Lalibela.

We booked a tour through Solomon at Mesob Tours. This tour company books all of your flights, driver, tour guide and tickets for your group for one price. Everything was seamless. They also ensure that a percentage of the price goes to community projects.

Our only challenges were 1) getting in contact with our guide and, 2) getting cash - you will need cash! We probably needed about $300USD in Birr equivalent.

Our guide, Tefera, was very considerate of the needs of 3 adults and 2 children under 10. He shared the right amount of information and attended to all of the curious questions of the boys.

We were able to see the inner workings of 4 churches (including St George’s Church) and a monastery. One of these churches we saw on our first day with all of the ‘faithful’ present for Good Friday prayers. We also hiked to the monastery on this day. On the second day, we discovered the other churches as well as some dark tunnels for the boys to clamber through.

We were also privileged to see ancient artefacts that various priests produced from ‘the holy of holies’ rooms in the back of the churches.

The boys study Ethiopian history at school so they had about the right amount of background knowledge to be able to engage with site. We had also discussed with them at length about times to be quiet and times to be careful about what they touch.

We stayed at Mountain View Hotel. The rooms were comfortable and there was an extra bed for Archie without hassle. It had a rain shower head and, once we worked out how to turn the hot-water system on, the shower was warm with good pressure.

The best part about this hotel was the view from the terrace where we could sit with a wine and look over the landscape.

Although we ate at our hotel, our favourite place to eat was Kana Restaurant. The boys could order and eat ‘foreigngy’ food and we could order Shekla Tibs (a dish of beef pieces cooked in a bowl over charcoal). The food there was flawless. And, for the record, their card machine is not broken ;)