The Ethiopia air safari will start and end in Addis Ababa. This is a historic and cultural 7 day African safari in Ethiopia. You will visit the beautiful monasteries. You’ll also have time to get into the museums and markets.
About the 7 Day Ethiopia Air Safari
This Ethiopia air safari enables you to interact with the different cultures and sceneries. You’ll not miss Lalibela on this 7 day Ethiopia safari. Lalibela is inexcusably the most scenic place in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopia air safari will start and end in Addis Ababa. This is a historic and cultural 7 day African safari in Ethiopia. You will visit the beautiful monasteries. You’ll also have time to get into the museums
Highlights About of the 7 Day Ethiopia Air Safari
- Lake Tana Monasteries and Blue Nile Falls in Bahir Dar
- Royal Compound and Debre Birhan Selassie church in Gondar
- Famous rock-hewn churches of Lalibela
- National Museum, merkato, Entoto Mountain in Addis Ababa
Detailed 7 Day Ethiopia Air Safari Itinerary
Day 1: Addis Ababa
You will be met on arrival at Bole International Airport. Our Ethiopia safari rep will help with the arrival. You will then be transferred to your hotel in Addis Ababa. You will have time to settle in and be briefed on your Ethiopia air safari.
Today you have a city tour of Addis Ababa. You will enjoy a tour to Entoto Mountain. This was the capital of Ethiopia before Addis Ababa. The tour takes you to Merkato that is said to be Africa’s largest open-air market.
You will also visit the National Museum. This is home of Lucy, hominid skeleton dating back 3.2 million years. In the evening you’ll enjoy a traditional Ethiopian dinner. This comes with cultural music and dance show. Your overnight will be at Ghion Hotel.
Day 2: Addis Ababa – Bahir Dar
Your day on the Ethiopia air safari will start early. This will be with breakfast at your hotel. This is to be followed by a transfer to the airport. You will be in time for the morning flight to Bahir Dar.
You will be met by our guide upon arrival and transferred to your hotel. Later you’ll embark on a boat trip on Lake Tana. You’ll explore the monasteries hidden on the shores and islands of Lake Tana. In the afternoon you’ll go out of town to the Blue Nile Falls. This will be for an easy hike in the area.
You’ll end the day with a sunset over Lake Tana from the top of Bezawit Hill. This is next to the former palace of Haile Selassie. Your overnight in Bahir Dar will be at Tana Hotel.
Day 3: Bahir Dar – Gondar
You will begin your day with an early breakfast on this Ethiopia air safari. This will be followed by departure from your hotel in Bahir Dar. You will be driving north to Gondar. The drive will take you through rural villages. The villages offer wonderful insight into the Amhara culture. You’ll get to interact with their traditional agricultural methods still in use today.
You are expected at your Gondar hotel before lunch time. The afternoon will be spent exploring the sites of Gondar. They include the Royal Enclosure, with six castles and several other buildings. Additionally you’ll visit Fasilidas’s Pool, still used for Timket celebrations today.
There is also the Debre Birhan Selassie church. It has the most famous ceiling in Ethiopia. You’ll sleep in Gondar at the Goha Hotel. This is set on a hill overlooking the town of Gondar.
Day 4: Gondar – Lalibela
You’ll start the day on Ethiopia air safari with an early breakfast. This will be followed by a transfer to the airport. Enjoy the morning flight onto Lalibela. This is the most famous of all the Ethiopian historical sites.
After lunch, begin to explore the 11 rock-hewn churches of the remarkable king Lalibela. You’ll first visit the Northwestern Cluster of churches. They are Bet Medhane Alem, Bet Maryam and Bet Meskel. You also have Bet Danaghel, Bet Mikael and Bet Golgotha.
Entry is not permitted for women at Bet Golgotha. Your overnight in Lalibela will be at Alief Paradise Hotel.
Day 5: Lalibela
You’ll spend the full day of Ethiopia air in safari in Lalibela. The morning will be spent on a trip to the church of Yimrehanne Kristos. It is the most popular of the churches outside of Lalibela. This church is built with layers of wood and granite. It is set in the entrance to a large cavern.
