Meet your guide at Bole International Airport and discuss the length of your layover, your interests, and the time available before your next flight. Your guide will help you plan the experience carefully so that you stay on schedule.

Travel mainly by public transportation to make the experience even more authentic. Rather than seeing Addis Ababa only through a private vehicle window, experience the city as local people do. Use public buses, minibuses, taxis, walk through lively streets, visit local neighborhoods, and discover the atmosphere of daily Ethiopian life.

See people going to work, students traveling to school, families shopping, street vendors selling local products, cafés filled with conversation, small shops, busy roads, and neighborhoods where everyday Addis Ababa life takes place.

Depending on your available time, the tour can include a visit toward the Entoto area, one of the best places to appreciate the enormous landscape of Addis Ababa. From higher viewpoints, look across the city and see how Addis Ababa stretches between hills and valleys.

If your layover is long enough, the itinerary can include the National Museum of Ethiopia, where you can learn about Ethiopia's ancient history and see the famous fossilized remains associated with Lucy.

Depending on your interests and available time, the tour can also include important historical and cultural places in the city. Learn about Ethiopia's ancient civilizations, the Aksumite Kingdom, Ethiopian Orthodox Christian traditions, traditional Ethiopian architecture, Ethiopian coffee culture, local clothing and handicrafts, the country's many ethnic communities, traditional foods and cooking, modern Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's role in African history, and the development of Addis Ababa as Ethiopia's capital.

If your schedule allows, experience the energy of Merkato, one of Addis Ababa's most famous commercial areas. Merkato is not simply a place for shopping. It is a living picture of Ethiopian daily life. The streets