Ethiopia begins underground, at Lalibela.
Which Lalibela morning gets you the liturgy. What a Danakil permit actually involves. Whether four days is enough in the Simiens. Every tour in Ethiopia, reviewed and ranked.
Lalibela, the Danakil, the Simiens, and the coffee.
Churches cut down into the rock, a salt desert 125 metres under the sea, gelada troops grazing along an escarpment, and the country coffee came from. Most Ethiopia trips are built out of these six; here is how each is best booked.
Addis Ababa sits at 2,300 metres, and everything leaves from here.
Every northern flight, every southern road and every Danakil convoy starts in the capital. Give it a day of its own: the Merkato, the hominin galleries at the National Museum, and a coffee ceremony that takes an hour because it is meant to.
Rock churches, boiling desert or highland trek: which Ethiopia?
All 28 multi-day routes →
Ten days buys two of the three, comfortably. The routes below combine them without spending the whole trip in the back of a Land Cruiser.
Lalibela: eleven churches, one weekend
Bete Giyorgis is cut thirty metres down into the tuff and you meet it at roof level. Go at first light: these are working parishes, and the dawn liturgy is the reason to be there rather than an extra.
Danakil: Dallol, Erta Ale, the salt road
Sulphur pools the colour of antifreeze at Dallol, an overnight climb to the lava lake at Erta Ale, and camel caravans still cutting salt out of Lake Karum by hand. Permits, a scout and a convoy are not optional here.
Simien: the escarpment, and the geladas
The escarpment drops a kilometre in a single step and gelada troops graze along the lip, close enough to hear them chew. Easy walking, hard altitude; nights at Chennek go near freezing.
In Lalibela the churches are still parishes.
Eleven churches cut down into red tuff around 1200, and not one of them a museum. Deacons sleep in the niches, pilgrims queue at Bete Giyorgis before dawn, and the tunnels between them are unlit on purpose. Come for the six o’clock service; stay for Yemrehanna Kristos out in the hills.
Three things Ethiopia keeps to itself.
Highland churches and mountain treks exist elsewhere. The coffee ceremony, the salt caravans and the gelada troops are Ethiopia’s alone.
The Coffee Ceremony
Coffee here is not a drink, it is an hour. Green beans are roasted over coals in front of you and walked round the room so you get the smoke, then ground and brewed in a clay jebena. Three rounds follow — abol, tona, baraka — and leaving after the first is rude. Arabica grew wild in the Kaffa forests long before anyone planted it, which is where the word came from.
- 1Ethiopian Culinary Tour – Market, Food, Coffee Ceremony & more★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 65 reviews
- 2Market Tour and Cooking Class with a Coffee Ceremony at a Home in Addis Ababa★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 32 reviews
- 3Vintage Coffee Shops, Restaurants, Sightseeing in Addis Ababa★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 17 reviews
The Danakil
Dallol holds the highest average annual temperature ever measured on earth, and Erta Ale has kept an open lava lake going for more than a century. Salt is still cut by hand at Lake Karum and walked out by camel on the same road. Trips run in convoy with a permit and a scout, and almost nobody goes between June and August.
- 112 Days SIMIEN MOUNTAIN-LALIBELA-DANAKIL-TIGRAY CHURCHES★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 45 reviews
- 23 Day Danakil Depression Ertale and Dallol Tours★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 44 reviews
- 33 Days Danakil Depression Tour from Semera City★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 34 reviews
The Gelada Troops
Geladas are the only grass-eating primates left, and the entire species lives on the Ethiopian highlands. Troops several hundred strong graze along the Simien escarpment and pay walkers no attention at all. Treks start from the park office at Debark, a scout walks with every group, and Ras Dashen at 4,550 metres is four days in from the gate.
- 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
What people actually book first in Ethiopia.
Every review →Ordered by how many travellers have been and rated them. Addis Ababa dominates the top of this list for the simple reason that almost every trip starts there.
1
Full Day Tour of Addis Ababa with Hotel Pickup and Drop-off
See Addis Ababa’s top sights in one full day, with hotel pickup, museums, Mercato market, Entoto views, and St. George Cathedral.
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
Addis Ababa Authentic Private City Tour
from $75
What a day out costs in Ethiopia.
Everything on the site, sorted by what it actually costs. City days are cheap. The desert and the mountains are not, and the difference is mostly fuel, permits and scouts.
Church entries, city walks, coffee ceremonies and market mornings — most of a good day in Addis Ababa or Lalibela.
The standard day trip: Debre Libanos and the gorge, a full Addis day with hotel pickup, a cooking class with the market first.
Where the northern loops and the Danakil convoys live. Four nights out, fuel across a country the size of France, permits and a scout.
Everything within a day’s drive of Addis Ababa.
North to Debre Libanos, where the Portuguese Bridge hangs over the Jemma gorge and gelada come down to the cliff edge. South on one road to Adadi Mariam, the carved stelae at Tiya and the Melka Kunture excavations. West to Wenchi, a crater lake you ride down into on horseback.
- 1Debre Libanos, Blue Nile Gorge, and Cave Tourfrom $94
- 2Day Trip From Addis Ababa To Debre Libanos & Portuguese Bridgefrom $100
- 3Day trip Debre Libanos, Bule nile George &Portugal Bridgefrom $90
The Danakil runs on a night shift.
All Danakil tours →
2-Night 3-Day Danakil Depression Tour without Flights
Read our review →3 Day Danakil Depression Ertale and Dallol Tours
Read our review →
5 DAYS Lalibela, Axum, Tigray churches and Danakil
Read our review →Book these before you fly to Ethiopia.
Most of the country can be arranged from a hotel lobby in Addis the night before. These cannot. They run on permits, park scouts, a religious calendar and a convoy schedule that will not move for your flight.
- 0112 Days SIMIEN MOUNTAIN-LALIBELA-DANAKIL-TIGRAY CHURCHESPermits and an armed scout are arranged through the regional authority, and departures out of Mekele run to a fixed schedule.
- 026 Days tour Package (Simien Mountains, Lalibela, and Danakil Depression)Park entry is bought at the Debark office and a scout walks with every group; the huts at Chennek fill weeks ahead in season.
- 03Visiting Lalibela churchesGenna on 7 January fills every bed in town months in advance, and Timkat does the same twelve days later.
- 045 DAYS Lalibela, Axum, Tigray churches and DanakilThe northern loop runs on domestic flights, and the cheap domestic fare only applies if you flew into the country on the same airline.
Ethiopia has two seasons, and one of them closes roads.
Kiremt, the big rains, runs from late June to mid-September: the highlands turn green, the Simien tracks turn to mud, and the Danakil is simply too hot to enter. October to March is the dry run, with Meskel on 27 September and Timkat on 19 January worth building a trip around. What works in any weather is indoors, and mostly in Addis.
By region — the historic route and the south
Addis Ababa231 tours
Lalibela26 tours
Gondar10 tours
Bahir Dar7 tours
Arba Minch9 tours
Tigray9 tours- The Danakil22 tours
- Every tour in Ethiopia →
By experience — what kind of day is it?
Ethiopia’s northern historic route, in order.
AxumThe newest Ethiopia tour reviews.
All recent →
Full Day Addis Ababa City Tour with Hotel Pick Up And Drop Off
Read our review →
Addis Layover Tour of Mercato With Airport pick up & drop off
Read our review →
Day Tours around Addis Abeba, Melka Kunture and Adadi Mariam
Read our review →
Private Guided Tours To Bahir Dar Lake Tana Monastery & Blue Nile Waterfalls
Read our review →
2-Day private Tour in Bahir Dar and Blue Nile falls
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