A day in Addisfrom $69
The eleven churchesfrom $200
Three days in the Danakilfrom $450
Down to the Omofrom $800
Lalibela was cut downwards into the rock. The Danakil sits below the sea.
Which Danakil convoy carries enough water for three days. What a guided morning among the eleven churches costs. Reviews of every tour you can book in Ethiopia.
The gelada cliffs, a city morning, the market kitchen, the churches.
Four bookings a first Ethiopian trip usually hangs off. What each costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The first day outDay Trip From Addis Ababa See Historical Monastery,Stunning Nature,Animals,BirdsBaboons on the escarpment, a monastery in the forest and the Blue Nile gorge, all inside a day of Addis.
02Addis before lunchAddis Ababa Guided City Tour With Airport & Hotel Pick UpEntoto, the cathedral and the Mercato with a driver who collects you from the hotel or the airport gate.
03The eating dayEthiopian Culinary Tour – Market, Food, Coffee Ceremony & moreThrough the spice halls, then injera and a coffee ceremony roasted at the table in front of you.
04Lalibela properlyTour 11 monolithic rock churches & museum in Lalibela & cave church with mummiesAll eleven churches plus the cave church out of town, with a guide who can read the carving.
City morning, forest monastery or an airport layover. Pick your day.
Nearly everything in Ethiopia starts at Bole and comes back to it. Four kinds of day out of the capital, what it costs to board each one, and how long it takes.
What a day in Ethiopia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. City days and church mornings sit at one end; anything involving the Danakil, the Omo or a week of internal flights sits at the other.
Half-day city tours, layover runs out of Bole, market mornings and a guided hour among the Tigray churches.
The full-day standards: Addis end to end, Debre Libanos and the gorge, a cooking class and coffee ceremony, Wenchi crater.
Multi-day country: the Danakil convoy, the Omo Valley, Simien and Bale trekking, and the flown northern circuit.
- 13 Days Danakil Depression Tourfrom $450
- 23 Days Danakil Depression Tours Via Semerafrom $420
- 312 Days SIMIEN MOUNTAIN-LALIBELA-DANAKIL-TIGRAY CHURCHESfrom $1,641
The northern circuit is four towns and a lot of altitude.
Gonder’s castles, the island monasteries on Lake Tana, the stelae field at Axum and the churches at Lalibela. Flights link them in under an hour each; the road takes days and shows you the escarpment.
- 112 Days SIMIEN MOUNTAIN-LALIBELA-DANAKIL-TIGRAY CHURCHESfrom $1,641
- 2Visiting Lalibela churchesfrom $200
- 3Visit the rock hewn churchesfrom $165
Lalibela: go at first light, when the priests are still chanting.
Everything in Lalibela →
Eleven churches, none of them built. Each one was cut downwards out of a single block of volcanic tuff, then tunnelled between. These three carry more travellers than anything else in town.
Whether you need one inside the churches
The carving reads as blank stone without someone to point out the Axumite windows, the drainage channels and the tunnel to Bete Giyorgis. A guide is the difference between a morning and a queue.
Both clusters, plus the cave church
The northern group before the heat, lunch in town, then the southern group and the mummified pilgrims at Nakuto Le’ab. Long, and the only way to see all eleven without rushing.
The Tigray churches on the cliffs
North of Mekele the churches sit halfway up sandstone cliffs, reached by ledges and, at Abuna Yemata Guh, a rope. Emptier than Lalibela, and harder to get to on purpose.
Ethiopia keeps its strangest ground below sea level.
The Danakil is the hottest inhabited place measured on earth: sulphur terraces at Dallol, a lava lake at Erta Ale, salt cut by hand and carried out by camel. South of it the Omo runs to a different clock again, and both take days, not hours.
Addis first, then whichever highland town the flight reaches.
The capital at 2,400 metres, the churches cut into the rock, the castles of the old imperial capital, the lake with the island monasteries, the Omo gateway and the road up to Tigray. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Ethiopia’s most popular days out.
Every Ethiopian tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the country, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Full Day Tour of Addis Ababa with Hotel Pickup and Drop-off
See Addis Ababa’s key sights in 6 to 7 hours with hotel or airport pickup, a driver-guide, and a group capped at 15. Visit Lucy at the National Museum, explore Mount Entoto, walk through Mercato, stop at St. George’s Cathedral, and eat at historic Taitu Hotel. Guides such as Luel and Desale can adjust the day to your interests.
