10-Day Ethiopia Nature and Heritage Tour with Lalibela and Bale

Meet the guide at the airport and escort you to our hotel.

Have some free time to rest up from jet lag after checking in.

Enjoy a city sightseeing tour this afternoon.

Make the first stop at the magnificent Trinity Cathedral.

Continue to the National Museum, close to the University of Addis Ababa Graduate School, which houses numerous antiquarian relics and archaeological artifacts showing the history of Ethiopia from prehistoric times to the modern day. Its most famous exhibit is a replica of the 3.5-million-year-old skeleton of 'Lucy'.

Drive to Merkato to see the biggest open-air market in East Africa.

Drive to Bale Mountains National Park after breakfast. Ethiopia’s second-highest mountain range contains one of the richest habitats in the country's alpine heights. It is the best place for viewing a broad cross-section of Ethiopia's unique wildlife, including the Ethiopian wolf, rare mountain nyala, giant forest hog, cape hyrax, colobus and vervet monkeys. The park is home to more than 282 bird species, plus another 170 migratory birds pass through.

Keep an eye out for nine of Ethiopia's 16 endemic species that reside here, including blue-winged goose, spot-breasted lapwing, yellow-fronted parrot, Abyssinian long claw, Abyssinian catbird, Bale Parisoma, Ethiopian Siskin, fawn-breasted waxbill and the Abyssinian owl. Bale was one of the last regions of Africa to attract serious scientific exploration, and it remains sufficiently out of the way even today that few travellers make it here in comparison with the Simien Mountains. The park’s main attractions are its wild alpine scenery, particularly on the Sanetti Plateau, which rises more than 13,000 feet above sea level.

Keep an eye out for our first glimpse of Ethiopian wolves en route to the lodge, as they are often seen from the road.

Spend the whole day exploring the wild wonders of the Sanetti Plateau and Harenna Forest. This vast highland region is the world's largest expanse of Afro-alpine moorland, a montane habitat with an average elevation above 13,000 feet. The plateau is renowned for supporting the largest remaining population of Ethiopian wolves, which we hope to spot on wildlife drives in 4x4 vehicles.

Walk atop the plateau, which reveals exhilarating views of the Harenna Forest, one of Ethiopia's most extensive natural forests. At the southern end of the plateau, the Harenna escarpment affords an astounding view over the forest well over a mile below us—more profound than the Grand Canyon. This forest, far denser and more varied than the juniper woodland around Dinsho, has a similar appearance and composition to the forests found in other East African mountain landscapes. Though we're unlikely to see them, lions live in this densely wooded region.

Take the road to the bottom of the Great Rift Valley, where a row of exciting lakes is found. The rift valley lakes harbour a tremendous natural diversity but are also very important for the local economy. The area is particularly interesting for birders.

Visit Lake Koka and Lake Ziway en route.

Drive to Abijata-Shalla National Park after lunch for a pleasant walk around the headquarter for some abundant wildlife.

Visit Gonder in the morning. This city in northern Ethiopia is famed for its 17th-century stone castles and fortresses that evoke the feel of an African Camelot—founded in 1636 by the great Emperor Fassilidas, this UNESCO World Heritage Site that was once the royal capital of Ethiopia enjoys a striking setting atop tree-studded hills.

Visit various castles and churches built by Fassilidasand his descendants, including the emperor’s palace. The most impressive is Debre Birhan Selassie Church, whose walls and ceilings are intricately decorated with scenes of Biblical lore and medieval history. A swarm of bees is credited for preserving it from the destruction that befell most of Gondar’s churches by marauding Sudanese Dervishes in the 1880s. When their troops appeared outside the church gates, local lore holds that a huge phalanx of bees flew out of the compound and drove them away, a stroke of luck attributed to divine providence. Inside the stone walls and arched doors, the space is filled with biblical scenes, including some 100 faces of whimsical winged cherubs that stare down at us, representing the omnipresent gaze of God.

Eat lunch today at the Four Sisters, a highlight featuring family recipes going back generations. Serving both Ethiopian and Western food, the famous restaurant also features cultural programs, including dance and culinary demonstrations afternoon.

Drive to Simien Mountains National Park, and the road winds through highland pastures and grain fields, eventually reaching the top of a vast plateau. This wild high country, known as the “Roof of Africa”, holds some of the continent’s most dramatic scenery. The Simien Mountains, among the highest ranges in Africa, include Ras Dashen, Ethiopia’s tallest peak at 15,157 feet. Precipitous cliffs, Afro-alpine steppe, tree-studded grasslands and deep canyons define this varied terrain that stuns our senses.

Take a walk in this morning to see geladas, a gregarious species of Old World monkeys found only in the Ethiopian Highlands. Geladas are the only primates that are exclusively grazers living on the grasses of the central plateau. Large and robust, males weigh up to 60 pounds, with a heavy cape of dark hair down their back. Little known and little studied, geladas live in huge troops of several hundred individuals. They are highly social, often rambunctious, and comfortable, allowing us to approach them at close range. They sleep on cliff ledges out of range of nocturnal predators like hyenas, leopards and jackals at night.

Drink in the vast scale of the highland landscape, with magnificent views for miles, and keep an eye out for possible sightings of Walia ibex, klipspringer, etc.

Drive back to Debark for an overnight stay.

Depart from Debark very early to catch our flight to Lalibela, Ethiopia’s cultural crown jewel. A cradle of Ethiopian Christianity, Lalibela is renowned for its magnificent ancient churches and is the scene of many major religious ceremonies. Christianity in Ethiopia dates to the 1st century A.D., the only pre-colonial Christian presence in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. About 60 percent of Ethiopia’s people are Christian, with most of the Orthodox traditions.

See how Lalibela’s mystical rock-hewn churches evoke a profound sense of awe and admiration. Churches below ground level are carved straight from the rock, ringed by trenches and subterranean courtyards and connected by a maze of stone tunnels and passages. Bete Giyorgis is the most famous and most photographed, as it is unobscured by any shelters erected over the site. The churches above ground are equally wondrous feats of engineering, built out of a single hunk of rock using no blocks, bricks, joints, seams or mortar. While individual churches are often built in the shape of a cross, multiple churches also form a larger one.

Spend several hours walking among the churches this afternoon, with Bete Amanuel a highlight. This 36-foot-high monolith is considered by architectural historians to exhibit the finest and most precise workmanship in Lalibela, possibly because it was the private church of the royal family. Bete Medhane is the largest of Lalibela's churches and the largest human-carved monolith globally, while the best-preserved is Bete Markorios, a cave church originally used for secular purposes.

Enjoy a cup, finally. As you know, coffee has long been a hallmark of Ethiopian culture, and the coffee plant originated in Ethiopia. Today, Ethiopia is Africa's top coffee consumer and producer, and coffee exports constitute about 10 percent of the GDP and 60 percent of Ethiopia's foreign income. 

Fly back to Addis.

Enjoy a farewell lunch together on arrival in Addis before checking into the dayrooms at our hotel, offering a chance to refresh and relax before evening transfers to the airport.