Cultural journeys
From Axum’s stelae and Lalibela’s rock churches to Mursi and Hamer villages in the Omo and the crocodiles of Lake Chamo.
Paused while Amhara and Tigray are under official travel warnings. The southern half runs now as its own trip.
Length 10 days
Omo Valley
Five days in the lower Omo, timed to its weekly markets, then crocodiles on Lake Chamo and Dorze weavers in the hills above Arba Minch.
Length 07 days
Harar
One week, two very different Ethiopias: Harar’s walled lanes and its dusk hyena feeding, then Ari and Mursi communities around Jinka.
Overview
Ethiopia’s north and south can feel like separate countries. In the highlands, kings raised stelae at Axum and cut churches down into the rock at Lalibela. A short flight south, in the lower Omo, Mursi, Hamer and Karo families keep cattle beside a river that runs on to Lake Turkana. This trip crosses both, then ends at Lake Chamo and the Dorze looms above Arba Minch.
Flights link the regions, with nights in Addis between them. The highlands are cool; the Omo is hot and dusty. The south runs now as its own trip, but this route is paused for now; we will reopen it when it is safe.
Itinerary
Your guide meets you at Bole International Airport and takes you to your hotel. The rest of the day is yours, with a short briefing on the two halves of the trip.
A morning flight takes you north to Axum. In the afternoon you walk the main stelae field, where King Ezana’s stele stands 24 m high and the 33 m Great Stele lies broken beside it. The obelisk Italy took to Rome in 1937 stands here again, returned in 2005.
The morning takes in St Mary of Zion, whose chapel is said to hold the Ark of the Covenant, the tombs of Kings Kaleb and Gebre Meskel, and the palace ruin of Dungur. In the afternoon you drive to Yeha, where a temple from about 700 BC is Ethiopia’s oldest standing building.
Axum’s only flights go to Addis Ababa, so you connect there for the onward flight to Lalibela. You arrive in the afternoon and walk the northern group of churches, linked by trenches and tunnels in the red rock.
In the morning you look down into the pit where Bete Giyorgis stands, its roof carved as a cross, then walk the eastern group with a local church guide. In the afternoon you drive about 1.5 hours by 4WD to Yemrehanna Kristos, a church of wood and stone built inside a cave.
A short flight crosses the highlands to Gondar. In the afternoon you walk Fasil Ghebbi, the walled royal enclosure begun by Emperor Fasilides in the 17th century, then look up at the 80 angel faces on the ceiling of Debre Birhan Selassie.
In the morning you see the Fasilides bath, where Gondar celebrates Timket, then drive about 3 hours south with Lake Tana beside you. In the late afternoon you visit the Blue Nile Falls and cross the stone bridge built in 1626.
An early boat crosses Lake Tana to the Zege peninsula and Ura Kidane Mehret, its walls covered in painted saints and Bible stories. In the afternoon you fly to Addis Ababa for a quiet night between north and south.
A morning flight takes you to Jinka, the market town for South Omo. In the afternoon you visit Ari families in the farming villages around town, where coffee, enset and clay pots are part of the day’s work.
You leave early on the rough road into Mago National Park to spend the morning in a Mursi village with your local guide. Ask before any photograph and pay the fee to the person directly. In the afternoon the road runs south through Key Afer and Dimeka to Turmi.
You spend the morning with the Karo at Korcho, the Omo River curving below the village. Late in the afternoon you visit a Hamer family near Turmi as the cattle come home.
If the day fits, you stop at a market on the way north: Turmi on Monday, Dimeka on Saturday, Key Afer on Thursday. From Jinka the afternoon flight takes you to Addis Ababa for the night.
You fly to Arba Minch, whose name means “forty springs”, set between Lakes Abaya and Chamo. In the afternoon a boat takes you along Lake Chamo, past Nile crocodiles and hippos on the Nechisar National Park shore.
You drive up into the cool Chencha hills to a Dorze village. A Dorze family shows you their tall bamboo houses, shaped like beehives, the looms where they weave cotton shamma cloth, and how kocho, a flatbread, is made from enset.
A morning flight returns you to Addis, seat of the African Union. In the afternoon you see the National Museum’s human-origins gallery, with casts of Lucy (3.2 million years old) and Selam, the child found at Dikika (about 3.3 million years old), then Haile Selassie’s tomb at Holy Trinity and the hammering and spice of Merkato.
A slow morning, a farewell lunch and a last coffee ceremony. Your guide then takes you to Bole International Airport for your flight home.
Itineraries can change with weather, road and flight conditions. We will tell you promptly if they do.
Gallery
Photo: Unsplash
Good to know
Dress code: Shoulders and knees covered in churches and in the Omo villages; women bring a light scarf for the north.
This tour follows the Strict policy. Days are whole calendar days before departure.
| When you cancel | What you get back |
|---|---|
| 30 or more days before departure | 50% refund |
| Fewer than 30 days before departure | No refund |
A non-refundable USD 600 per traveller (domestic flights) is deducted before these percentages are applied.
Questions
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