Planning your holiday to Ethiopia is one of the things you should do at least once in your lifetime. Ethiopia is a country that has many features to see as a tourist. Places, Holidays, Cultures, Nature, and Different ethnicities and people are among the many things to see here. World renown places like Lalibela, Axum, Ert’ale, the Dallol depression, and many more are found in this country.
In this article, I will try to get through some of these sites along with the socio-economic and cultural aspects of the Ethiopian tourism and traveling experience with the understanding that the title is given is talking about vacation/ holiday to Ethiopia.
Many tourists come to this country to see these things. Even though it has not been exploited as much as we can due to many reasons it is a sector that the country can use in the future.
One of my closest friends visited Kenya to do her internship for BBC Africa for one year. She just came back to Ethiopia before a few months and I had a talk with her about her experience in the country.
She told me a great many things but I will share what really stood out for me in our conversations.
Kenya has a great country to be in, Land value is very high and daily necessities are relatively cheaper and accessible to many.
Technologically, a lot has been done to cope up with the current world we live in. Tourism wise a lot has been done. If anyone wants to visit the country online sites and different media can provide enough information detailed enough for someone to plan every single thing to do and what to expect and not to expect. That is a very crucial thing to have as a tourist.
Kenya, that Ethiopia shares borders with, is well known for its tourism policies and its tourist-based economy. It does not have features like ours in abundant quality and even quantity but has found a way to make the best of what they have.
Nairobi, Kenya is a city that has a national park and a metropolitan living, working properly functioning city side by side. Nature-based living and awareness creation on preserving what they have is well thought upon.
Holiday to Ethiopia: each country has its own character.
Ethiopia, on the other hand, has much more natural resources to offer and as listed in the above paragraph many more. We should put that into consideration next time we look for another economic income generator for our country.
According to The Guardian’s Backpacker’s guide through Ethiopia, Ethiopia has astonishing landscapes, ranging from the flat-topped mountains of the north to the otherworldly multicolored salt flats and lava lake of the Erta Ale volcano in the Danakil Depression.
Holiday to Ethiopia: Land of extremes
It also mentions facts about the remains of Lucy – our 3.2 million-year-old ancestor residing in the national museum and the walk through the streets of Piassa to Taitu Hotel, one of the first hotels in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to be built in the time of the Emperor Minilik in the early 1900s.
Holiday to Ethiopia: Life Began here.
Why Plan My Holiday to Ethiopia?
It then proceeds to talk about different cities and sites to see in the northern part of Ethiopia. Cities like Lalibela, Gonder, Bahir dar, lake Tana, The Semien Mountains all the way to Axum with its Stelae park and palaces along with the churches and caves and cities in the Tigray region.
Holiday to Ethiopia: each city has its own unique attractions.
As we can clearly see the country has a very wide range of features on just one route, of course we can not neglect the fact that this specific route has most of the attraction points in Ethiopia, but even on this northern route from Addis Ababa to Tigray region through the Amara lands there are many more to see. Many more rock hewen churches, the semien highlands are some of the other features to see.
When we go to the south of Addis, we have even more things to see as tourists. most of the natural features are found in this part of the country.
As we go south, we find different ethnicities and cultures as well. The south nations and nationalities have the most diverse type of nations and nationalities and with this comes different clothing styles, different foods, and different types of housing and Architecture.
Holiday to Ethiopia: South is culture.
Natural features as we go to the south grow denser as the weather changes due to the proximity to the equator. Features like the Mago National Park, Omo National park, Chebera Churchura national park, the Crocodile market, the Bale Mountains, and the park, and so many more.
To go through some of these places we can see the Mago national park, according to Google’s things to do in the southern nations, nationalities and people’s region, Mago National Park is one of the National Parks of Ethiopia.
Holiday to Ethiopia: Any wild animal you need to see is here.
Located in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region about 782 kilometers south of Addis Ababa and north of a large 90° bend in the Omo River, the 2162 square kilometers of this park are divided by the Mago River, a tributary of the Omo, into two parts.
It goes on to tell about the west part, which is the Tama Wildlife Reserve, with the Tama river. And to the south is the Murle Controlled Hunting Area, distinguished by Lake Dipa which stretches along the left side of the lower Omo. It then goes on explaining deeply into the specific features it has.
