East Timor Tours - Tour Timor Leste - Tourism East Timor

This tour can also be taken as a one day tour from Darwin - see notes at the bottom of this page

East Timor’s largest town, population 150,000, is beautifully situated along a crescent beach at the base of steep hills. One end of the bay is dominated by a 27- metre/80-foot statue of Christ, the other by a centuries-old lighthouse.

It’s a busy, bustling place with a frontier-town flavour. Restored Portuguese colonial buildings, some painted in rather odd colours, unfold gracefully along the Esplanade while on the beach opposite residents meet to socialize, shop for fresh fish and graze their goats and pigs.

The two main streets offer a surprising number of shops and sidewalk cafés serving very respectable cappuccinos and sandwiches. Wander a little further though and you’ll find the occasional charred ruin dating from the violence in 1999, as well as the thatched dwellings and stalls more typical of the rest of the country.

Traders have been coming to Dili from China, India and the Arab world for centuries, resulting in a wonderful cultural medley that includes a range of very good restaurants and traditional sights such as a lovely old Chinese cemetery and a Balinese Hindu shrine.

Other things to see include the Cultural Centre, the Xanana Reading Room, the Tais Market (selling crafts from around the country), the Motael Cathedral (blessed by John Paul II in 1989, and proud guardian of two saltwater crocs) and the Santa Cruz cemetery, a key spot in Timor’s recent history.

Just down the road, the 347 steps up to the base of the enormous statue of Christ on Cape Fatucama are worth climbing for a sensational view of the town and the coastline. ‘Cristo Rei’, as it’s called locally.

This tour can also be taken as a 1 day tour from Darwin - departing Darwin in the morning, returning to Darwin in the evening.

Email our friendly office staff to book this East Timor Dili Sights Tour.

1/2 Day Dili Sights Tour