Addis Ababa: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Addis Ababa was founded in 1886 and the reason is specific: Empress Taytu liked the hot springs at Filwoha and persuaded Menelik to build the camp down here rather than up on Entoto, where it was freezing. She named it Addis Ababa, new flower. Within ten years the city had cut down every tree for firewood and nearly had to move again, until an adviser suggested eucalyptus — which grows fast and sprouts again from the stump. That is why this city is green. Two hours at two thousand three hundred and fifty-five metres; go slowly, the altitude is real.

A short history of Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa, "new flower", was founded in 1886 by Emperor Menelik II and his wife Taytu, near hot springs in the centre of the Ethiopian highlands. In 1896 Menelik defeated Italy at Adwa, and Ethiopia remained independent. In 1917 the railway from Djibouti reached the city. From 1936 to 1941 Italy occupied the city. In 1963 the Organisation of African Unity was founded here, and the city is still the seat of the African Union. In May 1991, in Operation Solomon, about 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were flown from the city to Israel within 36 hours.

The ten best sights in Addis Ababa

1
National Museum
Lucy is downstairs; the bones on show are a cast and the originals are in a safe. Verified 10/2026
2
Ethnological Museum
Inside Haile Selassie’s palace at the university; his bedroom is left as it was
3
Red Terror Museum
Free, and the guides are survivors of it; the Derg killed tens of thousands
4
Adwa Victory Memorial
Opened 2024, on the 1896 battle that stopped Italy and kept Ethiopia free
5
Addis Ababa Museum
In a 1900s noble’s house off Meskel Square; the city in photographs
6
Holy Trinity Cathedral
Haile Selassie and the Empress are buried here in granite tombs
7
St George Cathedral
Octagonal, built 1911 to mark the victory at Adwa; a museum inside
8
Bole Medhane Alem
One of the largest Orthodox cathedrals in Africa; services start at five
9
Entoto Maryam
Menelik’s own church of 1885, before the city existed; octagonal and painted
10
Washa Mikael
A rock-hewn church east of the city, roofless now and probably 12th century

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Tours in Addis Ababa →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Addis Ababa:

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The city on the hot springs

National Museum · Lucy is in the basement — a three-point-two-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis found in the Afar in 1974, about forty per cent of a skeleton, and the find that established that walking upright came long before a big brain. The bones you see are a cast; the originals are in a safe. Her Amharic name is Dinkinesh, "you are marvellous", and the Beatles song was playing at the camp the night she was found.
Ethnological Museum · Inside Haile Selassie’s palace on the university campus, and the best museum in the country: the ground floor is organised by life stage rather than by ethnic group — birth, childhood, marriage, death — across all of Ethiopia’s peoples. Upstairs his bedroom and bathroom are left as they were in 1974, including the mirror his guards smashed on the day he was deposed.
Holy Trinity Cathedral · Built in 1931 to mark the first written constitution, and Haile Selassie and Empress Menen lie here in carved granite tombs. He was not buried for twenty-five years: the Derg killed him in 1975 and buried him in secret under a palace latrine, the bones were found in 1992, and he was finally interred here in 2000 — with no state funeral, because the government of the day refused to hold one.
Red Terror Museum · Free, small, and the guides are survivors or relatives of the dead. Between 1976 and 1978 the Derg ran a campaign in which bodies were left in the streets and families were charged for the bullet before they were allowed to collect them. Estimates run from tens of thousands to half a million. There is a wall of photographs and a case of bones, and almost no visitors.
Meskel Square · A sloped concrete bowl used as a parade ground, a transport hub and, every morning before six, as the training ground of several hundred runners doing step repeats on the terraces. On the eve of Meskel in late September a bonfire the height of a building is burned here, marking the finding of the True Cross, and the direction the pile falls is read as a forecast.
Africa Hall · Haile Selassie paid for it himself and gave it to the United Nations in 1961 as the home of the Economic Commission for Africa, and it is why Addis Ababa became the diplomatic capital of the continent and why the African Union is here. Inside is Afewerk Tekle’s stained-glass window, "The Total Liberation of Africa", one hundred and fifty square metres of it.

Up to Entoto, where it started

Entoto is the ridge above the city at three thousand two hundred metres, and Menelik’s capital was up here first — he moved down because it was too cold and there was no water. The whole ridge is eucalyptus, planted on an imperial order, and it is now the single most important distance-running training ground in the world: the thin air at this altitude is why Ethiopia and Kenya between them hold almost every record over ten thousand metres. Two hours up and back, with a taxi for the climb.

