One Day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

At the end of our world tour, we booked business class tickets on Ethiopian Airlines using points we accrued with our credit cards. Our long trip home from Seoul to Chicago was broken up with a layover in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Airlines’ home city. Long layovers can be a pain. Trying to find a place to eat. A place to sit. Maybe a place to eat, all while navigating a crowded airport.

But Ethiopian Airlines provides an awesome alternative if you have a layover with them. With their Addis Ababa Stopover program, Ethiopian Airlines secures you a hotel room, free transport to/from the airport, and a transit visa (if applicable). 

As a result, we spend one day touring Addis Ababa and getting a wonderful introduction to Ethiopia. So whether you’re in Addas Ababa for a stopover or you just need to spend a day in the capital city before heading out to explore other parts of Ethiopia, we’ve provided our itinerary below.

How does the Addis Ababa Stopover program work?

• You must have an international layover of over 8 and under 24 hours. Neither leg of your flight can be domestic (i.e., within Ethiopia).
• Your passport must be eligible for the appropriate Visa. We’re from the United States, and we were provided a visa on arrival. No need to pay for it or anything! We were simply handed an envelope with the visa information and hotel voucher as we exited the plane. Your experience may vary, and you may need to visit the interline desk when you disembark.
• Both your flights must be on Ethiopian Airlines.
• There cannot be an alternative, earlier flight available. For example, when we flew from Seoul to Chicago, the 13 hour layover flight was our only option. No other Ethiopian Airline flight would get us to Chicago sooner.
• When you arrive, you will be funneled out to all the drivers awaiting pickups. Usually, you just need to look for a driver holding a sign to the hotel you’ve been assigned. 
• If you’re doing a private tour like us, you might have previously arranged a private pickup.
• Hotels are assigned based off the ticket class. For example, since we used our credit card points for a business class flight, we got assigned a wonderful room at the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel. We were also provided meal vouchers for the day (breakfast, lunch, dinner), though we didn’t utilize all of them since we were pretty much in the city the duration of our layover.

One-Day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopa: Our Itinerary

Morning

We started our morning off by being picked up directly at the airport. Our guide, Mulugeta, picked us up directly and took us back to our hotel. That gave us a chance to check in, shower all the airplane funk off from that long Korea-Ethiopia flight, and then have a coffee and breakfast. Feeling refreshed, we were ready to begin the day! Our tour started at 9:30 am which was more than enough time to fit in the itinerary for a day in Addis Ababa.

Holy Trinity Cathedral

Our first stop on our one-day tour of Addis Ababa was Holy Trinity Cathedral. This is the main cathedral of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The cathedral complex combines a variety of different architecture styles, including Orthodox, Baroque, and Neoclassical influences. While the main cathedral was under renovation while we were there, you can see the original octagonal church along with a museum containing manuscripts, regalia, and other religious items from Ethiopia’s Christian history. You’ll also get to visit a cemetery with graves and memorials for many famous and important figures in Ethiopia’s modern history. This was a great stop to jump into Ethiopia’s culture.

National Museum of Ethiopia

While the National Museum of Ethiopia is not perhaps the most sprawling or even the most modern of national museums, it contains some particularly impressive exhibits. As a scientist, I was stoked to get to see the famous fossilized bone of Lucy, a 4.4 million year old member of a hominin species. I definitely geeked out seeing the remains of one of the first bipedal human ancestors. The museum contains ancient artifacts, art and stone inscriptions, and cultural displays from various ethnic groups throughout Ethiopia. It also contains royal belongings from Emperor Haile Selassie. You’ll truly get a nice taste of Ethiopia, from prehistoric times to now in this easy to navigate museum.

Shola Market

Now it was time for a real taste of Ethiopia. Our guide took us through the many stalls. From coffee beans and spices to plastic toys and traditional clothes, you can find pretty much anything at the market. We were thankful to have our guide to help lead us through the labyrinthine market as he introduced all the important sights and customs related to this traditional Ethiopian market.

Lunch

We took a break for lunch at this point. And man, did we eat well. We’ve eaten plenty of Ethiopian food living in DC, Houston, and Denver. But there was nothing like getting our first real meal in the capital of Ethiopia. We gorged ourselves in a samples platter, enjoying the freshly baked injera piled with all kinds of delicious foods, from chickpea concoctions to chicken dishes.

Coffee

Italy tried to invade and control Ethiopia several times. Ethiopia managed to assert the independence every time and managed to remain the only country in Africa that wasn’t colonized. However, Italy still left its mark in a number of ways in this vibrant country. One of those ways was coffee culture. While Ethiopian coffee is famous in its own right, we visited an Italian style coffee cafe that had been around since the 50s. The coffee was delicious, and I definitely needed that espresso dealing with the jetlag plus our whacky sleep schedule thanks to, you know, flying into Ethiopia that very morning.

