One
We publish where we go
A dated map, checked weekly against the UK and US advice. If a zone closes, the routes through it come off sale that day.
See the mapAbout · አቢሲኒያ
Abyssinia,
on its own terms
Abyssinia is the old name for the Ethiopian highlands. We use it because we plan by the country's own calendar and clock, and around its own feasts and seasons.
01 · Who we are
A small company that plans private journeys through Ethiopia's south and east, with Ethiopian guides.
We started with a simple rule: tell people the truth about where it is safe to go. While the UK and US governments advise against travel to the north, we don't sell Lalibela, Gondar or the Simien, however often we are asked. Instead we build trips around the places that are open: Addis Ababa, Harar, the Bale Mountains, the coffee forests, the Rift Valley lakes and the Omo.
Every trip is private. You travel with an Ethiopian guide and driver, sleep in the best rooms each place offers, and move by short domestic flights rather than long drives through areas we would rather avoid.
02 · Four rules
How we work
Two
We plan by the calendar
Feasts, fasts, harvests and rains decide the best dates for each place. We start every plan with your dates in the Ethiopian calendar.
Convert your datesThree
We work with local guides
In Harar a Harari guide, in Konso a Konso guide, in the Omo a guide from the community. Paid properly, and the ones who decide what is appropriate.
Our Omo rulesFour
We don't invent things
No made-up reviews, awards or press quotes on this site. Where we have no photograph of the right place, we show a Ge'ez panel rather than a picture of somewhere else.
Write to us
Email abyssiniajourneys@tourground.com or use the enquiry form. Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:30 UK time.
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