"Excellent tour, wonderful people & brilliant ground support"

Excellent tour of Ethiopia with fantastic ground support from Brilliant Africa & Tesfa. Ethiopia is a wonderful country with stunning & contrasting scenery & lovely people.

"I was lucky enough to find Brilliant…"

I was lucky enough to find Brilliant Africa as I researched plans for a trip to Ethiopia just over one year ago.

I found the arrangements which Marc at Brilliant Africa made for me to be extremely helpful and great value. The itinerary which he arranged was perfect, and the guide he assigned to me was knowledgeable, personable, creative and good-humoured ... which resulted in an excellent experience as we explored the central and northern regions of Ethiopia.

I would will definitely engage Marc at Brilliant Africa to assist with future travels in Africa, and am happy to recommend his services to others.

Best regards,
Sylvia Barnes
Houston, Texas

"Ethiopia with Brilliant"

I had a wonderfull experience visiting Ethiopia with Brillant Africa, so much that I went twice and thinking about doing it again ! I highly recommend it.

"Brilliant Ethiopia: Best. Travel. Experience. Ever."

So, first things first: Ethiopia... is... beautiful. A definite bucket-list location. Geologically stunning; architecturally shocking; culturally rich; and, well, just a gosh-darn "must do." I would recommend it as a travel location for anybody, from first-timers to the intrepid traveler, BUT! Go sooner rather than later; I fear this will eventually become the next "Iceland travel fad;" it really is that beautiful.
Having said that, self-organizing a trip there can be a challenge; after I contacted Brilliant Ethiopia (following an online search), I felt that responsibility lift from my shoulders. If I ever book a trip to Africa again, I'm contacting them first to see if they're also working in the other countries. The bottom line w/Brilliant Ethiopia: a real person (Marc!) asks you intelligent questions about your travel HABITS (do you need luxury? are you OK roughing it? are you a confident traveler? etc...), and then probing questions about your travel DESIRES (culture? outdoors? foodie? camping? etc.). For additional context, and why I would absolutely use them again: I literally contacted them only about a week out from when I wanted to travel (from Washington, DC), and they booked EVERYTHING for me for a 10+ day trip: all airport pickups; hotels; domestic transportation (cars, planes, and boats); guides; tickets to any sites; etc. Several meals were included as well. Communication w/Brilliant Ethiopia during the planning and the execution of the trip was robust, and easy (text, e-mails, and phone calls, no owl post...). Marc called me during my trip after I mildly complained about an issue, and not only promised to quickly resolve it but I was also visited by his on-site partner to make sure everything was fixed. Simply amazing.
Go to Ethiopia, OMG it's just amazing. And use Brilliant Ethiopia to have full peace of mind. Then visit me in DC; my treat at one of the restaurants here in Little Ethiopia, and we can swap stories.

"Trip around the northern highlights"

We had fabulous trip in late 2018 around some of the sites of northern Ethiopia, including Lalibella, Gondar and Aksum. Although we packed a lot in to a short period of time, it never felt like we were being rushed and there was plenty of opportunity to really explore these fascinating places and this fabulous country.

Brilliant Ethiopia were....brilliant. The tour was well organised, the guides were at all times knowledgeable and patient with us and I would recommend them without hesitation.

"Northern Ethiopia Trip January 2020"

I originally found out about Brilliant Ethiopia through a Google search.
I had the privilege of booking my Northern Ethiopia tour through the cities of Addis Ababa, Aksum/Axum, Lalibela, and Gondar in January of 2020 (right before covid shut things down.. thank God!). The trip included everything from crawling in passageways at the rock churches, to trekking the amazing landscapes of the Simien mountains, enjoying spa resorts at Lake Tana, to simply being a tourist in new cities and engaging with locals in the area. I had an expectation of a "perfect" trip, and Brilliant did a phenomenal job of exceeding my expectations. It was spiritually fulfilling, and a balance of education, adventure, and relaxation (oh yes, and GREAT food! lol). My trip was truly an experience that is hard to put into just words. Ethiopia is a beautiful country, with lots to offer in tourism.

My trip was solo, so being able to create a customized itinerary to meet my desires & plans for travel was very important to me. Other vital factors of my trip included having a detailed itinerary, well-spoken guides (in my language, English), and a full-sense of security. I'm glad to say, with Brilliant, all of these needs were met. My booking agent was Mark, and he did an excellent job with planning out my suggestions, as well as adding places I never knew/read about. We took a day to simply talk about my interests, hobbies, and daily activities, which led to the suggestions that would make my trip the best experience possible.

Out of three providers for Ethiopia tours that I found online, I chose Brilliant Ethiopia because I was immediately addressed by a person (not an automated e-mail) after my first inquiry. They take great measures to engage in PERSONAL COMMUNICATION with their customers. Although I was in another country (United States), I was able to get immediate responses via e-mail, and more in-depth voice calls using phone and WhatsApp. I was very impressed with this, given the differences in time zones of me and my agent.

For my first trip abroad (and traveling solo), I was beyond satisfied. I will definitely be planning to book more trips with Brilliant, in the future. I encourage anyone reading this, to do the same!