Backpacking in Ethiopia: Staying at Atelefugne Hostel in Addis Ababa

After my Safari adventures in Tanzania and a stop over in Kenya, I arrived in Ethiopia ready to explore. I flew into Addis Ababa International Airport and was able to get an Ethiopian Visa on arrival. I spent the first couple of days in the capital city, Addis Ababa before heading on a crazy journey to the city of Harar to feed hyenas! Before that insanity kicked in, I needed a base in the capital and I found a new up and coming hostel called Atelefugne Hostel, well it’s kind of now branded as a Bed and Breakfast so I based myself here and here are five reasons why I liked this place.

1. Location in Kera District
You’re on Tanzania Street which is a main street in the Kera district in the south part of Addis Ababa. From here you can get a minibus through the crazy streets into the downtown or walk leisurely all the way to Mexico, which is the next district along. Plus it’s reachable by taxi from the airport within 20 minute.

Though I have to stress that traffic in Addis Ababa (and Ethiopia in general) is manic and also can be scary – buses and cars go too fast all the time and health and safety are not really practiced here!

2. Slightly Upmarket But Still Cheap
Ethiopia is a backpacker’s paradise and everywhere is cheap. The Atelefugne is actually slightly dearer than some of the dingy B and Bs and hostels, some of which are in an area famous for hookers. I had a small single room without a bath which was $15 US back then and is now currently $18 US per night. Sure you can get cheaper, but the pros of this place justified the extra price for me.

In Harar I stayed in a dingy place called Central Hotel with no hot water and insects all over, which is fairly standard. In Atelefugne, I didn’t get any bites.

3. WiFi
Perhaps I shouldn’t be so judgemental of places in advance, but I didn’t expect the internet to be so good here in Addis Ababa. Atelefugne has good WiFi and I was able to Skype my parents and get some decent travel blogging typed up here. It works in the bar and restaurant area.

4. Excellent Bar and Restaurant
Really I have to admit that Ethiopian food and beer totally surprised me. I loved it. You might have read about the massive vegetarian meal I had, and the food at the hostel is great. You can request breakfast as well and ice cold beers go down a treat here. I tried about 6 different types of Ethiopian beer in the country and did a pub crawl in Addis Ababa. My favourite was St. George Lager.

5. Friendly Staff
The staff here were totally polite and helpful. You can chat away to the staff in the bar and restaurant, they’ll mind your bags for you and showed a keen interest in my travels and my blog. My bar man for a few days was Johannes.

The only real negative thing about my stay in the Atelefugne Hostel was that we had a power cut one night and a few times during the day. It’s to be expected when backpacking though, so no big deal really. And even better was that the staff brought candles into my room so I could actually type up some blogs etc. offline! There are a few videos of the power cuts below.

Here are the details for booking the Atelefugne Hostel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:
Kirkos Sub-City, Woreda 5,
House # 418
Contact: Shitaye H. Gebeyehu
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +251 912 190328
Tele: +251 114 167342
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Here are my videos of the Atelefugne Hostel in Addis Ababa Ethiopia: