Addis Ababa: Debre Libanos, Blue Nile Gorge, and Cave Tour
Recommended by 94% of travelers
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- 7 to 8 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Group discounts
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
A fun and informative getaway from the city, this tour to the Entoto Mountains from Addis Ababa is a great way to learn more about Ethiopian culture outside city limits. Visit the famous Debre Libanos Monastery, admire mountain scenery, see the famous Portuguese bridge, and catch sight of wildlife. Plus, learn about the sights from your guide as you travel.
- Day trip to Entoto Mountain attractions from Addis Ababa
- Visit a mix of natural and historical destinations
- Guide informs and entertains as you visit
- Don’t sweat transportation—this tour includes a safe driver
What's Included
- Pickup and dropoff at any location in Addis Ababa (either Hotel or Airport)
- Ground transportation including a car, fuel and a driver
- Accompanying English speaking tour guide
- Local guides
- Lunch, including a bottle of water and hot drinks
- Museum and Church Entrance Fees
- Alcoholic beverages
- Personal expenses
- Gratuities
Meeting and Pickup
You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup
Itinerary
1
Debre Libanos Orthodox Church
1 hour • Admission Ticket Included
2
Portuguese Bridge
1 hour • Admission Ticket Included
3
Debre Libanos Orthodox Church
1 hour • Admission Ticket Included
4
Entoto Maryam Church
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
5
Mount Entoto
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Minimum age is 7 years
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Service animals allowed
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Most travelers can participate
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 30 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
Teka was an amazing tour guide and extremely knowledgeable. I would recommend him for anyone looking to experience Ethiopia!
Mussie was a very professional driver and great companion. Would absolutely book again!
Reviews
4.7
based on 292 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
At the moment, there are a lot of roadworks that can make the journey a bit bumpy, but the views of the countryside and places you want to see are worth it. There are also people along the way at the places you stop who will be trying to sell things, so have some small currency to buy if you wish. Our driver, Abay, was good about navigating the traffic to keep us on time. The monastery is stunning with it's stain glassed windows. The monkey families we saw was great also. The waterfall and Portugeuse bridge was nice.
Our guide (Sam) and driver (Rudolf?) were really nice, I enjoyed their company and explanations. Although I enjoyed what I saw, in the end it was all a little too far, and the road a little too bumpy. I was exhausted by the end of the day from sitting in that small uncomfortable van for so many hours. Lunch was good, but not having any coffee for us at the end was a huge fail for any Ethiopian tour.
This was great. Would have been better with a guide, and one that speaks English. Long drive there and back with bad roads. But the baboon stop, the monastery and the Portuguese stop especially are well worth it. The food stop was a miss for me though. Little bit of a dive. One one traveler felt comfortable eating there. Overall still well worth it. Pack your food and drinks. I’d go for the Portuguese bridge alone 10/10.
İt was a great experience to discover beautiful nature of debre libanos. Our driver Abiy is so kind accompanying us sürüngen the trip. Highly recommended.
Gabru, our tour guide was so friendly & accommodating. We appreciate him showing us his beautiful country!
The guide Gebru is really sweet and funny, and makes the tour enjoyable.
Its quite adventurous so be prepared for that. Can get hot as well, dress appropriately. Watching the baboons is fun, and the stained glass is pretty but the view from the Portuguese bride across the gorge is absolutely fantastic.
The food is excellent as well, and so is the coffee.
My guide is gebru . He is excellent excellent excellent. He explained very good..
Drive also very good
I recommend it this tour
Seeing all of the beautiful landscapes along with the monastery was great! Atseheni was a great driver and very sweet.
