1. Bahirdar and Lake Tana Islands
Bahirdar is as pleasant as you’ll find it for relaxing and the weather is probably the best in Ethiopia.
At Bahirdar, you can enjoy a boat trip on Lake Tana to the island monasteries where you can experience a great calmness.
Visiting the monasteries will give you an impression of just how far back Christianity goes in this region.
Among the many others Ura-Kidane Mihret is the largest and most impressive monastery on the peninsula while nearby Azwa Maryam is situated near one of the prettiest and most secluded inlets in the area.
A boat trip to Zege, the main tourist attraction in the region, and to the monasteries merit a good half day. Mango Park, situated at the shores of the lake is the best place to view pelicans and a wonderful sunset.
If you have spare time, you can also drive to the Blue Nile falls a once spectacular fall where you feel the showers like rain and listen to its tremendous roar. Now because of the diversion of the water a hydro electric tunnel and there is left a much less amount.
2. Medieval Gonder
The Ethiopian medieval capital boasts with its large royal enclosure containing grand castles, palaces, houses, library and outbuildings.
King Fasiladas’s palace is the oldest and perhaps most Impressive one.
Beside the castle there are various ruined buildings including the remains of a bathing pool, a chancellery and a library of Fasiladas’s son Yohannes I.
If you are in Gonder, you don’t want to miss Debre Birhan-Selassie, one of the country’s famous churches for its paintings. It lies just 2km north of the town.
3. The Simien Mountains National Park
SMNP is comprised of scenic mountains ranges and impressive escarpments both in the north and the south faces of the park
It is frequented by trekkers who cross through beautiful scenery of natural vegetation that vary with altitudes.
There is also wildlife like the Gelada baboon and klipspringer and birds such as wattled ibis, black kite, and white collard pigeon, and many more.
4. Axum steles
Axum is a place where a high civilization had risen several centuries B.C.
These astonishing steles strike you for their huge size, their incredible almost pristine preservation and their curiously modern look sculpted from single pieces of granite to look like multistoried buildings.
5. Lalibela churches
Lalibela rock churches are incredible and astonishing attractions witnessed to undoubtedly rank among the greatest historical sites in the Christian world.
They are grouped in to clusters the northern also known as the earthly Jerusalem.
This includes the churches Bete Medhani Alem, Bete Mariam, Bete Meskel, Bete Denagil, and Bete Golgotha- Michael.
The eastern cluster also known as heavenly Jerusalem includes Bete Gebriel and Rufael, Bete Mercurious, Bete Amanuel ad Bete Aba Libanos, and he famous Bete Giorgis.
If you have one more day there, you can have an excursion visit to Yemrehanna Krestos, a very impressive church of saint Yimrehane Kirstos, meaning Christ shows us the way.
6. Merkato and tribal markets
Markets will also be your interest of visit in Ethiopia. In Addis, Merkato which is the largest open air market in Africa is something you wouldn’t like to miss.
Also in the lower Omo valley you there are colorful markets held on different days of the week.
The Thursday Key Afer Market is a colorful one in the area where you can see the Hamer, Tsemay, Benna.
Also the Monday Hamers market as well as the Saturday Dimeka market are something you wouldn’t like to miss.
7. Harar town
Harar is special for its old town within the sturdy wall built between the 13th and 16th centuries.
You will enjoy an inside tour of the city during the day and an evening show of the hyenas at the different gates of the city.
It is normal to be surrounded by 6 to 8 hyenas so you may feed them with the guidance of Hyena man.
At Harer you will also enjoy the local market, the 18th century house of Arthur Rimbaud (a French poet and arms dealer), the ancient mosque of Abu Beker and the five gates of the city.
8. Danakil depression
Danakil is one of the planet’s astonishment in Africa’s most striking geographical aspect, the Great Rift Valley, which is a giant tear across the earth’s surface that can even be seen from space.
Danakil depression is situated at the north of the valley which the valley walls are scary blue-gray ridges of volcanic basalt that rise sheer on either side to a height of 4000 meters.
The valley floor comprises some of the world’s last true desert and an intolerable temperature with many points more than 100 meters (328 feet) below sea level and noon-time temperatures rising above 50C (122F).
The terrain of the Danakil seems to be carved from the blaze of hell and is a reminder of the furies that once devastated this region with volcanic cones.
Earth trembles are still recurrent and there are several active volcanoes in the area. Though uninhabitable as this place may look, thousands of afar nomads dwell in it.
9. Tigray mountains and churches
Scaling the heights of the unreachable Tigray rock churches requires a passion to face a sheer drop, tempting a fate, and challenging your senses.
Tigray churches are mostly carved into cliff faces or from rocky ridges.
There are over 120 of them scattered throughout the region carved and inserted into the pointed mountains that are stretched as far as the eye can see.
The churches date from between the 6th and 14th centuries some possibly date back to the 4th century when Christianity arrived in Ethiopia.
Legend has it that the phenomenal architecture construction of the churches was beyond the power of man, and that angels helped in making this stone wonders.
10. The lower Omo
Omo valley is home to an astonishing mix of small, contrasting ethnic groups uniquely known for their natural artistic impulses and painting with clay usually related to rituals and transitional phases.
Hamer people are known for their fine pottery and remarkable hair styling.
They wear their hair in dense ringlets smeared with mud and clarified butter and topped off with a head-dress featuring oblongs of gleaming aluminum.
Hamers are famous for there bull jump tradition and nightly cultural dancing known as Evangadi whilst the Mursi are popular for traditions of lip-plate worn by their women. This lip plates and ear lobe discs constitute important distinctions of female beauty in the Mursi society.
The Karo are experts at body painting using clays to trace fantastic patterns on one another bodies. As you cross the Omo River in a dugout canoe and you will meet the Geleb who use color codes to convey messages.
