700$
Ethiopia Grand Historic Tours
Tour Code: ITO – 0001
Duration: 9N | 10D
Transportation: Drive and Flight
Tour Cover: Addis Ababa, Bahirdar, Gondar, Lalibela, Semien Mountains, Axum, Tigray Rock Churches, Denakil Depression
Day 1: Arrival and Addis Ababa City Tour
Date: Thursday, Dec 31, 2020
Up on arrival at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, you will be met by our tour representative and drive to hotel. Depending on your arrival time, you will have Addis Ababa city tour. Addis Ababa sightseeing will include Mount Entoto for the panoramic view of Addis Ababa ,National museum: home for the oldest and famous hominid fossil ‘Lucy’, Trinity cathedral church, Ethnographic museum the then palace of Emperor Hailesillasie known as little Ethiopia and Merkato: the biggest open air market in East Africa. Along the way you will visit significant historical monument of Addis Ababa.
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Overnight: Hotel
Day 2: Bahirdar City Tours
Date: Friday, JAN 01, 2021
Transfer to the airport and fly to Bahirdar by ET 126 at 07:10 arrives at 08:15. After check in to the hotel, set out for a boat trip on Lake Tana to see beautiful island monasteries and their valuable treasures which include biblical wall paintings, crowns of different Ethiopian Kings, ancient illuminated parchment books, superb crosses etc. In the afternoon, you will have excursion on a rough road to the magnificent Blue Nile Falls. It is about 400 meter wide with full flood (in June, July and August to mid-September).
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Overnight: Hotel
Day 3: Gondar City Tours
Saturday, JAN 02, 2021
After breakfast we will checkout from hotel and proceed to Gondar by passing through some of the rural villages, offering wonderful insight into the Amhara culture. After lunch, we visit the royal enclosures of Fassil Ghibe and all the castles of the Gonderian emperors as well as the famous Debre Birhan Selassie church, which is completely covered in murals, with the Angele’s faces on the wooden ceiling that have become a trademark of Ethiopian art and design.
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Overnight: Hotel
Day 4: Excursion to Simien Mountains
Sunday, JAN 03, 2021
After breakfast we drive to the jagged panorama of the Simien Mountains National Park, famed for its exclusive landscape, afro-alpine vegetation and unique wildlife. Due to its unique landscape and its endemic fauna the park has been declared a UNESCO world nature heritage site in 1996. In the park, you may experience the very close interaction with the friendly Gelada Baboons. We drive up to Sankaber (3’220m) and admire the impressive scenery with its deep gorges and valleys and the highest waterfall in Ethiopia. Here a gentle walk would take us about 2 hours. We hope to encounter further endemic animals, such as the Walia Ibex and the Simien fox. In the late afternoon, we will return to Debark, where we will spend the night.
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Overnight: Hotel
Day 5: Visit of King Lalibela’s Rock Churches
Monday, JAN 04, 2021
After breakfast transfer to the aiport and fly to Lalibela. After check in to the hotel you will explore the rock hewnc church of Lalibela. The Rock-Hewn Ethiopian orthodox Christian churches of Lalibela, are one of the eight wonders of the world. The connecting walls are full of religious symbols. The city contains 11 monolithic churches that were built in the 12th century. Some are beautifully painted inside. Visit the first and the third group of churches, they include seven rock churches. After lunch visit the second group of four rock churches. After diner you will visit cultural houses and be entertained with Ethiopian traditional music and you can taste Ethiopian honey vine.
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Overnight: Hotel
Day 6: Axum City tour
Tuesday, JAN 05, 2021
After breakfast fly to Axum, after check into the hotel, you will have a city tour in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Legends narrate in the Kebre Nagast (Book of Kings) how the city of Axum as early as the 10th century B.C. was already the city where the Queen of Sheba resided. It is told that the son of Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, Menelik, brought the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Axum and it remained there to this day, preserved in a sanctuary. Famous long before the time of Christ, Axum was the capital of the long Axumite reign, one of the oldest African empires and represented a crucial trade connecting-point between Africa and Asia for almost a thousand years. Visit the Granite stone Stele of Axum, the Tombs of King Kaleb and his son King G/Meskel, the Ezana’s stone inscriptions, Queen of Sheba’s palace and Swimming pool, and the Church of Zion, the final resting place of the True Ark of Covenant.
