Ethiopia family holiday

Planet and people

This trip is a great opportunity to see Ethiopian endemic species of Gelada, Red fox and Walia Ibex. Your visit will benefit the park's effort to protect these great endemics and conserve the environment. The park is a UNESCO world heritage site and many species were once on an endangered list.

The trip also gives employment and a market opportunity for the local shop owners, markets, restaurants, guides, scouts, mule hires, and many more. Also all the accommodations throughout your trip are owned and run by the members of the local community. Your needs associated with your travel will be served by the members of the community.

As you visit the park you will stay in lodges run by the park. All the guides throughout the trip are locals who have had adequate trainings and experiences and scouts are hired from the park. Also for your trekking arrangements, we hire mules from the local farmers and purchase most of the items that are necessary for your stay from local shops.

Most of the destination suppliers have already put in place a policy of using the local resources for development of the tourism industry in their respective areas. They also have economic policies to employ their staff from the local communities and to use the local resources for the services they provide. As part of environmental conservation efforts they give information to their customers on an efficient usage of water, electricity; and give away some materials like plastic bags to recycling agencies.

Also as part of their environmental responsibilities, they participate in different conservation initiatives like in '2 trees for 2000', a millennium initiative against the deforestation and land degradation in Ethiopia.

For you to have a better knowledge of the trip we will provide you with an accurate pre-trip information pack before the start of the tour. And in order you to have a good understanding of the places, the environment, and the local community; we will supply you with our Travelers Code of Conduct which is also supplied to our staff and local suppliers.

The trip also helps us support and contribute to a local initiative at Gonder working on disadvantaged groups living in rural and suburban settings. It helps the youth without access to basic primary education and for school dropouts providing tailored and market oriented skill trainings.

Also if you have some spare time at Addis we will arrange a visit to a project which is making a difference in the lives of children. You can make a miracle happen for a child and in return get a great deal of satisfaction. Be it a small or big gift, you can help a needy child get life's essentials, like food, an education and basic health care. If you wish to sponsor a child it will also make a big difference and help break the cycle of poverty.