels lol 🙂 I love animals!
Actually the camel market turned out the least interesting:D
I was really interested in learning about the clothing shops. So where do women try on their clothes? Is this tied to a religious practice?
Sudan is Islamic country.
Interesting post. Didn’t know much about Sudan, so thank you for your story and pictures. The souks seem interesting and very diverse. Though, that’s rude about women being asked to be stand in the second row!! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Its the ceremony itself, women in second row thats it:)
Wow, Sudan? I must admit that it’s a place I never really considered as a travel destination. It looks completely different to what I expected. I think it looks quite similar the the Middle East in some ways.I love the traditional dancing and it must be so magical to glimpse the Nile!
To be frank, its good if you have some travel experience in Islamic countries, specially if travelling independently. It resembles to Middle Eastern countries,just without the glam in architecture.
Nice post! I have never been to Sudan and would love to visit someday.
Sudan is definitely an exotic destination, when you can, visit, highly recommend it!
I would definitely want to visit Sudan someday! Thanks for the information about not photographing the bridge and standing in the second row. I would really love to see those Sufi dancers! It sounds amazing.
Yes Sudan is red tape country, lots of restrictions when it comes to taking photos! Sufis are amazing!
Sudan is amazing place to visit and very kind and nice people aver it’s near to Egypt and have a long river in the world it’s river nile and it is larger country in Africa and it is one of the arabian country
All the problem of this country in its government
I lived there for four years. If you atually make it there, make sure to head north, out of Khartoum to visit Meroe and Merowe, or go down southeast to Kassala, or East to Port Sudan for some of the best snorkeling/scuba in the world (Jacques Cousteau’s CONSHELF II station is near here!).
hello Errico, thanks for stopping by. I have spent a month in Khartoum. This post is for Khartoum only but yes Sudan is beautiful. Have seen Meroe Pyramids, I skipped port Sudan as i got mixed info from people seen the underwater world and information was the corals are in bad condition . Kassala was on my itinerary but had to skip it due to medical problems that Sudanese doctors weren’t capable to solve. Anyway, next time i come again KAssala is on my list again.
Thank you for your description. It was interesting reading. It’s a pity you weren’t able to talk to locals about where to visit and why they have certain customs. The Sufi dances are a religious ceremony, not a tourist show, so it’s up to us to respect their customs as seeing them is a privilege. When I lived there 40 years ago the best museum was the Khalifa’s house, which I think is still open. It’s great that you wrote the article. I hope your comments about treatment of women will not put people off travelling there as I had no problems in 2 years.
Thanks for reading. Everyone has different travel experiences and I am advocating to share the great and not so great ones. So people an have a realistic idea of the place. I loved Suffi dancers and never thought of them as tourist show, yet is interesting for someone curious from different culture to experience it. Thanks for mentioning Khalifas house, amazingly no one mentioned it to me.