Day 1: Arrival at Addis Ababa, City tour

Welcome to Ethiopia! Arrive at Addis Abeba Bole International Airport. Here you will be greeted by your tour guide or driver from Ecotravel Ethiopia Tours. Then you will be transferred to hotel. Then your trip will start with a drive to Entoto mountain, Addis Ababa's highest mountain, is located on the outskirts of the city. With its very rural flair and the scent of the forests, it is the ideal place to arrive calmly after your flight. For acclimatization, you take a short walk through the eucalyptus forests (approx. 1 hour in flat terrain). Up here, a fascinating overview of this growing metropolis of Ethiopia awaits us. The scent of the eucalyptus forests invites you to stay. In one of the coffee houses you enjoy our first Ethiopian coffee from the charcoal fire. Afterwards, you visit the Derg Museum, which deals with the time of the Red Terror in Ethiopia in the 1970/80s and is one of the best, though sad, museums in the city.

Overnight: Golden Tulip Hotel

Day 2: The Great African Rift & Menelik II. palace

Today you leave the bustling metropolis and drive through the Ethiopian highlands to Ankober, the old Ethiopian capital. On the way you pass through the flat and densely populated agricultural areas of the highlands. After lunch in Debre Birhan the road turns east towards Ankober. The last kilometers to the lodge you hike along the old imperial trade route with a wide view into the African Rift Valley. On the way to the Rift Valley you have a good chance to see the first birds of pray or even the endemic blood-breasted baboons. The village Ankober is situated on a mountain with great views into the surrounding lowlands of Eastern Ethiopia. After a short ascent to the mountain where the Emperors Palace was build, you move into your room in the Ankober Palace Lodge, a replica of the palace of Emperor Menelik II. (19th century). In the evening you dine imperially in the large dining room of the lodge and sit together around the campfire during a typical Ethiopian coffee ceremony to escape the coolness of the night.

Overnight: Ankober Palace Loge.

Day 3: Menz Guassa Conservation Area

Today a gravel road brings you to the high plateau of Menz Guassa. On the way you make stops and look down into the lowlands at breathtaking viewpoints. Here it is always a good idea to walk some parts of the route. There is the possibility to walk the last kilometers to the accommodation and thus to go on a game walk for antelopes and the rare Ethiopian wolf in the nature reserve. At 3,100 meters you finally reach the Guassa Plateau, a unique ecosystem more intact than that of the famous Simien Mountains. The next two nights you will stay in a self-catering Eco-lodge built in the traditional style, which is part of an ecotourism project.

Overnight: Menz Guassa community Lodge

Day 4: Menz Guassa Conservation Area

From the lodge you explore the surroundings on foot and learn more about the flora and fauna in Menz and an interesting nature conservation project once implemented by the Frankfurt Zoological Society to protect the highland ecosystem and support the farmers, here on the high plateau. Finally you reach the escarpment with views into the valleys 1,500 meters below. Here dozens of blood-breasted baboons can be observed. you can join these peaceful animals without hesitation. With a little luck you can also admire the shy Ethiopian wolves and other mountain dwellers. In the afternoon you stop at a farmers house for a cup of coffee. In the evening you enjoy this unique mountain world and doze into a restful silent night under the endless Ethiopian starry sky.

Overnight: Menz Guassa community Lodge.

Day 5: Drive to Dessie

Today the road winds over impressive serpentines down to almost 2,000 meters and you drive through green valleys where the farmers irrigate their fields with the river waters coming from the highlands. After 40 km of gravel road you reach the paved highway heading north. Here in the lowlands you see an Ethiopia that is very different from the one you have seen so far. You meet camels and the temperatures often rise above 35 degrees Celsius. The landscapes here are drier and predominantly inhabited by Muslims. These areas were once characterized by famines and droughts. Today they are a flourishing oasis with a lot of agriculture. Also the bird life is getting really colorful for the first time during your trip. Ethiopia's lowlands are one of the most bird rich habitats in the world. Along the way you have a lunch break before stopping in Dessie for an overnight stay.

Overnight: Golden Gate Hotel

Day 6: Continue to Lalibela

You leave the lowlands and drive from Dessie back to the highlands. Still in the morning you head for Lake Hayk, a green oasis and ideal place for bird watching. During your coffee break here you can watch all kinds of water birds, parakeets and kingfishers. For lunch you stop at the home of an Ethiopian family. Afterwards you continue your journey westwards to the mountainous regions of Wollo and Lasta: for centuries the heartland of the Ethiopian emperors and Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity. In the evening you finally reach the holy town of Lalibela and relax with a delicious dinner with a view of the Lasta Mountains.