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
8
3 Days Danakil Depression Tour
from $450
Three things that only happen in Ethiopia.
Mountains and markets exist everywhere. A church quarried downwards out of bedrock, a salt plain a hundred metres below the sea, and a calendar running seven years behind do not.
The Churches of Lalibela
Eleven churches were quarried downwards out of solid volcanic rock in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, roofs first, then hollowed out from the inside. Bete Giyorgis is a cross sunk into the ground with nothing above it but the surrounding stone. They are not ruins: services run before dawn, the priests hold the crosses, and you take your shoes off at the door.
- 112 Days SIMIEN MOUNTAIN-LALIBELA-DANAKIL-TIGRAY CHURCHES★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 45 reviews
- 2Visiting Lalibela churches★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 40 reviews
- 3Visit the rock hewn churches★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 39 reviews
The Danakil Depression
Dallol sits about a hundred metres below sea level and averages the highest year-round temperature recorded anywhere people live. Acid springs crust the ground in yellow and green, Erta Ale holds one of the few permanent lava lakes on earth, and Afar men still cut salt blocks by hand and walk them out by camel. Convoys go with water, a cook and an escort.
- 13 Days Danakil Depression Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 135 reviews
- 23 Days Danakil Depression Tours Via Semera★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 47 reviews
- 312 Days SIMIEN MOUNTAIN-LALIBELA-DANAKIL-TIGRAY CHURCHES★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 45 reviews
The Coffee Ceremony
Arabica grows wild in the southwestern forests and the ritual around it has not industrialised. Grass on the floor, incense lit, green beans roasted in a pan and carried round for the smoke, then pounded and brewed three times in a clay jebena. The third pour is the blessing one, and leaving before it is rude.
- 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
- 3Ethiopian Cooking Class and Coffee Ceremony with a Local in Addis with transfers★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 14 reviews
Four Ethiopian bookings that will not wait.
Most of a trip here can be arranged from a hotel lobby the night before. These four run on convoys, permits, festival dates and small aircraft that do not care when you land.
- 013 Days Danakil Depression TourThe depression is reached by escorted convoy with its own water and cook. Departures are fixed and groups are capped, so a walk-up almost never works.
- 026 Days Omo Valley Tribes Tours From Addis AbabaSix days of driving on the southern circuit, planned around which villages hold market on which day. The route is built before you arrive, not during.
- 0312 Days SIMIEN MOUNTAIN-LALIBELA-DANAKIL-TIGRAY CHURCHESPark entry, a scout and a mule crew are arranged in Debark before the trek starts. Everything closes to vehicles when the big rains wash the track out.
- 0412 Days SIMIEN MOUNTAIN-LALIBELA-DANAKIL-TIGRAY CHURCHESAt Genna in early January the churches fill with pilgrims and every bed and seat in town goes months ahead.
What to book when the kiremt closes the highland tracks.
From late June to September the rain arrives most afternoons, the Simien and Omo tracks turn, and the light goes flat over the escarpment. It is also the green season, the cheapest, and the answer is the same each time: take the morning, then go indoors. Kitchens, roasting pans, museums and churches with a roof on them.
Coffee was found here, and it is still made at the table.
Green beans roasted in a pan in front of you, ground by hand, brewed in a clay jebena and poured three times. It takes an hour, nobody rushes it, and it happens in houses, not cafes.
Every coffee experience →
By place — capital, highlands and the rift
By kind of day — church, crater, kitchen or convoy
Addis, Bahir Dar, Gonder, Lalibela, Axum: the historic route almost everybody flies first.
The newest Ethiopian tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Yod Abyssinia Cultural Night: Dinner, Music, and Dance
Read our review →
3 days tour Danakil Depression (Dallol & Erta Ale)
Read our review →
Trekking in Ethiopia’s Lalibela Wollo Highland 4 Days / 3 Nights
Read our review →
The Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela: 3 Days / 2 Nights
Read our review →
Lasta Mountains: Highland Eco Trekking Tour in Lalibela
Read our review →
Full Day Tour To The 11 Rock Hewn Churches Of Lalibela
Read our review →
