1

TESFA tours is a private tour operator, that has been started by the expat who original set up the TESFA community tourism
they can both organise the tours equally well, as far as my information goes, though there has been some conflict/competition between the two that was also visible on the site here and also on bradt ethiopia updates.
Whichever you choose you will be sleeping in the same places, using the same guides. TESFA tours can however also organise transport and book hotels etc outside the trekking routes.
BUt you have to pay tax on this, which I am not sure you do when you simply do the trek via the community tourism (though I may be wrong)

2

I'm interested in the answer too because we're planning on doing a trek, however the impression I got was that the TESFA community tourism was not in operation any more (since March or so). If this is not the case, please let me know!

3

you can still do the trek, as far as I know. I would suggest you write to tesfa tours then. My mother and her friend did a trip with them a year ago and were very happy.

4

Thanks, I am dealing with TESFA tours actually and should be booking with them shortly. I was just not sure if there still existed a separate TESFA organisation that organised the treks but was not a tour agency, if that makes sense? From reading here, it seems they don’t exist since March or so. Anyway, I emailed the ‘other’ crowd out of curiosity and had no response.