Ethiopia is not like the rest of East Africa. It has its own alphabet, its own calendar, a church going back to the fourth century, and highlands that stay above 2,000m for most of the country. You do not come here for lions. You come for churches cut out of rock, mountain walking, gelada troops on a cliff edge, and food that tastes like nowhere else nearby.
It is also the hardest country in the region to travel in. Roads are slow — a 300km day can take eight hours — domestic flights are the normal way to move between the northern sites, and parts of the north have been unstable since 2020. Read your government's current advice on Amhara, Tigray and Afar before you plan anything, and accept that a route that worked last year may be closed this year.
When to go
| Months | What it is like |
|---|---|
| Oct-Feb | The main travel season. Clear skies, warm days and cold highland nights. October and November are still green from the rains, which is when the mountains look best. |
| Mar-May | The small rains: patchy, mostly in the afternoon, and hotter. Still workable for most of the country. |
| Jun-Sep | The main rains. Mountain trails become mud, dirt roads wash out, and the Danakil is beyond bearable. The highlands are green and empty if you can take being wet. |
| Jan | Two of the largest religious festivals fall this month: Genna, Ethiopian Christmas, on 7 January, and Timkat, Epiphany, on 19 January. Lalibela at Genna and Gondar at Timkat are extraordinary and completely full. Book many months ahead, or travel at another time. |
Before you go
- An e-visa must be applied for online before you travel. Do not count on getting one on arrival. A yellow fever certificate is required if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever occurs.
- Ethiopia runs on its own calendar, several years behind the Gregorian one and with thirteen months, and on a clock that starts counting at dawn — so local 'three o'clock' is nine in the morning. Confirm every time in both systems when you book.
- Cash matters here. The currency is the birr, cards work in a handful of Addis hotels and almost nowhere else, and ATMs outside the larger towns are unreliable. Carry more cash than feels sensible.
- If you fly into Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines you qualify for a much reduced domestic fare. Book the internal flights through the same airline, or you will pay several times more for the same seat.
- Altitude: Addis is around 2,350m and much of the north is higher. Give yourself a day before any hard walking.
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