Gebru was our guide. He did a good job. The church has amazing stained glass windows— definitely worth a look. Bring some small notes to give to the guys around the baboon habitat— we had no bills smaller than $20, which doesn’t really work for tipping or buying a necklace (they sell them to fund their academic studies). Be forewarned that you cannot wear your shoes into the church (slightly complicated if you’re wearing hiking boots, which are of course worth wearing for the bridge and hike, it’s fine, just don’t assume you’re going to waltz on in). Also there are restrictions on who can enter the church— no women on their periods and no one who has had sex in the last 48 hours. The area around the bridge offers amazing views but you should wear robust shoes because it is genuinely like a very short hike in the American Southwest— rocky, steep. Totally worth doing, just don’t wear flip flops 🤣
Fantastic tour of Debre Libanos. Our tour guide Geru was wonderful and made sure everyone was having a good time and was very knowledgeable. Highly recommend to take this tour to see the countryside of Ethiopia, the gelada monkeys, Debre Libanos, and the blue Nile gorge. Very enjoyable.
Gabru was a fantastic guide. He provided interesting information without overdoing it and kept us all entertained during the drive.
Gebru was a fantastic guide on the day tour from Addis. He was friendly, well-organized, and shared the right amount of context without overwhelming us.
Debre Libanos and the Portuguese Bridge were definite highlights, and the gorge viewpoints were absolutely stunning. We also drove by Entoto, which was a nice touch with great views along the way. Overall, a smooth, memorable day.
Abiy is very educated. I was very involved. I learned a lot about Ethiopia now appreciate the culture history a lot more.
My guide said almost nothing, a great waste of money and time, and I won’t even mention the food which is included.
Our guide was Gebu (Gabriel), he did a good job trying to accommodate everyone in the tour. There was five of us. The traffic is horrible but the culture and history are great. We saw the special We tried the local food.
Great day trip from Addis. A well paced and interesting itinerary, an excellent and informative guide, and beautiful scenery!
Great experience. Good guide. Give us lot of explanation on his side and on the road. Need to have good walking shoes
This was a fun tour, but I wish I had known to wear tennis shoes rather than flats. You need better shoes to walk on the rocky trails to see the Rift and to visit the baboons. The ride was long and bumpy, but the views were amazing, and we got a feel for Ethiopian towns. I loved the coffee and lunch stops - great experiences.
Great experience in Ethiopia! Teka was a great guide. Loved learning more about the country and the beautiful church.
Teka was a great guide. The churches, baboons, and waterfall were well worth the bumpy ride. Would definitely recommend.
The tour was 1.5 hours late. They rushed it by removing one location & reduced 2 hours of exploring at other stops to 30 minutes. When I complained, they sent screen shots from my place of employment and threatened to inform my employer of the dispute. Their response to customer complaints is completely inappropriate. I have documented lies and threats from this company, and the other two members (strangers to me) of the group confirm the elimination of stops and rushed experiences. I would never book with them again. Very poor representatives of beautiful Ethiopia!
Response from Host, Nov 2024
Dear Customer,
Thank you for taking the time to write your feedback here. We are sorry to hear that you are dissatisfied. However, what you have written here is not an accurate representation of your experience with us, but as escalated to TripAdvisor and Viator, this feedback, unfortunately, is one of many promised attacks by the customer when their blackmail request for a refund failed. They posted a duplicate review, using different accounts, to ensure maximum damage. One review under username "Jeff F" and the exact same review under "Jeffrey_F"
The tour started on time. If it started 1.5 hours late, it would be impossible to do the tour. The itinerary was fully covered. So why this blackmail attack?
The customer booked as one person, which meant the price would be higher than people who booked in groups, who were also on the tour. When this particular customer found out the price difference from the other customers, they waited until the end of the tour and started fabricating executes to get a 50% refund. The customer harassed/belittled our customer service representative for days and when their request for a refund was declined, the damaging reviews kept coming. In the customer's own words "I put in a request for a 50% refund...I will wait to post my review to see how you handle it...Otherwise, I will gladly share my experience in the numerous world wide travel groups I am [in]".
We promise to our customers, as we have done for the past 10 years, a safe and truly authentic Ethiopian experiences. If a tour is cancelled or affected because of reasons not related to our customers, we happily process refunds within 24 hours.
Warmest regards,
the myGuzo Team
Teka was an amazing tour guide and extremely knowledgeable. I would recommend him for anyone looking to experience Ethiopia!
Mussie was a very professional driver and great companion. Would absolutely book again!
