Top 5 Awash National Park Day Tours: A Helpful Review

Planning a visit to Ethiopia and curious about Awash National Park? You see, a full-day tour could be just the thing to spot some incredible wildlife and witness the landscape! The park, basically, offers a unique opportunity to see East African wildlife in a relatively compact area. But with lots of tour options out there, how do you find the one that’s, like your, best? We looked at a bunch of tours to provide, more or less, a breakdown of the top contenders for a memorable Awash adventure.

Tour Option 1: The Classic Wildlife Safari

The Classic Wildlife Safari usually emphasizes, well, wildlife viewing from a safari vehicle. It tends to focus on the key areas where animals gather, such as the Illala Sala Plain. Often, tours like this will, seemingly, involve an early morning start to catch animals when they are most active, kind of making for that early wake-up worthwhile. You might be thinking what animals you can see? There are, actually, chances to spot the Beisa Oryx, Soemmerring’s Gazelle, Salt’s Dik-Dik, and the Awash local, Hamadryas Baboons. That, naturally, said the focus on the jeep safaris and this may limit how much walking around you might get, though it lets you cover, very, greater ground.

Tour Option 2: Birdwatcher’s Paradise Tour

Okay, so this tour is all about the birds. Awash National Park is just, basically, an avians hotspot, home to around 453 different bird species. The Birdwatcher’s Paradise Tour is usually planned around prime bird-watching locations, like the Awash River and the Fantalle Caldera. The itinerary often includes several short walks and some patiently waiting, or it’s almost trying to catch sight of endemics like the Banded Barbet and the Golden-backed Pytilia, as I was saying. Don’t worry about bringing anything else with you on your trip, because the specialist bird guide, usually, will come equipped with binoculars and field guides.

Tour Option 3: Awash Falls Adventure

It is that this tour focuses less on wildlife. And that its focus instead is on, very, landscape of Awash National Park, culminating, really, at the magnificent Awash Falls. This tour typically includes the drive to the falls themselves, usually, and there will be opportunity for viewing the water cascading down into the gorge. Some tours, truly, include a short hike around the area for varied, in some respects, perspectives and viewpoints. While the main focus is the falls, that does tour offers great chances for spotting baboons, birds, plus smaller wildlife that gather close by the river.

Tour Option 4: Cultural Immersion Day Trip

Okay, here is where the day involves engaging with the local communities surrounding the park. So you should know that the Afar people are just, truly, closely associated with this region. Tours frequently provide cultural exchanges, village visits, and sometimes demonstrate, sometimes, traditional practices like weaving, very. Opportunities usually occur for purchasing handicrafts and you can show support to, in some respects, the local economy and their communities.

Tour Option 5: Photography Focused Tour

With this, naturally, tour option is crafted for people that just, frankly, love photography. Especially those that may just desire to photograph both the animals, or so the spectacular Ethiopian terrain. Photography tours typically concentrate on lighting conditions at their, actually, best at dawn and at dusk, or arguably you could say golden hour! That guide should definitely, anyway, know best the most scenic locations to capture those memories of lifetime. Tours generally involve vehicle safaris, shorter guided hikes for framing specific shots, and plenty of room for equipment.