Bilen Lodge and other Ethiopia Hotel/Accommodation Reviews

Situated in Awash National Park (330 km from Addis, 10 km off the road to Djibouti) this is a nice hotel with beehive-like huts, copied from the traditional houses of the Afar people. The hotel has a nice restaurant, with mosquito-nets instead of windows. This ecolodge also contributes to the surrounding Afar villages.

Watch out for scorpions when entering your room in the darkness.

As this was part of the tour package and I forgot to ask, I have no prices.


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Theme: Hotel

Directions: see above, a bit difficult to get to without private transport

I did not stay in any hotels that are not mentioned in the guidebooks, so here is just a short review:
Note: Prices listed are from Jan. 2008 and are of course subject to change and can sometimes be bargained depending on your skills and the hotel. They should just give a rough indication.

Weldya (you might end up here on your way from Addis or Mekele to Lalibela):
Golden (?) Guest house is on the main road and has a small courtyard and small rooms with attached not too clean bathrooms. As it is only about 2 Euros it is okay value for the price.
A nice option is Lal hotel close by for about 9 Euros.

Lalibela
Asheton Hotel is nice and clean and very quiet. Test the showers as there are a bit drippy in some of the rooms and ask fellow travelers for prices. They can differ between tourists with no obvious reason (other than the owner expects some people to be willing to pay more than others).

Gonder
Misrak pension next to Fogera Hotel is nice and friendly and very quiet with rooms around a nice lawn. They have no restaurant but you can have drinks. Prices were about 8 Euros for a room with attached bathroom (very good hot shower!).
Generally prices rise at Timkat in Gonder, so for that place it meant 16 Euros for a room with clean common shower (also nice and hot)– which was not more inflated than at other hotels.

Debark
In front of Simien Park Hotel (which is supposed to be the best place in town and therefore fully booked most of the time) there are two very cheap hotels that do not even have a sign but can easily be spotted because they are newly painted in bright colours. They each have rooms along a small alleyway in the back that are small and very basic but clean. There are only a common showers with cold water which were also clean.
As electricity is a problem in Debark be sure to carry a flashlight around. Good food can be had at Simien Park Hotel’s restaurant.

Simien Mountains NP
Nice campsites, tents etc. can be rented in Debark
(the picture shows Gelada Baboons who live in the mountains)

Bahir Dar
Ghion Hotel is really as nice as described everywhere and a good place to relax for about 10 Euros and up.

Addis Abeba
I found the everywhere recommended Wutma Hotel okay enough but I am not sure if I brought the fleas with my backpack from some other place or if they were living in the sheets there. It has a nice restaurant downstairs.
The always recommended Baro Hotel in front of Wutma did not meet the expectations of the travellers I met who stayed there. It seems that especially in Addis hotel owners rest on the reputation they have when they made it into the guide books and do not keep standards up. So if you find a hotel not mentioned in a book it might be very worth checking that out.


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Theme: Hotel
Prices: less than US$20  » Currency Converter