Travel to Ethiopia for 14 days with departure in January to participate in the festivals of Timkat and St George.
Travellers can discover the exceptional vitality of Ethiopians during their religious festivals: Timkat in the spectacular setting of Gondar with the fascinating Fasilidas Baths decorated; the St George in Lalibela will allow us to enjoy the beauty of its famous churches. The rock-hewn churches of the Tigray complete this tour of the oldest Christian kingdom in Africa.
During Timkat
During Timkat, host towns see their populations multiply with the arrival of local and foreign visitors. The few hotels fill up, and services are stretched throughout the celebrations.
This inevitably inconveniences visitors: the city’s supplies often cannot meet the extra demand, and water and power cuts are common, even in hotels.
Hotel and restaurant dining rooms overflow with customers, often with long waits to be served. Supplying such remote parts of the country also becomes difficult, so products normally readily available may be missing.
Despite everything, the celebration’s distinctive character, colour and local emotion make up for the inconvenience caused by the large crowds for interested travellers.
Lalibela and St George
The sacred city of Lalibela is a great spectacle: 11 monolithic churches carved on the rock in the massif of the Ethiopian plateau during the Middle Ages. Lalibela is the Jerusalem of Africa, a place of unending pilgrimages, the center of the faith of the orthodox African world. It is an imposing rock complex, a labyrinth of churches, tunnels, underground passages: who built Lalibela really wanted to reproduce the most sacred places of Christianity. Magnificent basilicas of Medane Alem and Beta Giyorgis and Beta Amanuel.
The whole city is a sculpture dedicated to the glory of God.
25 January in Lalibela is the eve of the great celebration of St George (Kidus Gyorgis), to whom its most iconic and elaborate church is dedicated. Many worshippers gather at the church, carved into a deep trench, their heads covered with white “shamma”, people approach the pit dangerously closely to watch the procession carrying the Tabot from the church in procession to a secluded place. The procession follows a strict order: first the Tabot, covered in rich, colourful cloths, with priests carrying decorated umbrellas symbolising the heavens; then the older men and, finally, the women.
Historical route
The tour includes the most interesting towns of the so-called historical route: Bahar Dar, on the shores of Lake Tana, Gondar, Axum, Mekelle and, of course, Lalibela with its spectacular churches carved from solid rock.
Visas and vaccinations for travel to Ethiopia
Mandatory vaccines and health recommendations: Yellow fever (only for travellers from countries at risk of yellow fever transmission). Recommended: Tetanus, Meningitis, Cholera, Typhus, Hepatitis A and B and yellow fever.
Viatges Tuareg can advise only on the destination’s compulsory health requirements, adding recommendations from its own experience. Consult a medical professional about health precautions and preventive treatment, or refer to guidance from official health agencies
Official information on health precautions and vaccines can be found on the website of the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs.
Upcoming trips to Ethiopia
✔️ 18-day trip
✔️ Departures 7, 28 JUL > 11 AUG > 8 SEP > 6 OCT 2023
✔️ From 3375€
The north is the land of Christians who have left their ancient monuments as testimony.
In the south, in sub-Saharan Africa, culturally diverse peoples live alongside one another along the Omo River.
