My girlfriend and I are usually go-it-alone, grab a Lonely Planet and read it on the plane-type travelers, but after a string of exhausting trips, we decided to let someone else handle the planning.

We were SO happy we picked this itinerary and even more so with Highway Tours. The name of the guy who runs it is Eskinder, and he was incredibly on the ball and not once did we worry that something would go wrong, or if it did we were sure it would get fixed instantly.

We took an internal flight almost every day and in each city the guides were great and friendly and always on-time and waiting for us at the airport.

The hotels were comfortable and the food was really good, and we saw pretty much everything we wanted to see (all amazing stuff).

But what made it all worth it was Eskinder, who is an awesome guy and who on various occasions would personally pick us up at the airport at horribly early or late hours and take us out to great Addis restaurants. It was always unwaveringly friendly service, even when we threw a big travel curveball at him.

I can’t speak of other Ethiopian travel companies, but we feel really lucky to have chosen this one.