Cultural journeys
The week between the holidays in the Omo Valley and walled Harar, with New Year’s Eve dinner back in Addis Ababa.
Overview
Ethiopia celebrates Christmas on 7 January, so the last week of December here is ordinary working time, and that is its gift. You spend it in two places that look nothing alike. In the Lower Omo, Mursi, Hamer and Karo families host visits with a local guide; you ask before any photograph and pay fees to the person directly. In Harar, a walled Muslim city on UNESCO’s list, men feed wild hyenas by hand at dusk.
Between them, New Year’s Eve dinner in Addis Ababa. Expect heat and rough roads in the south.
Itinerary
Your guide meets you at Bole International Airport on Saturday 26 December, in the city that hosts the African Union. In the evening, over a welcome coffee ceremony and dinner, your guide walks the group through the week.
Activities
The morning starts in the National Museum’s human-origins gallery, with casts of Lucy (3.2 million years old) and Selam, the child found at Dikika (about 3.3 million years old), then Haile Selassie’s tomb at Holy Trinity Cathedral. After lunch we climb to Entoto, Menelik II’s capital before he founded the city below in 1886.
Activities
A morning flight takes you to Jinka, the market town of South Omo. In the afternoon Ari families show you their farms, where coffee, enset and clay pots shape the day. The group travels in several 4x4s, so visits stay small.
Activities
An early, rough road into Mago National Park brings you to a Mursi village, visited with a local guide who knows the families. Ask before any photograph and pay the fee directly. The afternoon road runs south through Dimeka to Turmi.
Activities
At Korcho, the Karo village stands on a bluff above a bend of the Omo River. Late in the afternoon you visit a Hamer family near Turmi as the cattle come home.
Activities
Thursday is market day in Key Afer, where people from the surrounding hills trade grain, honey and goats. From Jinka the afternoon flight returns you to Addis Ababa, in time for New Year’s Eve dinner with the group.
Activities
A late-morning flight to Dire Dawa and an hour’s drive bring you up to Harar. Your Harari guide leads you through the old gates into the Jugol’s painted lanes. At about 6:30 pm, at the edge of town, the hyena men call wild hyenas by name and feed them by hand.
Activities
The morning belongs to Harar’s own markets: the busy Shewa Gate market, then the old-town lanes of spices and woven baskets. After lunch, Rimbaud House and a traditional Harari home, its walls hung with baskets and enamel plates.
Activities
We drive down to Dire Dawa for the flight to Addis Ababa, where we transfer you to your international flight, or to a hotel if you stay on for Genna on 7 January.
Activities
Itineraries can change with weather, road and flight conditions. We will tell you promptly if they do.
Gallery
Photo: Unsplash
Good to know
Dress code: Light, loose clothing that covers shoulders and knees, in the Omo villages and in conservative Harar alike; something smarter for New Year’s Eve.
This tour follows the Strict policy. Days are whole calendar days before departure.
| When you cancel | What you get back |
|---|---|
| 30 or more days before departure | 50% refund |
| Fewer than 30 days before departure | No refund |
A non-refundable USD 300 per traveller (domestic flights) is deducted before these percentages are applied.
Questions
Questions welcome
Dates, prices, hotels, a private version: ask, and a local specialist replies by email.
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Plan with us
Choose your dates above, or tell us what you have in mind and we will shape the trip around you.
