Visit the Omo Valley tribes without a tour (and save hundreds)!!

wow, thanks amaretto! great review! i think i will duplicate your itinerary in early march.
I'm looking for ppl who want to do what amaretto did. I will arrive in adis around march 3th and plan to head to omo right away. send me a message if anybody is interested. i'm a 32 y/o male with good deal of travel experience. would like to stay on low to super low budget.

thanks for this!

me, a fellow volunteer and another friend (we're all long-term residents here in ethiopia) are going to omo from feb 18-23 (or until 25 depends on what happens next).

anyone wants to join us?

ALTERNATIVE ITINERARY FROM ARBA MINCH TO SOUTH OMO

Many thanks to ScotchAmaretto for his notes. Here are mine.

Travel
Arba Minch is easy to reach – either by plane from Addis or by direct minibus. Alternatively, there are interesting places to stop off along the way. I stayed at Ziway and Awassa.

Arba Minch to Konso (about 2 hours by minibus: 30 ETB). Half the road is asphalt; the rest not.

Konso to Jinka (about 3.5 hours by minibus: 80 ETB). Asphalt

Konso to Key Afer (about 2.5 hours by minibus: 50 ETB).

All the above routes are easy to cover as there are plenty of minibuses throughout the day. For those heading to South Omo, things get more difficult if you are trying to reach Dimeka, Turmi, Omorate.

Jinka to Turmi. The bus goes on Tuesday (and perhaps one other day each week). As the market in Turmi is on a Monday, the Tuesday bus is no good. We ended up taking a private minibus for 1500 ETB. The journey is about 3 hours on unasphalted, but fast road. Alternatively, you can try for the same thing from Key Afer, but as there is no bus station, it’ll probably be more difficult to find a private hire.

Turmi to Omorate. The bus (coming from Jinka on a Tuesday) reaches Turmi some time between 13.00 and 15.00. It takes less than 3 hours to Omorate on unasphalted but fast road. (50 – 60 ETB)

Omorate to Key Afer. The bus returns from Omorate on Wednesday, going to Key Afer and then on to Arba Minch. It takes about 4.5 hours to Key Afer. Arriving Wednesday, you are in time for the Thursday market.

Key After to Konso, Arba Minch, etc. There are frequent minibuses from the roundabout. I waited about an hour for a minibus to Konso. See above for times and prices.

Hotels (single room prices; all hotels below have nets)
Arba Minch. I really rate the Zebib Pension – just before Bekale Mole on the left in Shecha (lower town). Brand new, clean rooms. You can choose between superior (TV and fridge) for 350 ETB or basic (no TV or fridge) for 250 ETB.

Key Afer.. Of the budget hotels, I recommend Nasa Hotel. With shower, they charge 180 ETB. However, there is no running water anyway, but bucket available. No towel or soap. Rooms are clean, Electricity only from 19.00 – c 23.00.

Jinka. Goh Hotel (by the bus station). 70 ETB. Dump

Turmi. Tourist Hotel. 70 ETB. Dump – no soap

Omorate. Park Hotel has been renamed. 70 ETB. Dump – no towel or soap

Prices correct as of January 2013

Interesting info as well. I am going later in the year and it is certainly food for thought. The question is whether to try winging it like this or just pay up.

Out of interest, where are you allowed to go exactly as a tourist on public transport? Would it be possible to go Arba Minch-Konso-Key Afar-Jinka on public transport? And then hire transport to do the loop of Jinka-Omorate-Turmi-Dimeka-Jinka? If this is an option then it would surely be a good balance as you could probably do the private transport in 3 days?

You can travel to all these places by public bus without any permission / authorisation:
- Arba Minch
- Konso
- Key Afer
- Turmi
- Omorate
There are various police checks on the road after Key Afer, but no-one seemed particularly interested in me. There is no requirement to register with the police at any of these towns. In all the places, you can go wherever you want. The only place I didn't check was crossing the River Omo at Omorate to visit the Dassanech village. In the Bradt guide, it states that some form of escort is required. I didn't cross the river, but could have taken one of the hollowed out tree trunks, used as boats.

