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Home » Ethiopia » How Should I Spend 17 Hours in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia?
EthiopiaEthiopian Airlines

How Should I Spend 17 Hours in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia?

Matthew Klint Posted onOctober 16, 2017November 14, 2023 18 Comments

a crowd of people walking on a busy street

It dawned on me as I was writing my earlier post about traveling through Ethiopia this week that I actually have 17 hours in Addis Ababa. My question is simple — what should I do?

Ethiopian Airlines provides hotel accommodations to transit passengers, so it is likely I’ll have a room at the Hilton during the layover.

I love Ethiopian coffee…truly love it. I’m hoping that I can enjoy some great coffee during my layover.

I’m also interested in potentially climbing (well, driving) to the peak of Mount Entoto so I can enjoy a bird’s eye view of Addis Ababa.

While I’m open to visiting the Ethiopian National Musuem and “Red Terror” Martyrs’ Memorial Museum, I’d probably prefer to visit the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

I’m woefully ignorant when it comes to Ethiopian history. While it is impossible to become an expert by reading museum placards or even speaking to locals, I do hope to acclimate myself a bit more in Ethiopian history during the visit.

I wrote an article for Pen and Passport called Travel from a Luxury Hotel and Airline Lounge and it may well be that my deepest and most interesting conversations come from the Executive Lounge at the Hilton.

But I won’t spend the whole layover there…

Any thoughts are appreciated.

image: Sam Effron / Wikimedia Commons

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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18 Comments

  1. Joseph Reply
    October 16, 2017 at 11:59 am

    Get a haircut 😉

  2. JZ Reply
    October 16, 2017 at 1:24 pm

    Go see Lucy!

  3. Kabukijuul Reply
    October 16, 2017 at 1:57 pm

    Do you have enough time to catch a RT flight to Lalibela?

  4. Flyerguy10 Reply
    October 16, 2017 at 2:24 pm

    I’m Ethiopian and glad you’re visiting Addis! I’d scrap the Entoto mountain as it will take the better part of a day to get there and back. My suggestion is to focus on the sites in Addis as there will be plenty there to keep you busy. From the museums to the coffee to Merkato which is the largest open air market in Africa. Enjoy!

  5. Flyerguy10 Reply
    October 16, 2017 at 2:26 pm

    Also, if you’re into to massages to the Boston Spa. You won’t regret it l. Professional level massages at truly affordable prices.

  6. Conor Scholes Reply
    October 16, 2017 at 6:36 pm

    I would suggest Kaldi’s Coffee (it’s not the brand you know). It has great coffee and nice brunch food as well.

  7. Ben Reply
    October 17, 2017 at 1:05 am

    I spent around 20 hours in Addis earlier this year. It is the most unsafe I have ever felt in travelling to 52 countries, and I had just come from Johannesburg.
    You will stand out like a sore thumb there because you are not Ethiopian. My hotel was excellent (room, food, staff etc) but I would not recommend wandering the streets yourself. The only white people there seem to be UN diplomats on expense accounts and organised tour groups so you will get ripped off at every turn if you are alone. A taxi driver quoted me $USD150 for the hour round trip to Entoto Hill in his filthy 20 year old cab. After I stopped laughing I hagglrd him down to about $50, still a complete rip off in one of the poorest countries in the world. The view from Entoto is nothing special, just like the museum you mentioned.
    Two yoing men walked right up to me on the street in the middle of the day, started talking to me IN Ethiopian and when I couldn’t understand them each reached into the pockets of my shorts and grabbed my mobile phone out. I absolutely freaked out at them and started screaming at the top of my voice, so much so that they were so scared they handed it straight back.
    Later that day homeless people (there are LOADS) started following me on the streets yelling in Ethiopian to the point I ran back to the hotel and didn’t leave for the rest of my time there.
    There are some interesting parts (like goats being herded down the main streets) but it’s a dirty, awful city that I would not recommend anyone visit.
    There is a well rated food tour I wanted to do but it was not running when I went.
    My advice to you would be to have your hotel organise everything for you and DO NOT walk The streets by yourself even in the middle of the day. You will be a walking ATM purely because of your appearance and will.not be able to communicate with locals.

    • KG Reply
      October 17, 2017 at 9:53 am

      dang

    • Matthew Reply
      October 17, 2017 at 10:28 am

      Ben, thanks for your feedback. I hope it will not be that bad, but will proceed with caution.

