Getting from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport to the city

The rule that ruins connections

• Ethiopian Airlines states on its own travel update page that passengers continuing to Ethiopian domestic destinations must go through customs and clear their baggage at Addis Ababa, despite the bags being through-checked.
• So a 90 minute connection to Lalibela, Gondar or Bahir Dar is not 90 minutes. It is immigration, reclaim, customs, re-check and domestic security.
• Budget three hours.
• And it means you enter Ethiopia, so the visa is not optional even for a same-day connection.

Getting into the city

• Bole is about 6 km from the centre, which is unusually close for the busiest hub in Africa.
• The FCDO advises using only buses or taxis from the airport organised by your hotel or travel company. That is a stronger instruction than the usual "book ahead" and it is worth following.
• If you take a taxi, choose a yellow one or an app-based one rather than the blue and white ones.
• Global Affairs Canada rates taxis in Ethiopia as generally unsafe, and advises against hailing on the street, sharing with strangers, or letting the driver pick up others on the way.

The altitude

• Addis Ababa is about 2,500 m above sea level, high enough that travel health advice raises altitude illness.
• The headache and the bad night's sleep are not only jet lag. Water, rest and no alcohol on day one.

Two more things the airline tells you and immigration does not

• A health declaration form must be completed before departure, on the Ethiopian Public Health Institute's portal.
• Two kilograms of coffee is the export limit per passenger without a special authorisation from the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority. In this country, that is a real constraint.