Moroni, Comoros

This was definitely just a “check the box” visit. From what I’d read and heard from others, visiting the Comoros isn’t that interesting unless you get to the far outer islands (not cheap, no daily flights) for scuba diving, and you need several days. The more common option for people trying to visit is a day or 2 on the main island. We squeezed in a day, and it was checking a box.

First, passport control on arrival was the most ridiculous process ever. We had our visa application forms, passports, tickets, and everything ready to show them (hotel, flights leaving) on our phones. Nope. You MUST have it printed out. We had to go talk to the chief, and he said one of us needed to go with an escort to a copy center to print this stuff out while the other one & our stuff waited in the chief’s office. I went, printed our stuff, and then they finally gave us our visas. Total time invested: 1 hour 20 minutes.

From here, we had to open all of our stuff for customs, looking for people bringing in gifts & duty free stuff over the limit. Then, we got a taxi down to our hotel.

First impressions at the airport weren’t great.

The drive along the coast down to our hotel was scenic. The Comoros islands do have some natural beauty, but they really lack infrastructure, due to being one of the world’s poorest countries.

We passed the historic Friday Mosque.

At our hotel, it was just business for check in, no smiles or friendliness.

The property behind the hotel, along the sea, is nice and relaxing.

For dinner, we struggled for options and went to a pizza place to get a pizza without cheese.

There wasn’t much “town” to walk around, and our exploring finished pretty fast.

The next morning, we explored the rocks around the sea and watched the many crabs.

We flagged down a taxi with surprising ease and went back to the airport for our flight. There are a good number of birds living in nests they’ve built in the lighting fixtures inside the departures area.

Moroni, Comoros was definitely a day trip option. If we’d stayed longer, it would definitely require a tour to other areas or other islands, because there’s just not enough to do to fill an evening, let alone a day.

Checked the box, went to the country, and that’s basically all it was. It made up for my failed attempt to get here when I had an illegal ticket no one should’ve sold me / couldn’t board the plane in Seychelles 2.5 years prior.