Entoto Maryam · Menelik built this church in 1885, a year before the city below existed, and he was crowned emperor in it. It is octagonal, which is the standard Ethiopian Orthodox plan: a circle of three concentric rings, with only priests allowed into the innermost, where a replica of the Ark of the Covenant is kept — every Ethiopian church has one, and no one else may see it.
Mount Entoto · Three thousand two hundred metres, and from the top the whole city is laid out below with the Rift beyond it. The women you will pass carrying enormous bundles of eucalyptus down the hill are doing a day’s work for a few dollars — it is one of the hardest visible jobs in the country and there are organisations here trying to replace it.
Entoto Park · Opened in 2020 as the first of several large public parks built in a single push by the current government, with walking paths, horse riding and restaurants in the forest. The eucalyptus around it is the direct descendant of the trees planted on Menelik’s order in the eighteen-nineties to stop the capital having to move again for firewood.
Shiro Meda · The weaving market at the foot of the ridge, where hand-woven cotton is sold: the shemma cloth, the netela that women wear over the shoulders, and the gabi, which is four layers thick and is a blanket. The coloured border, the tibeb, is woven separately and its pattern tells you the region — and the weavers themselves are almost all from one community, the Dorze, who came here from the south.
Washa Mikael · A rock-hewn church east of the ridge, cut down into the stone rather than built up from it, and now roofless. It is thought to be from the twelfth century — three hundred years before the city — and it is almost never visited: you need a car and someone to show you the turning. The technique is the same as at Lalibela, five hundred kilometres north.
Sululta plain · Over the ridge and down the other side, at two thousand six hundred metres, is where most of Ethiopia’s elite distance runners train — on dirt roads, in groups, before dawn. Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele both built camps here. Ethiopian runners have held the world record in the marathon, the ten thousand and the five thousand, and the altitude is only half the explanation; the other half is that running is a recognised way out.

Merkato, Piazza and the coffee

Coffee was first drunk in Ethiopia and the word itself comes from Kaffa, a region in the southwest where the plant grows wild in the forest. It is still a third of the country’s export earnings. This walk goes through the two commercial quarters — the Italian-built Piazza and Merkato, which is the largest open-air market in Africa — and ends with a coffee ceremony, which takes an hour and is the point rather than the drink. Two hours. Merkato needs a guide and no bag; this is not a safety slogan, it is pickpocketing on an industrial scale.

St George Cathedral · Octagonal, in grey stone, built in 1911 to commemorate the victory at Adwa in 1896 — the battle at which an African army defeated a European one decisively, and the reason Ethiopia was never colonised. The tabot of St George had been carried into that battle. Haile Selassie was crowned here in 1930; the Italians burned the interior in 1937 and it was rebuilt.
Piazza · The quarter the Italians laid out during the five-year occupation from 1936, and the name stuck along with the macchiato, which every café in Ethiopia now serves as standard. Italy held the city for five years and lost; the occupation is remembered here mainly through the Yekatit 12 massacre and through the coffee machines.
Yekatit 12 Monument · On the nineteenth of February 1937 — Yekatit twelfth in the Ethiopian calendar — two men threw grenades at the Italian viceroy. In the three days that followed Italian troops and settlers killed somewhere between nineteen thousand and thirty thousand residents of the city, house by house. The obelisk marks it, and almost nothing in Italy does.
Churchill Avenue · The axis from the railway station up the hill to Piazza, and it was the grand avenue of the city — the station at the bottom was the terminus of the French-built line from Djibouti, finished in 1917, which was Ethiopia’s only connection to a port and therefore to the world. The line is now disused and a Chinese-built one runs beside it.
Merkato · The largest open-air market in Africa: several square kilometres, something like thirteen thousand people working in it, and a structure that is genuinely a city — each trade has its own section, including a recycling quarter where oil drums are beaten into cooking pots and tyres into sandals. The Italians created it by moving the native market out of the centre in 1936. Go with a guide, and leave your bag at the hotel.
Tomoca · Roasting in Piazza since 1953, and there is nowhere to sit — you stand at a counter, drink a macchiato, and go. For the full ceremony you need a house or a restaurant: green beans roasted on a pan in front of you, the smoke waved towards each guest, ground by hand, brewed in a clay jebena and poured three times. The three rounds have names, and leaving before the third is a genuine discourtesy.

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Getting to Addis Ababa and getting around

Bole International Airport · The main hub of Africa; Ethiopian flies to more African cities than anyone
Legehar station · The 1929 French railway terminus; the Djibouti line started here
Light rail · Opened 2015, the first light rail in sub-Saharan Africa; a flat few birr
Autobus Tera · The long-distance bus terminal, by Merkato; buses leave at dawn
Meskel Square · The transport hub and the parade ground; the whole city crosses it

Cheap eats in Addis Ababa

Ethiopian food is eaten with the hands from one shared plate, and the plate is bread: injera, a metre-wide sourdough pancake made from teff, fermented three days, with the stews ladled straight onto it. There is no cutlery. Wednesday and Friday are fasting days when the whole country eats vegan, which makes Ethiopia the easiest country in Africa to be a vegetarian in. Fifty to three hundred birr.

