Cultural tour of South Ethiopia

Day 1

Addis Ababa city tour

On your arrival, you will be welcomed by our staff, then transferred to your hotel. The name of the capital city of Ethiopia in Amharic (the national language of Ethiopia) means “New flower”.

Addis, which was founded in 1886 by Menelik II, is located 2,500 metres above sea level in one of the highest parts of Entoto mountain chain (3,000 metres above sea level). It enjoys an excellent climate all year round, with an average temperature of 25ºC.

Addis Ababa is a pleasant city with side avenues of jacaranda trees, interesting museums and one of the largest open-air markets in Africa, known as the “Merkato”. It also has a good number of restaurants, hotels and discotheques. A tour of the city will be provided upon request – depending on your energy levels after your long-haul flights!

Day 2

Drive to Arba Minch (515 kms)

On the way to Arba Minch we will visit several different tribes, including the Gurage and Wolaita people. If we leave Addis early enough, we will be able to visit Dorze Village to see the Dorze people with their intricate huts and weavings and their way of living.

Day 3

Drive to Jinka (260 kms)

The Konso cultural landscape is located in a dry, hilly environment at the edge of the Rift Valley in southern Ethiopia. It has always been a relatively isolated area of the country, where life has remained largely unchanged for at least 400 years.

The people live in closely-packed communities of wood-and-mud built thatched dwellings from which they travel out to their fields of millet on a daily basis. The local chief’s hilltop ‘Palace’ comprises a collection of dome-shaped thatched rooms, with covered meeting and work areas, all surrounded by a heavy wooden stockade with narrow gates.

Key Afer is on the road from Arba Minch to Jinka. It is a typical Southern town and is famous for its saturday market, which is attended by all the tribes of the Omo region. It sells a bit of everything, but mostly crafts, bracelets, necklaces, earrings and other jewellery, as well as utensils and spices. It’s great to visit when the weather is not too hot!

Day 4

Excursion to Mago National Park and Mursi

Drive to Mursi Village through Mago National Park. The Park was established in 1979 in order  to conserve the large numbers of plains animals in the area, particularly buffalo, giraffe, and elephant.

Also seen here are topi and lelwel hartebeest, as well as lion, leopard, Burchell’s zebra, gerenuk, and greater and lesser kudu. The birds are also typical of the dry grassland habitat, featuring bustards, hornbills, weavers, and starlings. Kingfishers and herons feed in and around the Neri River, which provides an alternative habitat.

The Mursi people are well known for the large clay discs their women wear, inserted in their lower split lip. From Mursi, we drive to Hamar Village for an evening visit. We stay the night at a local Lodge.

Day 5

Drive Back to Arba Minch (260 kms) and flight to Addis Ababa

After a relaxed breakfast, we drive to Arba Minch, from where your flight to Addis Ababa departs mid-afternoon.

The program refers to our standard tour but it can be varied to fit your needs. Click here to learn more or contact us for more information.

Click here for more information

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Please note

Baregota Tour and Travel’s tours cover the whole of the country. Being a small company, customized tours can be arranged to suit the interests and time available to each client. Also this tour can be varied or combined to fit your requirements.

Addis Ababa options

For this and our other tours, we offer a 1 – 2 day stopover in Addis Ababa, where there are many amazing sights to see.  

If you come in on a long haul overnight flight, this will give you time to recover from your jetlag before heading off on your selected tour.

Please refer to our optional tour of Addis Ababa for details. You can choose whether to spend one or two days in Addis, and also which places you would like to visit. This tour could also be added onto the end of another tour.