Hi!

I'm traveling to Konso at the end of August for a wedding. While I was there, Two friends and I wanted to try to see the Omo tribes since it is in the same region. However, I'm not sure how much time to budget. I noticed a lot of you guys saying you passed through Konso coming back. Any suggestions on how to see the tribes starting out from Konso? Thanks for any advice!

RedPanda.

Distances between areas/towns which appear close by in the map are far bigger on the ground - i mean this in reference to the separation between Konso and the Lower Omo valley.

You could aim for Weyto, where the Tsamay people tend to congregate. Can't remember when the market day was, but there's a half-passable place to crash out for the night + eat. The other areas (Dimeka, Turmi, Jinka, Key Afer, etc.) are too far away from Konso for day trips or even two days, unless you're willing to put in heavy hours on the road all day.

May i suggest the Konso region in itself?

Welcome....
I just came back from Ethiopia and the Omo and I would like to share my experiences.I consider myself a an experienced backpacker/ traveler and initially, I was going to do it by myself. However, a girl that I had met in Ethiopia a year earlier decided to join me. So, we combined my experience as a traveler and her ability to speak the language. With that, I was able to find out a few things that for a western traveler could be very difficult to learn.
Someone earlier mentioned that getting to Jinka is super easy and it gets complicated after that. I can confirm that. Getting to Jinka was super easy. In Ethiopia it is illegal for mini bus drivers to drive long distance routes. Those are reserved only for the companies with big buses. It is done to make the roads safer in Ethiopia. However, there are "brokers" in Addis that can get you a seat in a mini bus to Arba Minch. Just ask someone in a hotel/hostel to arrange that for you. They will either pick you up from your hotel or they will tell you where to go. It takes around 7-8 hours to get to Arba from Addis. I can't remember now...but the cost was less than $10. With this option you could wait until the bus gets full before you depart. I waited around 2 hours until they found enough people. I got to Arba late afternoon and luckily enough there was a bus to Jinka. It was another 5 hour ride. This one was one of my most extreme experiences ever. 23 people in a 11 seat minibus! In Jinka I decided to stay in the first hotel I could find because it was late. I stayed in Goh Hotel. I found the double room quite expensive for Ethiopian standards. It was around $18.The food was very good. However, the following day when walking around Jinka I saw many other accommodation options and I am pretty sure they would have been cheaper than the Goh hotel. The following day, I decided to take it easy and decided to stay in Jinka. I visited 2 markets and arranged tour to the Mursi Vilalge.
There are so called "official local guides" and they will approach you immediately if you skin is lighter than theirs. I think they agreed on a fixed rate because they all wanted $125. However, after heavy negotiations I managed to get them to go for $100 but the driver/ tour guy asked me to say that I paid $125 if any other "tour guide" asked me how much I paid. I went to 2 Mursi villages. you can also ask them to try to find you other foreigners to join the tour to split the cost.
After the tour I caught a bus to Kay Afar. there I spent 3 nights. $8 each for a double. If you driver from Jinka to KA, the hotel will be on the right before the main intersection. 2 minute walk from the "solar kiosk". on the first full day I visited the market and after that I wanted to go to Turmi. However, no bus passed by for 3 hours and decided to stay in Kay Afar. the following day a found out there was a "bull jumping" ceremony and decided to stay for that. After a long morning battling those gangsters (I will explain this later), I mean "official local guides" I managed to hire 2 motorbikes with drivers for 180 birr ($10) each to drive me to the ceremony. There, I paid 300 birr ($15) to the father of the bride to be allowed to watch the ceremony.

