Lalibela, the Simiens, the salt flats.
Which Lalibela morning gets you inside before the coaches. What a Danakil expedition costs once the permit and the escort are counted. Whether the Simien trek needs two days or four. Every tour in Ethiopia, reviewed.
The six places an Ethiopia trip is built around.
Churches cut downwards into highland rock. A lava lake you climb to at night. Market days on the Omo, escarpment ridges above three thousand metres, island monasteries on Lake Tana. Addis is where you land. These are where you go.
Addis Ababa is the base camp for everywhere else.
Nearly every Ethiopian itinerary opens and closes at Bole. Two days covers the National Museum and Lucy, the sprawl of the Merkato, and a coffee ceremony in somebody’s front room. Layover tours exist and they work, provided you have five hours and a visa.
The day trips that leave Addis Ababa before sunrise.
Debre Libanos and the Portuguese Bridge sit a hundred kilometres north, down into the Jemma gorge. Wenchi’s crater lake is a hard three hours west. Tiya’s stelae field and the rock church at Adadi Maryam are south. Each is a full day in a vehicle for a couple of hours on the ground. Worth doing, as long as nobody sold you one as an afternoon out.
The tours travellers in Ethiopia actually take.
Every review →A half-day around Addis and a four-day desert convoy sit at opposite ends of this list. What they have in common is that people keep coming back to write about them.
1
Full Day Tour of Addis Ababa with Hotel Pickup and Drop-off
Review of Addis Ababa’s full-day tour with Lucy, Entoto views, Merkato, historic churches, local food, hotel pickup, and practical tips.
From · $69
Read our review →
2
Taste of Ethiopia
from $102
3
Day Trip From Addis Ababa See Historical Monastery,Stunning Nature,Animals,Birds
from $90
4
Debre Libanos, Blue Nile Gorge, and Cave Tour
from $94
5
Addis Ababa Guided City Tour With Airport & Hotel Pick Up
from $55
6
Breathtaking Nature, Wildlife and Cave Church Tour – Free Pickups
from $80
7
Full-Day Private City Tour of Addis Ababa
from $160
8
3 Days Danakil Depression Tour
from $450
Lalibela: eleven churches, cut downwards into rock.
Hewn out of the tufa in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and still in daily use, Lalibela is a working parish rather than a monument. Services begin before dawn, shoes come off at every threshold and shoulders stay covered. A guided morning links the two clusters and the tunnel between them; most visitors keep a second day for Yemrehanna Kristos in its cave.
The Danakil Depression is the hottest inhabited place on earth.
A hundred metres below sea level, over forty degrees in what passes for shade, and no shade. Expeditions run three or four days out of Mekele or Semera: the sulphur terraces at Dallol, the salt caravans on Lake Asale, and a night walk up Erta Ale to sleep on the rim above an open lava lake. Convoy, scout and permit are part of the price, not an upsell.
The Simien escarpment, walked properly.
Ridge walking with a thousand-metre drop on one side and a gelada troop feeding on the other. Two days reaches Sankaber; four gets you to Chennek and the Walia ibex; Ras Dashen wants a week and a half.
The Simien Traverse
Everything starts in Debark, where the park office assigns the compulsory scout and the mule crews wait. Sankaber, Geech and Chennek are the standard camps; the Jinbar waterfall drops off the cliff edge between the first two. Nights go below freezing at 3,600 metres even in the dry season, and altitude, not distance, is what makes people turn back.
- 112 Days SIMIEN MOUNTAIN-LALIBELA-DANAKIL-TIGRAY CHURCHES★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 45 reviews
- 26 Days tour Package (Simien Mountains, Lalibela, and Danakil Depression)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 32 reviews
- 35-Day Northern Ethiopia Tour : 3D Simien Mountains Trek & Axum.★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 9 reviews
The Bale Mountains
Four hundred kilometres south of Addis, the Bale massif is the wetter, emptier alternative: the Sanetti plateau at 4,000 metres, the Harenna cloud forest dropping away behind it, and the best odds anywhere of seeing an Ethiopian wolf. Treks run five or six days from Dinsho and the horses carry the loads.
- 13 Days Bale Mountains Trekking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 19 reviews
- 24 days semien mountain national park trekking,★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 11 reviews
- 36 Days Bale Mountains Trekking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 10 reviews
Awash & the Rift Valley
Awash sits three hours east of Addis where the river falls into a gorge and the acacia scrub opens out under Fantale volcano. Oryx, kudu and baboon troops along the river, hot springs at Filwoha, and it works as an overnight rather than the week the northern parks demand.
- 12 Days Wildlife Safari to Awash National Park★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 21 reviews
- 24 days semien mountain national park trekking,★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 11 reviews
- 35 Days Tour to World Heritage–listed Harrar, Dire Dawa and Awash NATIONAL PARK★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 10 reviews
What a day out in Ethiopia costs.
A coffee ceremony and a city walk sit at one end. A four-day desert expedition with permits, a scout and a 4x4 convoy sits at the other. Sorted by price, so you can see where your budget lands.
Market mornings, museum walks, coffee ceremonies and half-days around the capital.
The full-day standard: city tours with pickup, the long runs out to Debre Libanos, Wenchi and the gorge.
Multi-day country: Danakil convoys, Simien treks with crew, Omo Valley circuits and private vehicles.
- 1Full-Day Private City Tour of Addis Ababafrom $160
- 23 Days Danakil Depression Tourfrom $450
- 33 Days Danakil Depression Tours Via Semerafrom $420
In Ethiopia the coffee ceremony is a sit-down, not a drink.
Green beans roasted over coals in front of you, pounded by hand, brewed in a jebena and poured three times: abol, tona, baraka. Leaving after the first cup is the one thing not to do. Most Addis food tours finish in a living room doing exactly this, usually after injera and a plate of tibs.
Four parts of Ethiopia that will not be arranged at the last minute.
Most of the country can be sorted from a hotel lobby the night before. These cannot. They run on permits, scouts, charter seats and a calendar that moves for nobody.
- 013 Days Danakil Depression TourPermits, a scout and a place in the convoy are arranged days ahead, and departures run on fixed dates out of Mekele and Semera.
- 0212 Days SIMIEN MOUNTAIN-LALIBELA-DANAKIL-TIGRAY CHURCHESThe park scout is compulsory and the mules, cook and camp kit are hired in Debark before you walk a step.
- 036 Days Omo Valley Tribes Tours From Addis AbabaThe lower valley runs on a rotating market calendar, and the drive down from Addis is two long days each way.
- 0412 Days SIMIEN MOUNTAIN-LALIBELA-DANAKIL-TIGRAY CHURCHESLalibela is a flight rather than a drive, and Timkat in January fills the seats and the beds months in advance.
Start from where you will be sleeping
Addis Ababa304 tours
Lalibela38 tours
Mekele & the Danakil20 tours
Arba Minch & the Omo22 tours
Gondar14 tours
Bahir Dar & Lake Tana10 tours
Axum7 tours- Every region →
Or start from the kind of day you want
The historic route, in the order most people fly it.
Simien MountainsJust added to the Ethiopia list.
All recent →
Yod Abyssinia Cultural Night: Dinner, Music, and Dance
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3 days tour Danakil Depression (Dallol & Erta Ale)
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Trekking in Ethiopia’s Lalibela Wollo Highland 4 Days / 3 Nights
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Lasta Mountains: Highland Eco Trekking Tour in Lalibela
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The Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela: 3 Days / 2 Nights
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