Ethiopia -Introduction

Map

Introduction

Ethiopia is one of the most interesting and diverse country in Africa. I wanted to visit it because of the wonderful, carved in the rock, Christian churches. After reading several web pages, I found out that Ethiopia offers much more attractions to travelers. You need a month or more time to see all of them. I went to Ethiopia in January because I wanted to participate in one of the most captivating religious holidays - Timkat.

We ( Monica, Gosia and I) flew to Addis Ababa by Ethiopian Airlines. It is good idea to buy a ticket for an international flight at an Ethiopian national carrier. Thanks to this, you will get about 50% discount for domestic flights. I

In 2018 roads are still in poor condition in Ethiopia. Traveling longer distances of several hundred kilometers takes a two days. It is better to take a domestic flight and save time. Thanks to Chinese road infrastructure is changing for better but it needs time.

Visa & Money Exchange

It takes almost two hours to arrange visa on arrival. I had to wait in three queues. Finally I got the visa. In January 2018, it cost 50 USD.
You can exchange money at the airport. The exchange rates are the same at the banks and at the airport. It is good idea to ask for some small bills, 5,10 notes. You will need them to pay for photos. You can exchange Euro or USD.

In cities there are ATMs and you can use the most popular credit and payment cards. Unfortunately, I have no knowledge about the costs of the transaction. However, take some cash because there are no ATM in towns or villages. 

First Hardships 

According to our travel plan we wanted to take a flight to Lalibela at very first day. Unfortunately all tickets were sold out for that day and the the following day. We went to Tourist Information. An employee suggested us to rent a car for 200 USD. After a short bargaining, the price dropped to 150 USD. Before departure, we bought all tickets for internal flights at the Ethiopian Airlines office. In total, we paid 360 USD in local currency for seven flights.