Best cities to live in Ethiopia

Your reply... Harar is good except for its water problems

Dear Julien
welcome to Ethiopia.
according to my opinion  the best city to live in Ethiopia  is Either Awassa or Bahirdar, with the weather, the beautiful lakes and moderate living cost you will surly enjoy living there but there might not be as much job opportunity as you desire.
with AU, UN, several NGOs and  international companies Addis Ababa is still a city with higher job opportunity in Ethiopia, the city have everything to offer for Expat or local.  but with construction everywhere   you might not find the city pleasant and living cost is not affordable in Addis, house rent is very expensive, but if you mange to get a job that pays well, you will defiantly enjoy living in Addis.
Good Luck!

I'm currently in the UK and hope to marry my girlfriend of 4 years in Ethiopia where I plan to buy a home. If I could live in Gonder I would love it. It feels more like a community and I love rural settings. It's not great from jobs so I'm opting for Addis for jobs and most of my friends live there. A wassail however is truly loving. Much more room than Addis and much cleaner. If I could get a job there hands down I'd live there. Ethiopia is a great place and it's the people that make each city and your time there a great one. You are also lucky being white lol I'm black but not Ethiopian and I get stares every second if the day which is strange it's like being black in China lol still I'd love this to be my home.

Selam, I want to live in Ethiopia. I was born in England, a mental health social worker, married to an Ethiopian and every three months I have to leave Ethiopia because they will not give me residency.
So, how can I choose where to live?

Dear Julian,

Nice topic, congratulations. However I have an issue with the question itself !! How can one just "decide" to move to Ethiopia ? Are you refering to a marriage visa ? You cannot just decide to "move" there. The goverment will not permit it. Sure, one can go there on holiday or for business purposes or on a diplomatic visa, but nobody can just fly there, settle in and say this is my new "home" !! In fact having travelled the world over with my business, I don't know of a country in which one can do that, except "patrionage / citizenship by investment programs", such as Dominica etc.

Please explain your statement.

Sincerely, Richard

Hello Richard,

This subject has been launched on all forums to gather infos to help members considering the move to Ethiopia. So that they may get some inputs about the cities from members already there.

Of course, they can not just "decide" to move there, they will have to complete the formalities before but this topic is not about formalities.

"Which regions offer most of the job opportunities, a good quality of life, an affordable cost of living? "

Do not hesitate if you can help by providing some info.

All the best
Bhavna

Hi to u all, I'm an Eritrean Australian who is seriously considering to move back to Ethiopi. MY grandfather is orginally from Shire Enda Selas. I would love to go back and search for my people and live, retire amongst them.
Any help with 1) Finding a spouse 2) Getting into business or education (teaching English) 3) best city to live in with a reasonable anount of Western lifestyle (but not crowded)

Would be greatly appreciated

Cheers
Kana

How about moving back to Eritrea'?

Eritrea all my family has died. My father used to visit his cousines there in shire in the sixties. 
Plus eritrea is not stable at the moment. ERITREAN are running from there, you want me to go back.

kana2017 the best city for you would be mekelle , it's one of the fastes growing city in Ethiopia and not over crowded like addis but any way Eritran and Ethiopian people are like brothers which ever city you want to live in , Ethiopians will welcome you with Open Heart, Open Hands, Open Doors .

Hello there, I would say Bahir-Dar, Awasa,Mekelle and Abi-Adi. Depending what you like these cities have nice things to offer. The people are extremely nice in al this cities. Bahir-Dar reminds me of Florida with the palm trees and nice weather. They have many night clubs to enjoy and great food. Awasa is also similar to Bahirdar. Mekelle is a lot cleaner and everything is convenient. For example transportation. Abi-Adi reminds me of Pennsylvania and Denver when it comes to the mountains and the trees. Abi-Adi is very cheap to live but not many choices to offer other than Wonderful food and many fruits that you donot see in the states. What ever you do choose to go to Ethiopia around the season that you love the most. The raining season lasts for 3 months and it rains every single day. Therefore if you donot like to get wet donot go during the rainy season. FYI, the roads in cities like addis during the winter time can be daunting.