Overnight: Mezena Lodge

Day 7: Visit the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela & climb to Hudad

Lalibela is one of the most important pilgrimage centers for Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia and is known for its 800-year-old monolithic rock churches, which were chiseled into the soft tuff stone from top to bottom and from the outside to the inside in decades of detailed work. You will spend the morning sightseeing, walking through dark tunnels from one church to the next. Lunch in the city. In the late afternoon you start your hike to a small Eco-lodge in picturesque scenery above the city. Sustainable tourism, appreciation of the local culture and nature, fresh food and friendly service are the principles followed by the staff and the community of Lalibela Hudad. The remote Hudad Lodge is an oasis in the nature with 360 degree mountain panorama and will be the starting point for the hikes in the following days and can only be reached on foot or by mule.

Overnight: Hudad Eco-Lodge

Day 8: Hike to Asheten Mariam Church

The lodge is far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Up here you experience the Ethiopian country life and pure nature. After an invigorating breakfast you start the half day tour to the nearby table mountain of Asheten. At the top you visit the Asheten Mariam Monastery with its up to 800 years old parchment writings and crosses, which are shown to you by a priest. Once the rock churches of Lalibela were supposed to be built up there, but finally the kings in the old days decided in favor of the lower situated and better accessible Lalibela. The hike is rewarded with great views over the region.

Overnight: Hudad Eco-Lodge.

Day 9: Hudad Villages

Today you will make another excursion to the nearby high plateau and its villages, with the focus on meeting the farmers. During the half-day round trip you will immerse yourself in their culture and have the opportunity to get an insight into the simple dwellings of the farmers. During the visit of the villages you will be welcomed with a traditional foot-washing, which is prepared for guests up here.

Overnight: Hudad Eco-Lodge

Day 10: Excursion to Yemrehanna Christos Church

After breakfast you start your descend to Lalibela and drive to the Yemrehanna Christos church (about 42 km). This church is built in the style of late Axumite architecture and with its beautiful frescoes in the middle of a cave is a real insider tip. Together you visit the cemetery with the grave of Saint Yemrehanna. At the church the group meets again and drives back to Lalibela together. Here you will have dinner together at sunset with views over the Lasta Mountains.

Overnight: Mezena Lodge

Day 11: Drive to Bahir Dar, on the way Awra Amba community

On today's travel day to Bahir Dar you visit the village of the godless Awra Amba along the way. About 400 people live here in a community that has renounced the faith in order to be happy together. You get to know Zumra Nuru, the founder of the community, and visit the old people's home, the weaving mill, the library and the village school. Awra Amba is a cooperative project with a moving and poor past, which has now worked its way up to a certain level of prosperity. A prosperity that is not always seen as benevolent by the neighboring villages. An exciting excursion that will raise many questions. In the evening you reach Bahir Dar at Lake Tana after a long driving day from Lalibela.

Overnight: Blue Nile Resort

Day 12: Lake Tana and its monasteries

Bahir Dar is located on the southern shore of Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia. The lake is a habitat for more than 300 different bird species and numerous mammals. In the morning you take a boat trip across Lake Tana past island monasteries and numerous bird colonies that use some of the islands for breeding. Arriving on the Zeghe Peninsula, you will walk through the coffee forest, which for centuries has enabled the inhabitants to survive by selling the delicious beans. Through the undergrowth, shaded by mighty acacia trees, you walk through the forest and finally reach the Ura Kidane Miheret Church with paintings from the 17th and 18th century. After a picnic on the lake shore you return to the mainland. The afternoon is at leisure.

Overnight: Blue Nile Resort

Day 13: Journey to Gondar

The old town of Gondar is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the castles are also called the 'Camelot of Africa'. Today you visit these old palaces, as well as the bath house and the Debre Birhan Selassie Church, one of the most beautifully painted churches in the country.

Overnight: Haile Resort Gondar

Day 14: Drive to simien mountains National Park

After breakfast drive to Simien Mountain National Park. Debark is a small market town at an altitude of 2700 meters close to the boundary of the Simien Mountains National Park. Corrugated–iron–roofed buildings surround the colourful and busy market area. Before entering the park, you have to register at the park headquarters just outside town. Here, armed scout one of the park regulations, joins you. Then drive to Sankaber for the best view. En route, pass through pretty country, the foothills of the Semen Mountains, with carefully tended field, open pasture with grazing horses, stands of trees and distant rocky peaks. At the high point of the road, there are superb views across the weirdly eroded foothills of the range and you may also be lucky enough to spot you first Lammergeiers and Gelada Baboons of the trip.

Overnight: Simien Lodge

Day 15: Community Tours in Simien Mountains

You will spend most of the time participating in community work. Some of the community works are local beer making, injera baking, coffee ceremony, blacksmith, and more. You will try almost everything the local people do in their daily life. Finally, you will drive back to Gondar and take a flight to Addis Ababa. A dinner rounds off your travel experience and you leave for the return flight to home.