Simien Mountain trek & Ethiopia holiday
Typically you will be sharing your experiences with between 4-20 like minded travellers (depending on the trip, operator and how many others are booked on the trip) and you'll have a group leader with you. Whether you are travelling alone or with friends its good value, and a great way to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of privacy. This trip will appeal to travellers of all ages who enjoy meeting new people as well as seeing new places.
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
In the Simien Mountains, our head guide Shif will be sure to brief you on appropriate environmental practices and check after every camp to make sure that we’ve left no trace. Protecting this amazing landscape for future generations is something that Shif understands and enthusiastically enforces on our trips.
Our mission is to connect travellers to culture in the most amazing places in the world. This connection is the best way to make a difference. Come and get the real Ethiopian experience.
Community
Our Simien Mountains Adventure has been designed from its conception to benefit local communities – preserving their culture, supporting local projects, and protecting the environment. Here’s how:
On our founder’s first trip to Ras Dashen, he was surprised by two things: how cold it could be in Africa, and how little clothing the children were wearing in spite of it. This trip not only inspired him to bring clients to such a beautiful area, but also to have them carry warm clothes to the children. Actually carrying the clothes in your pack, for over 40km of hiking, makes it extremely rewarding to deliver them to children high up on Ras Dashen’s slopes.
Every member of our team has volunteered in Ethiopia - our founder and customer service manager spent two years volunteering in small Ethiopian communities. We’ve used our previous experience to design great volunteering opportunities that make real, sustainable changes. You will work side by side with Ethiopians in hands-on projects that benefit at-risk populations like orphans or single women. On this trip you’ll get to volunteer in a large city as well as a small mountain town.
We’re certain that the best way to experience real culture and preserve it is through home-stays. You have the option to spend a night with an Ethiopian family in a market town at the foot of the Simien Mountains. These unfiltered experiences will show our clients the unmatched hospitality and giving kindness that made our founder fall in love with Ethiopia. Not only is this an amazing opportunity for our clients, but it creates lifelong linkages to local families which is more valuable than any “handout”. This real connection is unstructured and everyone will have a unique experience – one that will stay with you and bring you back to this country for years to come.
You’ll visit several projects that our team has worked on including an internet café operated by orphans, a local handicraft shop started by women who are HIV positive, and a local restaurant started by single women. After helping start these projects, our founder realised the best way to ensure their sustainability was by creating a permanent link through tourism. 5% of every tour we book goes directly to new projects like these, but we don’t just give out money. We work together with locals through every step of starting a new business – from the business plan to grand opening to yearly financial reviews.
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