Travel advice for Ethiopia
From travel safety to visa requirements, discover the best tips for traveling to Ethiopia
Find inspiration and
information for your next trip.
Get a local travel agent to
plan your personalized trip.
Book & travel securely with our money-back
guarantee and local expert assistance.
Ethiopia can be hard going for single women who travel there independently. Partly this is because certain types of annoying (if ultimately harmless) behaviour occasionally directed at travellers of both sexes – teenagers yelling obscenities, kids mobbing foreigners – can come across as more threatening to single women than it might to male travellers or couples. But many female travellers and volunteers complain that they are persistently hit on by locals, in a manner that can get creepy or genuinely threatening. This probably reflects a perception that Western women are sexually more promiscuous than their Ethiopian counterparts, and also a certain prestige attached to having a faranji girlfriend. It is also often down to simple cross-cultural behavioural misunderstandings. Women are less likely to have problems of this sort if they dress modestly, refrain from drinking alone in non-hotel bars, avoid staying in the sort of cheap local hotels that often double as brothels, and never accept an invitation for a meal or drink that could be misconstrued as a date.
The Ethiopian government has traditionally stifled the voices of its opponents and the country dropped to 143rd in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index due to its continuing repressive application of an anti-terrorist bill passed in 2009 and the ongoing detention of several local magazine editors and journalists. It also has a high level of internet censorship.
Banks and government offices close on public holidays, but most private institutions carry on as normal. Note that public holidays mostly fall a day later in leap years. In addition to fixed holidays, Ethiopia recognizes Fasika (Ethiopian Good Friday, which usually but not always falls on a different date to Western Good Friday) and the Islamic Eid al-Fitr (End of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), all of which are moveable each year.
A quirk with far greater impact on visitors is that Ethiopians measure time in 12-hour cycles starting at 6am and 6pm. In other words, their one o’clock (and sa’at or hour one) is our seven o’clock, their two o’clock (hulet sa’at or hour two) is our eight o’clock, and so on. Even when speaking English, Ethiopians frequently stick with Ethiopian time, which means that when somebody tells you something is happening at two, they could mean two o’clock or eight o’clock. One way to check is to ask the time in Amharic (sa’at sintno?), in which case you can be sure the answer will be in Ethiopian time. Alternatively, ask whether they mean European or habbishat time.
From travel safety to visa requirements, discover the best tips for traveling to Ethiopia
Plan your tailor-made trip with a local expert
Book securely with money-back guarantee
Travel stress-free with local assistance and 24/7 support