      • cass Reply
        October 17, 2017 at 11:43 pm

        Wow, what a disappointing response to such a hateful, ethnocentric, and ignorant comment. For someone well traveled and an influencer in media, it is shameful that you did not take this opportunity to put Ben in his place and dispel ignorance on your platform. How could you thank and validate “feedback” that refers to the native language as “Ethiopian” and whines about the lack of white people in an East African country? Don’t expect to become a mainstream blogger when you comply with racism that alienates potential followers. You’ve already lost a few.

        • Matthew Reply
          October 21, 2017 at 7:40 pm

          He shared his comments. I acknowledged them. I had a very different experience on the ground. I will tell my own story. I don’t need to denigrate his. I doubt he would have taken the time to write had he not had a trauamtic expreince with the wallet. I don’t think he made it up.

  8. Anthony Reply
    October 17, 2017 at 11:06 am

    Take a look at this link.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/travel/addis-ababa-ethiopia-budget-frugal.html

  9. Flyerguy10 Reply
    October 17, 2017 at 12:50 pm

    Ben’s comment is complete nonsense from a tourist who lacks the self awareness to travel to foreign countries without caution or common sense. It is absolutely insulting to call someone’s home with many of the pejoratives you hurled in your comment. Luckily Matthew is a seasoned traveler with some cultural awareness. It is disappointing that some your readers paint an entire city with a broad brush because of their own less than stellar experiences. I can tell you Addis is like any major city in the world in terms of safety. It is neither safer or more dangerous and the principles of excercising caution apply the same as if you were in Chicago or the East LA.

    Ben’s ignorance is on full display when he said “the only white people you see are UN diplomats”. If you want to see white people go to Europe! Oy vey

  10. Flyerguy10 Reply
    October 17, 2017 at 12:54 pm

    And the language is not “Ethiopian” its Amharic. You clearly didn’t even do a cursory bit of research about this place before you graced Addis with your nuanced and sophisticated presence.

  11. BenBen Reply
    October 18, 2017 at 1:11 pm

    Wow some people here looked a bit too deep in the political correctness propaganda… Give Ben a break already. He went there for 20 hours, you expect him to know details about the country like the term of the languages? I think that is pretty unreasonable, maybe you guys don’t get around a lot but I personally do not have the time to know every detail about every country I transit through (besides that if I would what’s the point to go to that country then…).

    I think the big lesson for cass and Flyerguy10 is just because someone does say or experience something you don’t like it does not make it nonsense or hateful. I know it would make your life easier if it were like that but it just doesn’t work that way.

    I don’t see any expectation for white people in Bens account of what happened, he simply said he stands out and that he felt uncomfortable in the way that was. Now I can tell you I have been standing out in an uncomfortable way many times before in countries and that was mostly because the locals did not give the feeling that I was welcome there. If people constantly talk to you in a language that you do not understand and they know you don’t, yet continue talking to you in this very language it is natural to feel uncomfortable. If people ask unreasonable amounts of money from you for small things that too makes you naturally feel uncomfortable. If those things happen multiple times in a short time than I can absolutely understand that someone feels the way Ben describes it.

    What really shocks me tho is that someone who has experienced a traumatising event of people trying to take possession of his belongings (for whatever reason, lets not accuse them of something bad but I guess we can all agree that in no place in the world what they did to Ben is considered normal or polite), him being unable to communicate and not knowing how or if there is a way to get help, someone who clearly had every right to feel unsafe gets called hateful and his terrifying experience is defamed as nonsense. Who do you guys think you are? I would really like to understand what exactly is hateful and ignorant on Bens comment because I can’t see it, even more so given that he does not even recommend Matthew to not go there or stay in the hotel but rather just advises him to take precautions to avoid the same happening again.

  12. Frank Rispin. Reply
    October 20, 2017 at 4:29 pm

    Re Ben.
    Never seen such racist nonsense.
    I walk the streets of Addis
    safely every day.

  13. Frank Rispin Reply
    November 5, 2017 at 8:39 am

    Re the unbelievable comments on Addis of “Ben”..if he is real.
    Just Try looking at the comments of visitors on Tripadvisor Ethiopia Forum..
    Tourists who come here almost all leave with a very positive experience.
    Many many of them describe it as the holiday of a life time.
    His comments on Addis are grossly odd. I walk the streets of Addis every day.
    You will see more white people in parts if Addis than in many parts of South African cities where they dare not walk. Violent crime in Ethiopia is very very rare. How a South African of all people can make these observations I know not….

  14. Frank Rispin Reply
    November 5, 2017 at 8:42 am

    Matthew we are waiting to hear your version of Addis!!!

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