Safari in Ethiopia

a ridiculously diverse and endlessly surprising country

Ethiopia is a truly remarkable country, really like no other in Africa.

These fertile verdant highlands stand proud of the arid lands between the Sahara Desert and the Red Sea. For thousands of years they have been home to a series of great empires and a beacon of Christianity in an otherwise Muslim part of the world.

The majority of travellers to Ethiopia choose to visit a selection of remarkable archaeological sites, including the famous rock-cut churches of Lalibela and the location of the biblical Ark of the Covenant in Axum.

But Ethiopia is also packed with some fabulous wilderness areas, including the incredible volcanic scenery of the Danakil Depression and the rare and endemic wildlife of the Simien Mountains and the Bale Mountains.

The country has always been a melting pot of different tribal peoples and the cultural interaction here is diverse and extraordinary.

Ethiopia is an extremely cool country to visit, especially if you’ve been on safari before and are looking for a more diverse range of experiences from your next trip to Africa.

Ethiopia is almost always accessed via Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa. With Ethiopian Airlines being such a prominent worldwide operator, the country is remarkably well serviced by international connections, so you should have little trouble getting here.

Once in Ethiopia, one particularly interesting feature of travelling around the country is that wherever you go you will be accompanied by the same guide, from start to end. You may think that’s a bit strange and over the top, but you’ll definitely come around to it when your trip continues to run smoothly whilst other people’s trips are falling apart. It’s that kind of place.

Trips typically run to 10-18 nights, but can easily be extended to three or four weeks and continue to deliver varied and interesting experiences.

The country is also really well served by internal flights. As well as most of the key locations, there’s some really small and out-of-the-way places which receive regular daily flights from Addis Ababa. The main sights in the country can therefore be connected by air, but to see the country properly and to get off the beaten track then you will most likely want to include at least a couple of overland segments.

Because of the amount of time needed to do the country justice, Ethiopia is rarely combined with other countries, except in very long trips. However if you just want to pop in for a couple of highlights, then the safari areas of Kenya and Tanzania are within easy reach, as well as the tropical beaches of Zanzibar and Seychelles.

Seasonality

The climate in Ethiopia is converse to the pattern of the safari countries further south, with the best time of year to visit being the Oct-Apr dry season. 

The May-Sep green season is also interesting, with lower visitor numbers, verdant landscapes and much less rain in the lower altitude desert areas.

Where to stay

The main potential downsides are that travel in Ethiopia is unavoidably expensive and travel infrastructure is relatively undeveloped. There’s a severe shortage of decent accommodation options and booking a long way ahead is critical to enable us to find space in the handful of good lodges.

a severe shortage of good quality accommodation