Radisson Blu Hotel Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Review

Book the Radisson Blu Hotel Addis Ababa here.


Book the Radisson Blu Hotel Addis Abeba here

Addis Ababa's modern center is in the eastern part of town (closer to Bole Road and close to the airport). However, the Radisson is located immediately next to the German development complex and the UN Headquarters in Addis Ababa. The economic development agencies are big business drivers in Addis and the Radisson is as close as it gets to them. There is also a very old InterContinental next door.





The building and the hotel itself are very new and once you enter it feels more like you're in an upscale US hotel than in one of the poorest countries on earth. I was picked up from the airport ($7 one-way) and the driver and escort were extremely friendly and spoke fluent English.

Since my bag was delayed, they immediately offered to keep calling the Ethiopian Airlines luggage tracing department to find out about it.

I got to the hotel at 8 in the morning - no rooms were available even for Club Carlson Gold members, but I was happy to wait before taking a nap.

Overall, the staff were a true highlight of my stay - it felt more like in a Park Hyatt than a Radisson. The staff exuded understated professionalism - everyone was very friendly, knowledgeable and fluent in English. I can only come up with a handful of other hotels where the staff quality was that good.

Another big surprise was the hotel internet, which topped out at 15 Mbit - it was very fast and was never interrupted during my stay. Most US hotels don't have that internet speed.

My room was looking out onto the busy front door, but the windows were completely soundproof - in 3 days I didn't hear anything from the outside. The quality of furniture and the bed were fantastic. The bed was a bit too soft for me, but the bedding was of the best quality. The bathroom was huge and boasted a shower and a bath tub.

The only annoying thing was that the temperature of the shower wasn't steady, so you would either risk being scalded or brushed up with cold water constantly.

The hotel features a To.Mo.Ca coffee shop and an outside patio. Though the space the hotel utilizes for this is very small, the outside patio is very well done and is illuminated by the heater lamps at night (it gets really cold in the evening).



Breakfast was served in the main restaurant and it was excellent. I loved the juices and the cheese selection. There were many pastry and egg dishes as well.



In conclusion, this was a great hotel - even more amazing considering the chaos outside. This hotel would be able to charge even more in New York City and could easily be branded as an Andaz when beamed to NYC with $500 room rates during the week.

What's missing though is some space - there is no outdoor pool (Addis suffers 80 degrees every day of the year!) and the gym and spa are both super-small.

Book the Radisson Blu Hotel Addis Abeba here



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Book the Radisson Blu Hotel Addis Ababa here.