Great experience, however, please note, the road is very bumpy and riddled with holes. Not a comfortable drive. Also, make sure you wear walking shoes to climb up and down the Portuguese bridge to the waterfall. Recommend the tour if you are prepared to take a beating on the road.
Amazing day! Teka was a brilliant guide.. fluent in English.. patient and understanding.. I wanted to feed some stray dogs and he was so kind
And understanding.. Countryside was breathtaking and totally stunning.. What a stunning landscape outside the city.. Driver Musse was a brilliant driver.. Excellent trip and wonderful memories of Ethiopia..
This is a great tour. The guide, teka, is very friendly and knowledgeable. The driver, musse, was also very good. It is a great tour to see historic sites like the monastery and Portuguese bridge, along with the baboons and stunning views of the Ethiopian countryside.
Great day out. Highlights were the baboons, the bridge and the company. Oh and the driving which is not for the faint hearted.
This was my first trip to Ethiopia and I wanted to see some sights outside of the city. Teka my tourguide and Musse our driver arrived at my hotel promptly at the time mentioned and we stopped at some gorgeous vantage points to see the scenery on the way to the church. The views outside of the city were quite gorgeous in July and I really liked how all of the stops we made were not swamped with other tourists. We also stopped for some authentic Ethiopian food on the drive back.
I had a beautiful and enriching day with my guide Teka and the driver Musse. As a deeply spiritual person, it was a very special experience to visit Debre Libanos, and get a personal guided tour there by a long-time munk living there. I also enjoyed seing the beautiful landscapes, animals and visiting a local marked - as well as talking to Teka about life in Ethiopia in general. He was able to answer all my questions and to tailor the experience to my specific interests. The guide and the driver were very kind and helpful and this trip was a highlight on my visit to Ethiopia. Highly recommended!
This is a wonderful trip to see endemic and visiting birds from tiny lovebirds through to large raptors and everything in between. Ethiopia has a very rich birdlife and a particular highlight on the day was watching kingfishers diving for fish, just lovely!
Our guide was very knowledgeable about all the birds we saw, he was also very knowledgeable about plants and trees with the names and uses of each plant or tree including medicinal purposes. We enjoyed the cultural aspects of the trip too, the cave church and the delicious traditional Ethiopian lunch. Ethiopian coffee is definitely the best we've ever tasted so we had to bring some back with us!
I had a fabulous tour on March 10 to the Entoto Mountain and the Debre Libanos Monastery with Seid and Muse. This is my second time in Ethiopia and I follow events in Ethiopia back in the United States. I was looking for a guide with an in-depth knowledge not only of the sites we visited but also of the history, politics and culture of Ethiopia. That is exactly what I got with Seid. He explained the changes in Addis Ababa and surrounding areas in Oromia since I was last here in 2018, made sure I got some great photos of the gelada monkeys, and took me to a great place for a hot milk snack and a delicious vegetarian lunch later. He also helped me learn a few words in Amharic, and told me a little about Harar, which I will be visiting later this week. Muse is a terrific driver, I was never worried driving with him despite all the huge trucks on the road to Debre Libanos.
Response from Host, Mar 2024
Dear Customer,
Thank you for taking the time to endorse us in detail here. We are so pleased that you had a memorable cultural experience in the countryside of Ethiopia with our team. They too share their appreciation for your culture and time spent together.
We hope to see you in Ethiopia again.
Warmest regards,
the myGuzo Team
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per personWas $110.00(-5%)
up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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Attractions in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- Red Terror Martyrs’ Memorial Museum Tours & Tickets
- National Museum of Ethiopia Tours & Tickets
- Mt. Entoto Tours & Tickets
- Menagesha Suba Forest Park Tours & Tickets
- Meskel Square Tours & Tickets
- Holy Trinity Cathedral (Kidist Selassie) Tours & Tickets
- Entoto Maryam Church Tours & Tickets
- IES Ethnographic Museum (Addis Ababa University) Tours & Tickets
- Entoto Natural Park Tours & Tickets
- Menelik II Square Tours & Tickets
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