Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Ethiopia & Eritrea

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have used the Lonely Planet Guide for two visits to Ethiopia. I haven't been to Eritrea so I can't comment on the guide for that country.

The Lonely Planet series, in general, is short on describing luxury accomodations, dining, and chichi places and long on local history, customs, and out of the way places. Described in the guide, for example, are the dubious pleasures of chewing "chat," the lovely Ethiopian coffee ceremony, and the possibilities for trekking in several Ethiopian national parks.

Ethiopia is one of most contradictory and complex countries in the world. It it one of the oldest Christian countries, claims to house the Ark of the Covenant (remember "Raiders of the Lost Ark") in a church in Aksum, boasts "Lucy" the bones of one of the oldest ancestors of human beings, and has some of Africa's most spectacular scenery, the Blue Nile falls for example. Ethiopians have a strong, confident ancient culture and perhaps the most distinctive cuisine in the world. Steak tartare fans will like kifto. Cold beer and hot pasta (reflecting the brief Italian colonization of Ethiopia) can be found most places for less adventurous eaters.

One tip from me that may not be in the guide. Ethiopians for some reason are reluctant to accept 1996 US $100 bills and any bill that is torn or worn.

Ethiopia is a country well worth visiting. This guidebook will tell you all you need to know.

Smallchief

"Smallchief" mentioned that he had used this book in only in Ethiopia; I can attest that the Eritrea section is excellent as well. The walking tours of Asmara are a particularly useful and enjoyable introduction to a beautiful and eminently walkable city. Some of the information is out of date - a number of the establishments mentioned in the book are now closed, presumably due to the Eritrean economy's difficult straights. Let's hope that Ethiopia and Eritrea can overcome their joint and singular difficulties.

I travelled hree weeks in Ethiopia from 27.12.2006-12.1.2007 time. I visited Addis Ababa, Wollea, Debre Zeit, Dire Dawa, Lake Langano, Awasa and Harar. I used this book as a base for my travel plan and it never failed me. I read the book allways forehand at night before we entered a next place. It saved my son for a trouble becaus of framed Addis Abeba hustler information. He went to one of those ethnic conert the book was warning about and everything hapened exactly as told in the guide book. I got him out of that concert immediately and he saved 1000 bir.

Hotel information was very accurate, except the prices had come up 10 %.

Now I am back in Finland and I am very thankful for the writers. The arranged me a safe trip to one of the worlds poorest and most dangerous countries.

rgards

heikki turunen

We have used this book extensively during our several-month visit to Ethiopia. It contains good information, which has been useful and helpful.

Some things I would love to have improved in future editions:
- maps of Addis are really hard to come by. A REALLY good map of the city of Addis, taking several pages would be extremely helpful. Sure, you could use Google Maps, but have you noticed how terrible internet connections in Ethiopia tend to be?!
- a much more extensive, cross referenced index. The index of this book really lets it down. It is not extensive enough. It might take up several more pages to improve it, with more entries, but that would make the book so much more useful!

We have done the Northern Tour, and found the information about the different places and their sites to be very interesting. Especially in places like Axum, where myth and legend are presented as fact, the LP helped to keep our feet on the ground and heads out of the clouds, and to just enjoy the stories our guide presented for what they were: entertaining stories.

The shoe minder information for Lalibela (on tipping them) was very useful. We were ready to tip our shoe minder for her helpful service - three times we tried - but she refused each time. We think that she felt she was getting the benefit from us, by being allowed to spend a couple of hours with two very cute Western kids, one of whom has extremely blonde hair!

The information on museums in Addis was also useful, though some indication of opening days and hours, and entry prices (it wasn't included for all museum listings) would have been helpful. Public holidays meant that some we visited were closed, but LP gave us no indication of that.

Overall, a great book, with excellent information. Wouldn't have come here without it.

I bought this book for a trip to Ethiopia in January 2011. The biggest problem with this book is that it is extremely outdated with regard to travel options, hotels, and prices. The prices for hotels and entrances fees were not even close to those listed in the book. And it appears that the author did not go to many of the places listed in the book, thus the information is unhelpful and inaccurate. Along those same lines, the writing is focused on local myths and clever phrasing at the expense of historical accuracy and actually helpful information about place. It's very difficult to dig through all the author's self-congratulatory stories to find the actual travel information about a place. The section on the Simien Mountains, in particular, lacks any useful information about figuring out your options for viewing the mountains.

I cannot comment on the Eritrea section as I didn't travel there. I didn't read any other guides to Ethiopia, but I would strongly advise getting something else - there has to be something better than this.

I've used both the Lonely Planet and the Bradt Guide for a visit to Ethiopia at the end of 2009; it should be noted that a new edition of the LP came out two weeks after I returned, and that the edition I used was three years old when I used it.

My opinion, based on the 2006 edition: don't bother with the LP. Prices are completely inaccurate to the point you wonder if they ever were remotely correct and crucial information is lacking and inaccurate: according to the LP one bus trip takes six hours by minibus (it takes ten) and there is no specific place to catch one of these buses (there is). The Bradt guide is much more accurate, has a more comprehensive listing of hotels, restaurants and more background information on Ethiopia. Do yourself a favour. Ethiopia, 5th (Bradt Travel Guide Ethiopia)

Planning a trip to Ethiopia is hard enough, as there is very little available online of in depth information. But, Lonely Planet has answered most of my questions, as usual, which always makes my trips much easier to plan. As a single female traveller, I get upset when there isn't a LP guide for a certain country and their Ethiopia/Eritrea book does it all!

I was in Ethiopia in January this year, using this Dec. 2009 edition of this book.

Almost all hotel prices were higher in Ethiopia than in this book. In Gonder I wanted to sleep in the "Genetics Guesthouse", recommended by this Lonely Planet as "our pick". When the hotel owner showed me my room, I couldn't breathe for an instant because of the strong smell of urine that came out of the bathroom. In addition, the price was birr 200 instead of the 150 indicated by the LP.

This Lonely Planet edition also didn't mention that nowadays, you have ATM's in most cities that accept debit cards (like Maestro), so no need anymore to change large amounts of euros/dollars or get money the expensive way using your credit card.

Still, this Lonely Planet is much better than nothing, but it's not as accurate as the Lonely Planets I'm used to.

travelled through Ethiopia with this guidebook and was very disappointed. The accomodation references are poor (better ask a cab driver), so are the historical descriptions. Also (but this is an LP thing) it's good for people who like to be told by the authors what you are supposed to see, if you like other things you have to ignore the author's comments at all costs.

This book was disappointing. Very very few pictures, outdated visa requirements about yellow fever vaccinations (which I've read elsewhere have never been a requirement), not much basic travel information (like country weather, dress, currency) which is usually covered well in Lonely Planet books, like LP China, for example. The writers are clearly European, but their strong style leaves me wondering what nuances I may not be picking up on as an American. These omissions make me less confident about the other facts and recommendations given in the book. None of the writers are female, which also makes me wonder if the places they felt safe would be comfortable to a female traveler. All in all, this book was not as thorough and well researched as other Lonely Planet books I have read and used.