Ethiopia: Travellers' Handbook: a travel guide that was conceived for the discerning traveller, the group and package tourist, and those people wishing to have a quick reference travel guide with a range of facts at their fingertips. In full colour this book provides a clear understanding of what there is to see and do in Ethiopia. The background and reference information conveys a wide-ranging view and it has been designed to be uncomplicated and straightforward to use, without having to constantly refer to abbreviations and symbols. It is a travel guide with a user-friendly presentation that allows quick reference to topics of interest. The many map illustrations have been designed to be straightforward, clear and easy to follow. The book is packed with information and colour images used as illustrations.
Next to comprehensively covering all of the places of interest, Ethiopia: Travellers’ Handbook covers the wildlife as well. Throughout the book there are well-presented panels of information on national parks to inform the reader of the access, habitat, birds and animals likely to be seen, with many of the species illustrated. There are also colour-coded panels describing the birds likely to be seen en-route, in habitat areas and in remote parts of the country.
The book also contains a well thought out chapter on the fauna of Ethiopia including: birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies, other insects and wildlife parks. Spectacular and colourful birds are described for the passing traveller together with the endemic and regional endemics that are of interest to the serious birder. There is a considerable amount of information woven into the text to help travellers identify the larger mammals and interesting sub-species.
In full colour, this luxuriously illustrated book is the only guide to describe all of the national parks of Ethiopia and contains much original information. It has been written by Trevor Jenner, who regularly lead birding and wildlife tours during two decades of travel to Ethiopia. Colonel John Blashford-Snell OBE, one of the greatest travellers and explorers of our time, has written the foreword. Other prominent organisations and people have contributed articles illustrating their exciting and heart-warming involvement with Ethiopia that are intended to further inform the traveller. The book contains completely independent travel advice.
Trevor Jenner is English and has had a multi-faceted career that has entailed a host of travelling throughout the globe. He setup and ran a tour company operating specialist tours to Ethiopia. In over two decades of exploring Ethiopia he has travelled to all points of the compass – from the historical north to the tribal south, from the dry deserts of the east to the humid forests of the west, from the depths of the Afar Depression to the heights of the Simien Mountains. He has covered them all – many times. He visits Ethiopia regularly, leads the occasional specialist tour and loves Ethiopia and its people. His infectious enthusiasm and knowledge is evident throughout the book.
"Reviews of travel guides are not usual in Bull. ABC, but this new guide to Ethiopia from a very small independent specialist publisher is worth reviewing. Ethiopia is already well covered by travel guides from the major publishers [...] So it takes a brave author and publisher to enter such a competitive field [...] I took this new book with me to Ethiopia on a recent visit, and I was suitably impressed. The guide is comprehensive, well researched, easy to navigate, and is crammed with colour photographs. [...] Readers of Bull. ABC are of course interested in wildlife, and I am pleased to report that this new guide is strong on this subject [...] Not surprisingly, I looked closely at the information about birds and generally I found this to be accurate and up to date. [...] If you don't have a current guide, you could do a lot worse than buy Jennet's new book. It's one of the most attractive travel guides I have seen in a long while."
– Nigel Redman, Bulletin of the African Bird Club, 24(2), September 2017
"Two decades of interest and multiple trips to Ethiopia are the backbone to Jenner's great new guidebook – and it shows. Jam-packed with itineraries, ideas and concise accounts of the country's history, flora and fauna, it tells you everything you need to know. Informative, inspiring and comprehensive."
– Travel Africa
"Trevor Jenner's book is a well-researched and comprehensive guide for anyone travelling to Ethiopia with valuable insights into the wildlife, culture and history of this fascinating and welcoming country."
– Naturetrek
"Ethiopia: Travellers' Handbook clearly and comprehensively describes all there is to see and do in glorious colour."
– Anne Parsons, Secretary Anglo-Ethiopian Society
"A corker, my dictionary says, 'a person or thing excellent of its kind.' While there are serviceable travel guides to Ethiopia from Spectrum, Lonely Planet and Bradt this travel guide by Trevor Jenner from Meru Publishing is an absolute corker.
It has the dual merit of offering basic information in a clear, assimilable way to those of us who know little of Ethiopia's story while at the same time adding a few new gems of information to those who know the country well.
Wisely Jenner gives prominence in the forefront of the guide to the northern, highland part of Ethiopia, the famous 'historic route.' It also, more than other travel guides shines a wealth of light, with some stunning illustrations, on the lesser known southern tribal areas around the lower Omo river.
It includes information which, I feel sure, appears in few if any other travel guides – Things to Do, See or Buy, the Ethiopian Orthodox church's Saints' Days, birds and trees found in the national parks, a good, solid 20 pages of history, an analysis of the myths surrounding the Queen of Sheba and the Ark of the Covenant and much more. The guidebook is intensely detailed – which I applaud. No gushy generalisations here, just fact, fact, fact, advice, advice, advice. And all made very accessible by being presented in attractive boxes or in succinct dollops. The pictures are beautiful and it has a good map at the front and back, with plenty of miniature maps scattered throughout the text."
– Richard Snailham for the Scientific Exploration Society