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Overnight: Hotel
Day 7: Visit of Tigray rock Churches
Wednesday, JAN 06, 2021
After breakfast, today we continue our journey through breathtaking scenery of Adwa. On the way we first visit Adwa, Yeha Temple then Debredamo; the oldest structure found in Ethiopia. The Adwa Mountains have been in the hearts and minds of Ethiopians for the last 100 years. In 1896, Ethiopians beat back the colonial efforts of Italy in the first ever victory of an all-African army against a European army. The mountains were famous for giving the Ethiopian fighters plenty of hiding places in the craggy, quartzite peaks (sometimes very similar to Utah quartzite). Some 55 km east of Axum, this is the most important pre-Axumite site and perhaps Ethiopia’s oldest capital. The 5th century BC Temple at Yeha, displaying incredible skills in stonework, is the oldest building still standing in Ethiopia. Continue driving to Debredamo, which is accessible only by rope and not allowed for women. The most famous Debre Damo monastery is built in the 6th century A.D. as locals tell you, only accessible by climbing a steep cliff using a rope. For ages and ages, monks have been living here a retired, self-sufficient life. The monastery is only accessible to men. The biggest church is built in the Axumite style with beautiful carved wooden panels on the beams and ceiling.
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Overnight: Hotel
Day 8: Tigray Rock Churches (Abune Yemata)
Thursday, JAN 07, 2021
After early breakfast we drive from Wukro to Hawzen to visit one of the Gerealta rock churches called Abuna Yemata Guh. This church is is one of around 120 Tigray churches that were carved into cliff faces, caves and improbable plateaus between the 4th and 15th centuries. The lofty perches were chosen we’re told for their natural protection against enemies of the Church. After lunch drive to Mekele.
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Overnight: Hotel
Day 9: Visit of Denakil Depression
Friday, JAN 08, 2021
After early breakfast excursion to Dallol (116 meter below sea level, one of the lowest places in the world) where lakes of acid form colorful sulfur formation in the hottest and deepest part of Danakil depression and Look the activity of breaking the salt from the ground, cutting in to rectangular pieces and loading on camels for long caravan and visit the difference landscape formed by volcanic activity, Lake Assal, camel caravans, Acidic ponds, etc. After lunch drive back to Mekele.
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Overnight: Hotel
Day 10:
Saturday, JAN 09, 2021
In the morning transfer to the airport and fly back to Addis. Upon arrival in the capital city, your will have time for cultural shopping of souvenirs and Coffee. In the evening you will be invited Ethiopian dinner in one of the best traditional restaurants of Addis Ababa with a show of folkdances and songs of the different Ethiopian people. After dinner, it is time to say heartfelt goodbyes!! and proceed to the Airport to take the flight for your country with sweet memories.
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Day use room
Package Price
- 00 USD/person
- Estimated domestic flight: Addis – Bahirdar/Gondar – Lalibela- Axum/Mekele – Addis would be about 250.00 USD/person
Price Includes
- 9 Nights’ accommodation on double bed basis
- All Meals (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner) on full board basis
- All entrance fees according to the tour program
- Transfer from/to airport
- All ground transportation throughout the tour
- English speaking guide services
- Scout on the simian Mountains
- Boat trip on Lake Tana
- Government Tax
Price doesn’t include
- Alcoholic drinks
- Any service in Addis Ababa
- Video and camera fees if and where applicable
- Entrance fees to any special ceremonies you might encounter by chance
- Tips, telephone calls, laundry services and other expenses of personal nature
- Non specified meals
- International and Domestic flight