Travel advice for Ethiopia
From travel safety to visa requirements, discover the best tips for traveling to Ethiopia
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Accommodation is generally good value by international standards. Unfussy backpackers will find there are plenty of places to stay, with even the smallest of towns normally having half a dozen basic and inexpensive guesthouses; some larger towns might have literally hundreds to choose from. Standards of cleanliness and comfort levels, however, are generally very low, and accommodation aimed at or suited to a more demanding clientele tends to be in shorter supply, at least outside of Addis Ababa and a few major tourist centres. Scarcer still are hotels and lodges with sufficient character or individuality to slot into the “boutique” category or be recommended on much more than a functional level.
When you arrive at any hotel or guesthouse, be aware that Ethiopians tend to refer to any room with one bed as a single, even when it has a double bed and it is perfectly acceptable for a couple to share it. If you ask for a double room, more often than not you’ll be shown a twin, which is typically a lot pricier than a single-that’s-actually-a-double. Presumably as a result of homophobic propaganda, most lodgings in Ethiopia now forbid two men to share a room with a double bed, and some also object to men sharing a twin. People are generally more relaxed about two women sharing.
Otherwise, the vast majority of “proper” hotels in Ethiopia are bland multi-storey “city hotels” offering functional but forgettable en-suite accommodation, though they will at least still offer hot water, satellite TV, wi-fi and a restaurant serving a mixture of local and international dishes. In some cases, such hotels will be very clean, quite modern in feel, and well maintained and managed. Most, however, are quite run-down and it would be rare indeed to have a room where everything worked 100 percent. Two popular tourist destinations that (rather inexplicably) suffer from a long-standing lack of quality tourist accommodation are Aksum and Harar.
From travel safety to visa requirements, discover the best tips for traveling to Ethiopia
written by Freya Godfrey
updated 26.04.2021
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