Your Ethiopia air in safari will return to Lalibela for lunch break. You’ll have the afternoon visiting the Southeastern Cluster of churches. They include Bet Gabriel-Rufael, Bet Merkorios, Bet Amanual, and Bet Abba Libanos.
You cannot complete Ethiopia fly in safari without visiting Bet Giyorgis. It is the most famous Ethiopian church. It was constructed in honor of the patron saint of Ethiopia – Saint George. Overnight will be in Lalibela at Alief Paradise Hotel.
Day 6: Lalibela – Addis Ababa
You will wake up to your breakfast in the hotel. This is before your Ethiopia air safari venture out. You will visit the nearby monastery of Na’akuto La’ab. This is set on the side of a cliff.
This will be followed by a transfer to the airport. You will be there in time for the 1150hrs flight to Addis Ababa. Here you’ll be met and transferred to your Addis Ababa hotel. You will have your overnight at Ghion Hotel.
Day 7: Departure
You’ll have the morning of this Ethiopia air safari at leisure. You’ll be picked up for a transfer to the Bole International Airport. This is in time for your departure flight from Ethiopia.
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7 Day Ethiopia Air Safari Costs:
What is included in the 7 Day Ethiopia Air Safari cost?
- All transfer in and out
- All Domestic flights
- All transport in Addis Ababa, Bahir dar, Gonder and Laliblea
- Professional English Speaking guide
- Hotel Room on Double Occupancy basis (i.e sharing a Double room) including Breakfast
- All entrance fees, local guide fee, scout, and boat fees
- Bottled natural water every day
- Service tax.
7 Day Ethiopia Air Safari Price excludes:
- Personal expenses (tips, photo and video fees, phone calls, table drinks, laundry, etc.)
- Meals (lunch and dinner)
- Any other services/expenses not mentioned above.
What to Carry on the 7 Day Ethiopia Air Safari
- Light and a few heavy clothing for evenings
- Closed, comfortable shoes
- Sun protection like sun cream, hat
7 Day Ethiopia Air Safari Destinations
Addis Ababa
The 7 day Ethiopia air safari starts from the capital city. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s sprawling capital in the highlands bordering the Great Rift Valley, is the country’s commercial and cultural hub.
This Ethiopia air safari allows you to visit the National Museum exhibits. Here you get to enjoy Ethiopian art, traditional crafts and prehistoric fossils, including replicas of the famous early hominid, “Lucy.”
There is also the burial place of the 20th-century emperor Haile Selassie, copper-domed Holy Trinity Cathedral, is a neo-baroque architectural landmark. Othe places include Merkato, Africa’s largest open air market.
Addis Ababa is also known as Finfinne (Oromo: Finfinne “natural spring”). According to the 2007 census, the city has a population of 2,739,551 inhabitants.
As a chartered city, Addis Ababa also serves as the capital city of the Oromia Regional State. It is where the African Union is headquartered and where its predecessor the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was based.
It also hosts the headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). There are various other continental and international organizations.
Addis Ababa is therefore often referred to as “the political capital of Africa” for its historical, diplomatic and political significance for the continent.
The city lies a few miles west of the East African Rift which splits Ethiopia into two, through the Nubian Plate and the Somali Plate.
“Addis,” as it’s often simply known, is the world’s third-highest capital city at 2,400 meters. It has worn its heart on its sleeve since it was founded by Ethiopian Emperor Menelik about 1892.
Life is lived very much outdoors on its bustling streets thanks to comfortable temperate weather. This is boosted by months of nonstop sunshine in this East African destination.
Bahir Dar
Bahir Dar is the capital city of the Amhara region in northern Ethiopia. The 7 day Ethiopia air safari will be going to a port on the south shore of the huge inland Lake Tana. Dek Island is one of many islands in the lake that are home to medieval monasteries.
Bahir Dar is one of the twelve cities that was conferred the UNESCO Learning Cities Award 2015. Bahir Dar shares its key ideas of building a learning city in this interview series entitled, ‘12 Cities – 12 Perspectives’.
The city of Bahir Dar sits on the southern shores of Lake Tana, in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region. It is an attractive, hospitable city that serves as a base for visiting a number of attractions in the surrounding region, most notably the Blue Nile Falls and Lake Tana.
