if you're wondering what is it like in addis ababa ethiopia in this week's
video i'm going to be sharing with you my experience traveling through
there as well as some tips and don't we all want to know the prices coming up
and if you're new here whoop i'm christine with where in the world to cl and i make
travel videos every week to help you get up get out and go travel so if you like to travel
consider subscribing let's start with where is addis ababa and how do you get in addis ababa
is located in the center of ethiopia and the main airport for getting in is bull airport when i flew
in january 2021 my one-way flight from florida was 750 and on average these flights are around 23
hours you can find direct flights from washington dc and you can even find flights as cheap as 750
round trips so that's one thing to look at if you're considering traveling here from the states
and when you come in it does require a visa i paid 52 for my visa and you can do it online the 52
visa allows you to come in for 30 days they also have an option for a 90-day visa one thing that
really surprised me is how big artists ababa is it's really large and it's really spread out
in terms of getting around there's taxis everywhere but that requires needing to speak
the local language as well as being really good at haggling with prices i suggest going to get
a local sim card which can be around two bucks i paid around ten dollars for a week's worth of
data and downloading the ride app and it's similar to uber and you can actually get english-speaking
drivers to come pick you up and take you to different locations on average a 10 to 15
minute ride with gratuity normally cost me around two dollars so given how congested the city is i
don't recommend you drive a car unless you have to for weird circumstances but another thing to know
about the congestion is that the pollution is is pretty bad so if your allergies are as bad as mine
are just something to look out for and also note that there's not a lot of greenery in the city
all right let's talk about food because food and otis was a phenomenal experience for me which by
the way if you're enjoying this video cheers that like button and consider subscribing and if you've
traveled to audits or you have tips please add them below i was only there for 10 days and would
love to hear some of your tips food and artists is both super affordable and super delicious and
get ready to eat with your hands because that's what the culture is all about i was able to eat
at union which is such a beautiful space and a great place for great drinks cocktails and wine
but one thing that was interesting to me about drinking in artists
is that when you buy bottles of liquor whether you're out at a restaurant or out at a nightclub
you can buy it at the half size which is really phenomenal and a great way to save money depending
on how many people you have in your party that are drinking but one thing to note is i actually
stuck to wine even though ethiopian wine wasn't my favorite because a lot of the alcohol whether
it's happening on the distribution side or on the bar restaurant side is often not real
so the saying about people getting some of the craziest hangovers of their life in artists
comes from that problem but let's dig in and get our hands dirty one of my favorite
things to eat was in jira and check out this meal did i just put it straight oh like that
oh you like lay down carpets there are so many amazing places that people recommended to me make
sure you check the description below for other places that i wasn't able to check out while
i was there let's talk about one thing that surprised me about addis ababa and that was
the weather i was surprised that year round it actually stays pretty consistent and you'll see
highs in the 70s and lows in the 40s and 50s pretty much year round and so needing a coat
while you're there is actually something i didn't anticipate all right let's talk about where
to stay in addis ababa which is something that surprised me a little bit because we've learned
that taxis are pretty inexpensive food is really affordable but hotels can be fairly expensive
relative to everything else and so i considered a lot of properties while i was there i considered
the sheraton which in january 2021 was around 250 a night i also considered the newly built
radisson blue hotel which was around 99 a night i decided to stay at the hilton adusa baba which i
totally loved full video in the description below but let's do a quick tour of what that looked like
let's talk about what there is to do in addis ababa if i could leave you with two
recommendations that everybody suggested to me first would be to go to entoto park to go hiking
and to check out the newly opened restaurant section of it and also to catch amazing views
and the second would be to go to unity park and do the vip tour a lot of the hotels i mentioned are
located near there and as a side note if you're trying to travel internationally in 2021 i suggest
watching the video in the description below to help you plan your trip because while i was
an artist i was supposed to go to cape town the borders closed and i was trying to reroute myself
and navigate this new travel landscape so don't make the mistakes that i did and consider watching
that video if you're traveling internationally in 2021 oh and a few more tips on things to do
make sure you check the description below because while i was on my 5 day biking and camping and
ethiopia trip i got a ton of suggestions from a lot of expats that live in artists and i put
them all there for you a few other travel tips to be aware of one is that the power actually goes
out pretty frequently and during my trip there the power was out consistently for three full days so
that's just something to be aware of as well as a lack of connection depending on where you are
in the city and again it's a pretty spread out and large city you can get really really bad coverage
even if you have a sim card even if you have wi-fi so just something to be aware of while you're out
there if you're trying to stay connected let's talk about safety because this is something
that i get asked about a lot and if you have tips or suggestions around safety and artists
please add to the conversation below because i'm only speaking from my experience
i spent a lot of time talking to people in artists about how they felt about safety
because it's one of the things that to be honest i was really afraid of and check out the next video
in which i talk openly about my fears that i had while traveling in addis but for the most part
most people feel very safe there although most of them to be honest have guards that protect
their homes and the places that they live while i was traveling there two things i got used to
was seeing checkpoints just about everywhere in which cars would be stopped and checked or
another thing i got used to or things like every time i would enter and exit the hilton
the cars are checked the trunks are checked and then you're going through a security checkpoint to
enter the hotel and searches are pretty common out there on that note let's talk about something i
loved in addis ababa which is the coffee culture it's been said that coffee originated in ethiopia
and they take their coffee seriously it's a phenomenal thing to watch them prepare the coffee
serve the coffee and there's a whole culture around it and a lot of people ask me is it as
strong as it looks it is it is insanely strong and it is insanely delicious so don't miss out
on drinking tons of coffee while you're out there and you just need a little bit speaking of things
i loved i loved riding a bike through ethiopia so make sure you check out those videos as well as my
video about what i was scared about in addis ababa and i'll see you in the next adventure
ciao