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OverviewAI-generated
Bahir Dar is a city and zone in Ethiopia, serving as the capital of the Amhara Region. It is located at coordinates 11.585, 37.39 and has an elevation above sea level of 1800. The city covers an area of 213.43 and operates within the East Africa Time zone. Its postal code is 6000.
Population figures for Bahir Dar vary by source, with one listing 243,300 residents and another citing 350,000. The city is twinned with Cleveland, Ashdod, Madison, and Oakland. It is classified as a big city and is part of the Amhara Region.
Synthesized by Vinony from 45 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Open Meteo, Openweathermap, OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Weather now
cached 312h ago7-day forecast
via Open-Meteo
Place details
- Locality
- Bahir Dar Special Zone
- Region
- አማራ ክልል Amhara أمحرة
- Country
- ኢትዮጵያ
- Population
- 350,000
- Timezone
- Africa/Addis_Ababa
via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames
Travel guide
Get around
Bajajs (three-wheel rick-shaws) are the most common form of transportation in the city. There are also blue minibuses, but few still exist as means to get around town. Bajajs are inexpensive and cost no more than two birr per line of road and 30-50 birr for a private charter.
Do
Cycling Bikes can be rented at Ghion Hotel.
Buy
Bahir Dar has a big and colourful market that is open every day. Saturday is the biggest day. Sunday has very few activities.
The local speciality is small footstools covered in goat hide. Find them along the road that runs from Ghion hotel to the main highway. They can apparently be "unstuffed" for travel.
There are many ATMs that accept MasterCard & Visa cards at Dashen Bank and Ethiopia Commercial Bank.
Eat
Tana Restaurant serves fabulous fish dishes cheaply. Al-Hanan Muslim Restaurant, near the Dalot Pension, serves huge and tasty mutton dishes, even during Lent. Also a good place for an Ethiopian coffee ceremony. The owners are exceedingly nice and don't charge tourists extra.
Drink
There are many cultural night clubs throughout the city center. There are a few Western music clubs, with Dream House and a bar above Friendship Cafe the most popular.
Sleep
Prices are changing quickly.
Koriftu Resort is a nice getaway after roughing it around Ethiopia. One of the nicest resorts in Ethiopia with a complimentary massage for every night's stay. Good, but expensive, restaurant and a nice pool. Tana Pension. Rooms from US$2.50, the food is marvelous.
Stay safe
Like many other cities in Ethiopia, Bahir Dar is generally safe and free of violent crimes.
You may encounter some hustlers around the shore of Lake Tana to get you rent a boat they may get a kick-back for. The boats on Lake Tana that take you to visit the monasteries have fixed rates. Make sure the self-appointed "brokers" won't get you charged a jacked up fee for the boats.
Connect
As of 2019, the city has only (relatively slow) 3G coverage. Hotel Wi-Fi is not always faster.
Go next
Gondar – to the north and the nearest big city, it has a complex of castles and palaces Lalibela – to the west, its rock-hewn churches are a big attraction
Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)
~15 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Bahir Dar (Amharic: ባሕር ዳር, lit. 'sea shore') is the capital city of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Bahir Dar is one of the leading tourist destinations in Ethiopia, with a variety of attractions in the nearby Lake Tana and Blue Nile river. The city is known for its wide avenues lined with palm trees and a variety of colorful flowers. In 2002, it was awarded the UNESCO Cities for Peace Prize for addressing the challenges of rapid urbanization.
History
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Bahir Dar” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.