On the Zege Peninsula, the Ura Kidane Mihret monastery is known for its elaborate, colorful murals. The Blue Nile River snakes southeast of the city toward the towering cliffs at the Blue Nile Falls.
The main attraction of the region on your Ethiopia air safari is Lake Tana. It is famous for its thirty-seven scattered islands, housing many beautiful churches and monasteries.
The churches, which are spread across twenty of the thirty-seven islands and peninsulas, are for the most part accessible only by boat. Most are 400 and 800 years old, though there are also structures on the islands which are thought to pre-date Christianity.
Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile, Bahir Dar’s other great attraction, which flows from Ethiopia to Sudan.
The Falls can be seen year-round, but are best visited shortly after the rainy season. This will enable those on Ethiopia air safari see them at their best, when the surrounding landscape is beautiful and green and the falls in full flow.
Gondar
The Ethiopia air safari head to Gondar, or Gonder, is a city in northern Ethiopia. It’s known for the walled Fasil Ghebbi fortress and palace compound, once the seat of Ethiopian emperors. Dominating it is the immense 17th-century castle of Emperor Fasilides, which combines Portuguese, Indian and local architectural styles.
Outside the complex is Debre Berhan Selassie church, with an interior of elaborate murals, including a ceiling of faces.
The so-called Camelot of Africa, Gondar is perhaps the most immediately impressive town along the historical circuit. It is studded as it is with fairy-tale castles, venerable churches and other substantial European-influenced buildings dating from its 17th- and 18th-century heyday.
Imposing as they might be, however, Gondar’s handsome antiquities are arguably less intriguing. It is enduringly memorable than their more genuinely ancient and mysterious counterparts at Axum and Lalibela.
Ethiopia air safari will take you on a tour to the ancient capital of Ethiopia (1632-1855). Gondar retains an atmosphere of charm that’s mingled with an aura of mystery.
Hidden high in the verdant mountains, Gondar appears as a fairy-tale. Hiding behind tall stone fortifications are fantastic castles and flamboyant churches, so impressive that the historical city has earned the nickname ‘Camelot of Africa’.
Take Fasil Ghebbi, home to the country’s emperors during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site that proves the prowess of the old royal family with 20 palaces and many magnificent monasteries.
Then there’s Debre Berhan Selassie, from the outside a small, simple church but as you enter each of its walls has been painted with wide-eyed angels that have been exceptionally preserved, making it one of the finest, most colorful churches in Ethiopia.
A short stroll away on your Ethiopia air safari is one of the city’s most peaceful spots, Fasiladas Bath. Shaded by trees, the rectangular building is moated by a pool.
Once a year, during the festival of Timkat, its waters comes alive with leaps and splashes of hundreds of people during the religious celebration. If you happen to be on Ethiopia air safari during the time, you can join in the festivities.
Lalibela
This will be the final destination of the 7 day Ethiopia air safari. Lalibela is a town in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia.
It’s known for its distinctive rock-cut churches dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, which are pilgrimage sites for Coptic Christians.
Carved out of rock, the subterranean monoliths include huge Bete Medhane Alem, and cross-shaped Bete Giyorgis. Many are joined by tunnels and trenches, and some have carved bas-reliefs and colored frescoes inside.
Built high above much of the rest of the country, Lalibela has grown up in isolation. As a result, the stark grandeur of the surrounds and unusual architecture of the circular, two-storey houses clinging to the mountains would be worth a visit even without the churches.
However, the stone-hewn churches are the main reason to visit this area on this Ethiopia air safari. These enormous structures reach great heights and are connected by mazes of passages and tunnels.
Your Ethiopia air safari guide will take you on a tour from the northwestern Bet Medhane Alem, the largest monolithic rock-hewn church in the world at 11.5m high, to the southern Bet Mercurios, a 1400 year old cave church occupied by white-robed priests who live as hermits.
The site is an active Christian place of worship. The churches are the spiritual centre of the town and are not hidden away for preservation, or dressed up for tourists.
Many of these churches are below ground level and the town beats to the rhythm of the drums and chants sung by the hermit priests.
