Transportation

You may use flights both when entering Ethiopia and while touring within the country. The northern and eastern tourist circuits have standard airports, so it is possible to make your tour fully — or almost fully — by flight. Making a tour fully by flight is not possible for the southern route, but it is possible to make your southern tour a mix of both.

New trans-regional roads are being built and old ones rehabilitated, so Ethiopian road conditions are much improved, except in some parts of the southern circuits, which make four-wheel-drive land cruisers mandatory. The North and East are accessible both by bus and land cruiser — one of the reasons Ethiopian tourist destinations can be a bit expensive. Mini-buses are most often used for city tours and short-distance destinations from the capital or major towns.

A rail road extends from central Ethiopia to the eastern part of the country (Harar) and continues to Djibouti. At present the trains are very old, so tourists tend not to use them as a means of transportation, though this might change as the government makes improvements.

While visiting the islands on Lake Tana, or crossing to other regions of the country via Lake Tana, boats are used. On other lakes and rivers of the country, you may use boats for sightseeing, recreation, or rafting.