Guest house review: Yebsabi

ORIGINALLY POSTED BY RUTHANNE ON OUTNUMBERED

From February 2010:
While I was in Ethiopia, I stayed at the Yebsabi Guest House. I had heard many things about the accomodations in Ethiopia and I was a little nervous about what I would find. I'm not a hotel snob but I also don't enjoy camping. I'm good with something in-between. The Yebsabi far exceeded my expectations. It was beyond clean and the people working there were both gracious and helpful. We had a room with two twin beds and a private bathroom with plenty of hot water and great water pressure. Our room was part of a suite which included another guest room, a living room and a kitchen area. We were fortunate that there was no one in the other guest room so we had the living room and kitchen to ourselves.

We had great internet in our room. Every day, our room was cleaned and we were given two bottled waters. There was also a stocked refrigerator/mini-bar in the kitchen area where we could get bottled water and sodas (including awesome coke bottles written in Amharic which came home with me).

The kitchen included a sink, microwave and a wonderful hotpot that boiled water very quickly. This was wonderful for making hot chocolate at night and for cleaning Daniel's bottles.

Breakfast was included with our room and there was a wonderful spread every morning--including coffee, tea and eggs made to order. We ate lunch there once (yummy fish and chips) and dinner most nights. David was the chef and he was a fantastic cook. He made a traditional Ethiopian dinner one night at our request. We also had a pasta dish, chicken with rice and lasagna. It was all fantastic.

The Yebsabi has a rooftop terrace that is amazing. You can see the whole city from up there. I got some great pictures and wonderful video of the sights and sounds of Addis.

The only negative that I encountered was the rooster who lived next door and woke up promptly at 6am every morning. When I mentioned it to the manager and woman working the front desk, they had no idea what I was talking about. I think they are just used to them. We don't have a lot of roosters out here in the 'burbs.

The balcony off our bedroom: