Ethiopia tours

Environment

In our company, we’re all for zero contact, zero interaction experiences with wildlife. Wild animals should be viewed in the wild. This trip offers travelers the opportunity to observe wildlife in their natural habitat in the Simien Mountains National Park, particularly the endemic Gelada monkeys, or ‘bleeding heart baboons’. Our leaders are trained to ensure travelers follow a few simple guidelines including not calling out to the animals, whistling or trying to get their attention – noise disturbs them and stresses them out – just let them do their thing. Drivers and guides must never use their vehicles to get an animal to move, or drive off-road to get closer to the action.

In an effort to reduce single-use plastic during this trip we provide reusable cloth bags to all of our travelers. Many Ethiopian hotels and operators provide small bottles of water, making it easy to use plastic excessively. However we provide a water refill station while in the vehicle to refill your existing water bottle. A reusable bottle is highly recommended on this trip.

Water is a precious commodity in this part of the world. Our trained tour leaders are well versed in advising travelers on initiatives to manage water consumption. We encourage travelers to treat this scarce resource with the utmost respect.

Unfortunately on the vast majority of this itinerary, using local transport is not reliable or feasible. So we use private, locally owned transport. We ensure our vehicles/fleets are well maintained and fuel-efficient. We also endeavour to include hiking where possible such as in the Simien Mountains and Lalibela.

Community

This trip is run by our own local Ethiopian operator who shares our commitment to responsible travel, from waste and water management to ensuring we are leaving as minimal a footprint as possible. Our local team are trained on our global responsible travel policies and practices. We also use a range of other local suppliers for different activities throughout this itinerary.

All aspects of this trip (on the ground) are operated by Ethiopians who live locally, including all our leaders, vehicle drivers and local site guides.
An important part of travel is mixing with the locals and experiencing “real life” in the destination. This itinerary includes a dinner where the fresh food is sourced from local farmers and supplies a much needed income to the local economy.

We have a foundation which was set up to empower travelers to have a positive impact on the communities they visit. Our foundation now supports over 50 local, grassroots projects around the world. Over the past 15 years, it has distributed over AU $5 million to projects tackling areas such as sustainable development, human rights, child protection, environmental conservation, wildlife protection, education and healthcare.