the acropole hotel in khartoum has been an institution for travelers to sudan for almost 7 decades. at present, coordinating through them is the only reliable way for americans to get a visa to sudan. the hotel is run by the 2 greek pagoulatos brothers, one of whom, george, waited up to welcome me to sudan upon my arrival at 3am. he was very nice. he told me i was the only tourist in the entire country that week. he even arranged an unexpected “vip service” at the airport, whereby i was pulled out of the regular immigration line for special processing.
the acropole was able to arrange a visa on arrival for me in advance. to do this though they needed prepayment, which involved sending money to a friend of a friend in a third country, as wiring money directly to sudan is ridiculously not allowed under current united states law.
there is tremendous and fascinating history at the acropole hotel, as it has hosted the vast majority of the foreign travelers, arms dealers, ngo workers and spies that have sifted through khartoum over the past 70 years. i met some interesting folks just during my few days there. the hotel was bombed in 1988, and thereafter moved to its current location. in the early days, the pagoulatos brothers purveyed beer; for the last few decades this has become unfathomable in the sudanese context. the hotel also currently serves as the greek consulate in sudan. during the crisis/genocide in darfur, it served as the nerve center for foreign journalists in khartoum. thanks to george pagoulatos for arguably being one of the most important people in recent sudanese history, and for staying up until 3 am to welcome me to khartoum!