Injera and teff · The sourness is the fermentation, not a fault
Doro wat · The leg goes to the guest of honour
Beyainatu · Wednesday and Friday; entirely vegan
Kitfo · Raw by default; ask for leb leb if you prefer
Tibs · Comes sizzling on coals; a weekday dish
The coffee ceremony · Three rounds; do not leave before the third
Tej · The flask cannot be put down; strength varies
Merkato food lanes · Spices by the kilo; go with a guide

Museums in Addis Ababa

Ethiopia is the only African country never colonised — it beat Italy at Adwa in 1896 and threw the Italians out again in 1941 after five years — and its museums are built around that fact, around the imperial line that claimed descent from Solomon, and around the Derg years that ended it. Entrance fees are small and in birr. Verified 10/2026.

National Museum · A modest fee in birr; Lucy is downstairs. Verified 10/2026
Ethnological Museum · On the university campus; allow two hours
Red Terror Museum · Free; the guides are survivors
Adwa Victory Memorial · Opened 2024; in the centre
Unity Park · About $18–20 for foreigners. Verified 10/2026
Addis Ababa Museum · Small, photographic, and quick
Africa Hall · Reopened after restoration; the window
Tiya stelae · 68 kilometres south; UNESCO 1980

Nature and day trips near Addis Ababa

The city sits at two thousand three hundred and fifty-five metres on the edge of the Ethiopian highlands, which are the largest continuous area of high ground in Africa — eighty per cent of the continent above fifteen hundred metres is in this country. That means a temperate climate on the equator, two rainy seasons, and air thin enough that walking uphill on your first day is harder than it looks.

Mount Entoto · 3,200 metres; take a taxi up
Entoto Park · Opened 2020; paths and horses
Gullele Botanic Garden · Quiet and badly signposted; take a guide
Sheger and Friendship Parks · Lit fountains at night; low entry fee
Menagesha Forest · 35 kilometres west; colobus in the canopy
Debre Libanos gorge · 78 kilometres north; gelada on the cliffs
Bishoftu crater lakes · 41 kilometres; the weekend escape
Sululta · 2,600 metres; the runners are out before dawn

Holy places in Addis Ababa

Ethiopia adopted Christianity in the fourth century, which makes it one of the first states on earth to do so, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has been institutionally separate from Rome and Constantinople for fifteen hundred years. The result is a Christianity that looks unlike any other: a church is a circle of three rings, every one of them holds a replica Ark, and the liturgy is in Ge’ez, a language nobody speaks.

Holy Trinity Cathedral · A small fee; dress covered
St George Cathedral · The museum beside it holds the crowns
Entoto Maryam · Shoes off; the inner ring is for priests only
Bole Medhane Alem · Services from five in the morning
Grand Anwar Mosque · By Merkato; visit outside prayer times
Washa Mikael · A car and someone who knows the turning

Things to do in Addis Ababa with kids

Lion Zoo · Haile Selassie’s own lions; the Abyssinian lion has a black mane
Unity Park · Palace grounds, a zoo and gardens; the one place that is built for walking
Entoto Park · Horse riding, a zipline and paths through the eucalyptus
Friendship Park · Lawns, a playground and fountains lit after dark
National Museum · Lucy downstairs and a hall of fossils; forty minutes is enough
Yod Abyssinia · Dance from every region, eaten with the hands; children love it
Bishoftu lakes · 41 kilometres out; swimming, boats and resorts on the crater rims
Sheger Park · Space to run in a city that has very little of it

Nightlife in Addis Ababa

The night here is live music rather than clubs, and the music is specific: Ethiopian scales use five notes in four modes that sound unlike anything west or east of here, and the golden age of Ethio-jazz in the late sixties and early seventies produced a body of recordings that the rest of the world only discovered in the nineties. Azmari bets and jazz bars, from about nine, and a taxi home.

Ethio-jazz · Sunday nights at the Taitu are the known slot
Taitu Hotel · 1907; walk into the lobby either way
Azmari bet · Bring a translator and small notes
Tej bet · Unregulated strength; ask before the second
Bole Road at night · Busiest at Christmas and Easter
Meskel bonfire · 27 September; the square fills

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Frequently asked questions about Addis Ababa

What is there to see in Addis Ababa?

The top sights in Addis Ababa are National Museum, Ethnological Museum and Red Terror Museum. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Addis Ababa?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Addis Ababa without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Addis Ababa?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Addis Ababa, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The city on the hot springs.

How do you get to Addis Ababa and get around?

The main ways are Bole International Airport, Legehar station and Light rail. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Addis Ababa, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Addis Ababa that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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