the next day, since I was running out of time I decided to use connections of one of the motorbike drivers and hired a private minibus with a driver to take me to Dimeka for the market and turmi to see more villages. I paid $80 for a full day. However, you could go even lower if you allow the driver to pick up other people on the way so he can make money.
The market in Dimeka was excellent. Really worth seeing. So many artifacts, amazing people and beautiful women. After that , a visit to two villages. Bana and Hamar tribes.
Late afternoon I got back to Kay Afar. and planned to stay for a night. However, we found out that there coul d a bus to Konso. After a few phone calls, the bus was confirmed. We took the bus to Konso and stay there overnight. I did not spend a lot ot time in Konso, so I cannot really say much about it. I wish I did because I heard it's also worth seeing.
Next Day, I took a bus to Arba Minich. I did not what I was going to do once I got there. I was thinking about taking a flight to Adis ($64) or stay there overnight. I really wanted to avoid another super long trip in an overcrowded minibus to Adis. i'm a taller than average human being and my knees were killing me after spending so much time in those mini buses. However, while enjoying several Ethiopia's finest St. George beer I meet some locals who spoke OK English and they told me that it would be possible to arrange a bus to Adis for the same day. I had to go to the Tourist Hotel (actual name) and ask there. I was told, these buses bring foreign tourists to Arba and drop them off. Usually, they go back to Adis empty. I went there and.... luckily there was a bus the same day. I think I paid around $15 and the condition/quality of the minibus was close to the western standards. There were no more than 5 people and I had the entire back row for myself.

The costs:

I was there 9-10 days. I think I spent there no more than $370. the most expensive part was the private tours out of jinka to the mursi village and dimeka as there was no public transportation there. If you can manage to have a larger group, you will be able to split the cost. I did not find any other people so I had to eat the full cost.
Difficulty Level :
Adis to Jinka and back super easy. It gets challenging in Jinka but if you are willing to pay that extra buck it will be easy as well. Once you get to Jinka and start walking the streets locals will approach you immediately and offer you trips to to the villages. they will start with a standard amount of $125/bus/day.
Other tips:
There is an ok market in Jinka, amazing markets in Kay Afar and Dimeka.
For some reason locals don't like....flashlights! I was walking with a flashlight in Kay Afar and...at least 3 people went crazy on me over that.
Taking photos in the villages: they can be very pushy, if not extremely pushy demanding you taking a photo of them. Of course in an exchange for compensation. If you want to take a lot of photos.... take a lot, i mean, a lot of 1 and 5 birr notes. They ask 3-5 birrs per photo, per person in the photo! so, if you want to take a photo of 10 people be prepared to pay each person!

domestinc flight in ethipia! they are cheap! however, you have to buy them in Ethiopia, not through Ethipian Airlines website. for some reason, if you buy then once you get there, they will be 50%-60% cheaper.

So called "LOCAL OFFICAL GUIDES":
This is my biggest disappointment of the entire trip to Omo, especially in Kay Afar. These gangsters think they owe the Omo valley and they can do whatever they want. First of all, they tell you that you cannot do anything in Omo without them because it's illegal. That's a lie. If you don't want their "help" you don't need to hire them. I went to the official government tourist office and I was told I did not have to hire them if I did not want to and it was not illegal to visit villages without "the official guides". However, they will tell you that you must hire them. They just want your $$$. I found a guy who said he would take us to the bull jumping ceremony for a fraction of what those gangsters charge. When the guides found out about it.... they started harassing me, my girl and that local guy. They followed us for a half a day demanding to buy their services or..... just give them money for just letting us go there by ourselves! It was ridiculous. They threatened the local guy so much that police had to get involved. So, if you want to visit the villages without the "official guides' fell free to do it and it is NOT illegal.

I hope, you enjoyed the read. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Edited by: knradpolnd

Edited by: knradpolnd

hey dude, im hearing your post,
the money some tour guides are asking is crazy and kills the experience of trying to camp, is it possible to visit remote areas where fourwheel drives cant go without a guide, or at least with a local who wont charge 100 bucks aday and stay for about a week or so away from hotels and to many tourists, id be gratefull for any tips
irish declan cheeksofsteel@gmail.com
cheers

Hello everyone!,

Has anyone of you visited the Omo Valley tribes without a tour or permission?
We are planing to visit next November any advise or idea?
Thank you