Afternoon

Our afternoon was a mixture of historical and natural sights along with our food tour. We enjoyed all the sites we visited quite a bit. Most importantly, we absolutely recommend taking a food tour when in Ethiopia. The food scene is amazing here, and if you haven’t had Ethiopian food, you’re in for a wonderful surprise. 

Entoto St Maryam Church

Entoto St Maryam Church was a gorgeous last-minute addition to our tour. We weren’t originally scheduled to visit it, but when we were on our way up to Mount Entoto, it caught our eyes. I definitely think it’s worth adding to your one-day itinerary if you’re in Addis Ababa. It’s a gorgeous monument to Ethiopia’s religious history as the second oldest church in Addis Ababa. The colorful church is a must-see, in our opinion. Just like the Holy Trinity Cathedral, there is a museum on-site that’s worth a visit, full of religious relics and modern historical artifacts.

Palace Of Emperor Minilik and Empress Taitu

Just a short walk from St Maryam Church is the Palace of Emperor minilik and Empress Taitu. The palace was built in the late 19th century. You can walk through the palace and get a feel for the traditional circular form common in prominent Ethiopian buildings built in this era. While the original palace was made with wood and thatched conical roofs, it was later renovated with stone. Again, if you’re on Mount Entoto, you might as well visit the palace for a glimpse into the royal life at the turn of the 20th century.

Mount Entoto

Mount Entoto is the highest peak overlooking Addis Ababa. During a one-day itinerary or layover in Ethiopia, this is a great stop to get a panoramic view over the city. A scenic viewing platform at the summit offers sprawling views of the surrounding landscape. You’ll find a cafe, restaurant, gift shop, and more in the area. This was an impressive way to end the sightseeing portion of our day.

Food Tour

We started our food tour while our bellies were still fairly full from lunch. But alas, we persevered. Our guide took us to a small restaurant that specialized in shiro wat, a chickpea flour-based stew served on injera. We greatly enjoyed it. After we feasted on fried fish from a family run restaurant. Also, delish. We fortunately took a break at hazy, incense-filled bar where we enjoyed traditional Ethiopian coffee. For coffee aficionados, this is an experience you can’t miss. Finally, we visited another restaurant that specialized in beef dishes. We did our best to put away that last meal, enjoying every morsel. And once we were finished, it was time to head back to the hotel

Evening

At this point, you’re going to be stuffed. If you have a few more hours, you could choose to do an Ethiopian wine tasting. Ethiopia has a winemaking tradition dating back thousands of years. There are a variety of micro-climates that help make Ethiopian wines unique.If we had had more time during a one day visit to Addis Ababa, we definitely would have done this.

However, we were running out of time. So we got back to our hotel in time for a nice, hot shower before transferring to the airport (where we did try a couple of wines and bought some to take back to the US with us). The dropoff at the airport is included with your layover experience if you’re there because of a stopover with Ethiopian Airlines. In any case, by the time we got on the plane, we were still talking about all the great food we ate and the wonderful sights we fit in to our brief time in Ethiopia.

How to get around

We highly recommend hiring a driver and/or private tour guide. Unless you’re very familiar with Addis Ababa, you’ll want the extra help navigating traffic and the chaos that can quickly swallow you up in the city. Our guide took us to restaurants we definitely would have missed if we were on our own, and it was wonderful to have someone to really give us a taste of the city for the day. We booked a full-day through Go Addis Tours. I can easily recommend them. If you want to explore alternative options, there are a plethora of well-rated tours that can take you on the same itinerary we explored–or others–on Viator.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can certainly take taxis and public transit as well. I’ve read blogs from other people who have done as much. But to be honest, since this was a layover and I knew I was going to be tired, I wanted to take all the work out of it. Having a guide and driver for the day was a decision I most definitely do not regret.

Final Tips

• I highly recommend a guide, especially if you’re pressed for time. It’s not absolutely necessary, but it’ll make your time during your one-day itinerary more efficient.
• Watch out for pickpockets at the market. We spent an entire year-and-a-half abroad without running into any pickpockets, but unfortunately, one came after us in the market. We spotted him tailing Katarina and preparing to get into her backpack before he got to take anything.
• You will need a yellow fever vaccination to visit Ethiopia.
• Bring TP with you for the bathrooms. We’re used to being prepared from our experiences in various countries with varying standards when it comes to public bathrooms. Ethiopia, in our experience, was one of those where you might want to bring some of your own TP.
• Enjoy the food! We can’t say this enough, but we could not get enough of the injera and all the various dishes that went on it.