12 Days Coffee Tour in Ethiopia

 Day 1: Addis Ababa

Arrival in Addis in the morning at Bole Airport. Meet and greet at the airport by the driver and your local guide.  Transfer to Hotel. Have a rest in the morning. After lunch, visit the Entoto Mountains, where Emperor Menelik founded in 1887 the capital Addis Ababa. Visit the Entoto Maryam Church and the Memorial Museum, and enjoy the panoramic view of Addis. On the way back, visit the oldest coffee house in Addis called Tomoca. Transfer to the hotel for a refresh. In the evening, a traditional dinner.

 Day 2: Addis Ababa – Jimma (350 km)

After breakfast, leave Addis and drive to Jimma. Stop for a small cup of coffee in Woliso. From Abelti, at the bottom of the Omo River Gorge, you will climb into the hills and enjoy the beautiful scenery of granite out scopes and acacia woodland. Stops on the way to enjoy the landscape. Continue to Jimma and witness the Coffee Statue.

 Day 3: Jimma –Limu Kossa – Jimma

After breakfast, visit the Limu Kossa Coffee Plantation. Sitting atop 2,000-meter-high mountains, workers at the 300-hectare Limu Kossa coffee plantation swing machetes at weeds between coffee bushes and apply an organic fertilizer to the soil. Visit the Harewa Gatira wet mill in Limu Kossa region. In the afternoon, visit the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (Jarco) which is also the National Coffee Research Center. After the visit of Jarco, guided visit to the Aba Jiffar Palace and museum, which is a good example of traditional (wooden) Ethiopian architecture.

 Day 4: Jimma – WushWush – Mizan Teferi – Bebeka

Jimma – Mizan Teferi: 225 km Mizan Teferi – Bebeka: 30 km After breakfast, leave Jimma and continue to WushWush Tea Estate. Visit the WushWush Tea Estate and tea factory. This estate grows black tea on 1249 ha at an altitude of 1900 m. From Wacha on you might see painted Bench (Konta-Sheko) houses along the road. Also, around Mizan en Bebeka there might be some painted houses. If time permits have a first walk on the Bebeka coffee estate.

 Day 5: Bebeka

Full day visit by car of the largest and oldest coffee estate in Ethiopia, recently taken over by the Midroc Group. Besides the big coffee plantation, which covers 5556 ha (more than half) of the 10.030 ha, you will also visit the honey farm and witness the spices grown as pepper, ginger, etc…. If time permits, visit some organic producers of coffee in the area.

 Day 6: Bebeka – Jimma – Sheki – Chida – Waka – Sodo

Estimated distance: 450 km After breakfast, early start and leave the Kaffa region and drive to Jimma. After lunch travel to Chida. Cross different rivers and some mountain pass to Tercha Sodo. Then climb the Wakka mountain pass. After the top, you will see tukuls with bamboe fences. After Douro, you will start the descent to the Omo River Canyon. Have a stop around the bridge (50 km from Sodo) to enjoy the beautiful landscape and cross the only bridge on the Omo River before the town of Sodo.

 Day 7: Sodo – Awassa (155 km)

Sodo – Shashemene: 130 km Shashemene – Awassa: 25 km After breakfast, leave Sodo and travel to Awassa by Shashemene. Stops on the way to witness beautiful Wolaita villages. In the afternoon relaxation and an optional boat trip on the Awassa Lake.

 Day 8: Awassa – Sidamo coffee projects – Awassa

After breakfast visit the fish market 1 km, south of the Lewi Resort. Visit of Sidamo coffee region: Kolla washing station & Efico Foundation project (Ferro Cooperative) in Yirga Alem. Lunch in Yirga Alem or on the way.

 Day 9: Awassa – Yirga Alem – Yirga Cheffe

Awassa – Yirga Alem: 37 km Yirga Alem – Yirga Cheffe: 82 km After breakfast you make a walk alongside the lake on the footpath starting at the old Midroc Zewed Village to witness some birdlife. Continue to Yirga Cheffe with stops on the way, where you can have lunch in the hotel. In the afternoon you visit the Yirga Cheffe Coffee Union project and the Kochere woreda (about 25 km south of Yirga Cheffe) famous for its Yirga Cheffe quality coffee.

 Day 10: Yirga Cheffe-Addis (395 km)

Today we leave the coffee region behind us and drive back along the Ethiopia-Kenya highway to the north. Between Shashemene and Arsi Negele. After Shashemene has lunch in Ziway, where you can have – with fresh fish – from the lake. Stop on the lakeside to see waterbirds and continue to Addis. In Debre Zeit have a cup of coffee in Ethio Dreamland Hotel. On the terrace, you have a view of Bishoftu Lake, which is a crater lake.

 Day 11: Addis Ababa

After breakfast, we drive to Kaliti, one of the sub-cities in the southern part of Addis and its most important industrial zone. Visit Dry Mills of Kuru Ethiopia Coffee Development PLC. In the afternoon visit the ECX (Ethiopia Commodity Exchange).

 Day 12: Addis Ababa and flight to home country

Visit the National Museum and the Ethnographic Museum (Institute of Ethiopian Studies). Visit the Holy Trinity church where Haile Selassie is buried. Transfer to Bole International Airport in the evening.

End of Coffee Tour in Ethiopia