How We Travel · 01 of 06
Walk with the people who live there
Village-run treks where the hosts are the guides
In the northern highlands, some of the best walking is run by the villages themselves — thatched tukul camps on escarpment edges, local guides from the farms you pass, and fees that go straight to the community hosting you.
On the Meket escarpment south of Lalibela, the TESFA community programme has hosted walkers since 2003, when Mequat Mariam became its first camp. The route runs along the plateau rim at 2,800 to 3,100 metres, mostly flat or gently graded, and horses can be hired for any stretch.
Further west, the Choke Mountains ecovillage in Gojjam was named one of UN Tourism's Best Tourism Villages in 2022, and north-east of Addis Ababa the Guassa Plateau has been protected by its own communities under the Qero system for around four hundred years.
What these places share is who is in charge. You sleep where the village has chosen to build, eat what the village cooks, and walk with people who know every path because they farm beside it — the difference between visiting a landscape and being welcomed into one.
What this looks like
- 01Nights in community-owned tukul camps with the drop on three sides
- 02Local guides from the villages along the route, alongside our own senior guide
- 03Walking that is mostly gentle, with horses available whenever you want them
- 04Fees paid directly to the communities who host you
- Typical setting
- Meket, Choke, Guassa
- Altitude
- 2,800 – 3,700 m
- Time needed
- 3 – 5 days
- Season
- Oct – Mar
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