Another onew we can see is the Bale Mountains and the Bale national park, according to the official site if the park, the park is located 400km southeast of Addis Ababa, the park contains a spectacularly diverse landscape feature.
Holiday to Ethiopia: Trekking
The very high altitude, afro-montane Sanetti Plateau rises that can go well over 4,000m also includes the highest peak in the southern Ethiopia highlands. This undulating plateau is well known for its numerous glacial lakes and swamps. The plateau is also surrounded by higher volcanic ridges and peaks. The southern slopes are covered by the lush and largely unexplored Harenna Forest.
Holiday to Ethiopia: climb marvelous landscapes.
Another one we could take as an example is the Omo national park. This park is a very good example of what we have but the problems of accessibility. The Omo National Park, located on the west bank of the Omo River, the park covers approximately 4,068 square kilometers, about 870 kilometers southwest of Addis Ababa; across the Omo is the Mago National Park.
The site tells us it is not a very accessible park for tourists (eventhough an airstrip was built next to it) to the limit that another site the Lonely Planet guide Ethiopia and Eritrea describes Omo National Park as “Ethiopia’s most remote park.”
Holiday To Ethiopia: Culture
The lower reaches of the Omo river were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, after the discovery of the earliest known fossil fragments of Homo sapiens, which have been dated circa 195,000 years old. The site also tells us the park has no facilities for toursits and even roads leading to the park, yet it has many more things to see.
Holiday to Ethiopia: UNESCO registered attractions.
These natural features and social aspects aside, there are many holidays and events that can be tourist attractions. According to the rating of awazetours.com, Enkutatash – Ethiopian New Year, Ethiopian Christmas – Genna, Fasika – Easter, Meskel – Finding of the True Cross and Timkat – Ethiopian Epiphany are some of the major holiday Ethiopia.
Just like we did on the tourist destinations we shall see some of these holidays as well. Enkutatash, this festival or holiday Ethiopia celebrates both the new year and the feast of John the Baptist by the end of the long summer rains (rainy summers in Ethiopia on the contrary of hot summers in the northern hemisphere), when the Highlands are covered with wildflowers called Adey Ababas.
Ethiopian children, wearing brand-new clothes their parents bought them, dance through the villages with the hoya hoye dance for the boys and enkutatash dance.
The girls giving bouquets of flowers and paintings like flowers and other things to each household and in return getting elder blessings and cultural bread called mulmul bread, even though the culture of giving out the bread is growing lesser by the day due to many reasons, one of them being modern living conditions, these days the kids receive some amount of money and of course blessings from elders.
A holiday to Ethiopia: Celebration
The other one is Meskel. Meskel is one of the major Ethiopian Orthodox festivals is celebrated for two days beginning September 26th then extends to the 27th. Legend has it that in the year 326, Queen Helena (Empress Helen) the Mother of Constantine the Great, discovered the cross upon which Christ was crucified directed by the smoke from a burning fire.
Holiday to Ethiopia: Unique religious celebrations
The holiday Ethiopia is to celebrate the memory of this event. There are two main events on Meskel according to tradition. The first is Demera (September 26th), in which bonfires or locally known as demera are built with dry woods and sticks topped by a cross to which flowers which are Meskel Daisies or locally known as Adey Abebas.
The second part (September 27th) is the Meskel day, Families and loved ones gather around at home to feast on cultural foods like Doro wet, tibs, kitfo and defo Dabo in memory of the even Queen Helena did.
To conclude the idea of this whole paper, Ethiopia is a very diverse country.
This can be seen in tourist destinations, tourist attractions, socioeconomic and cultural events, and many more. It has not been exploited as much as it should be like given examples i.e. Kenya. Working in that aspect can be good for the country and the overall economic benefit for the people and the country as a whole.
Summary, Holiday to Ethiopia
If you plan to have a good holiday trip, travel to Ethiopia, then you choose right. You will find a good place to visit, places to rest and think, or places that you can enjoy with family.
Many trousts enjoy Holiday to Ethiopia for various reasons.
- A holiday to Ethiopia: Trekking
- A holiday to Ethiopia: Private time
- A holiday to Ethiopia: Historic features
- A holiday to Ethiopia: Cultural features
- A holiday to Ethiopia: Wild Life and Plants
- Holiday to Ethiopia: Family time and more
