Ten kilometers of black lava lie between the base camp and the mountain.
At Dodom you wait for darkness – by day it is above 40 °C.
At the top a hornito stands in the frozen lake. Fire is not guaranteed.
Scroll –
the last six miles
Two things before the volcano itself. First, security: the German Federal Foreign Office warns (as of 22 September 2026, unchanged since 11 August 2026) explicitly against travel to the Afar zones Kilbet Rasu and Fanti Rasu and to Tigray, and calls the Tigray–Afar border area 'increasingly unstable'. Since 1 April 2026 the US State Department has rated the entire Afar region 'Do Not Travel'. Austria: level 4 for Tigray and the Afar–Eritrea border area, level 3 for the rest of Afar. Second, the mountain: the famous lava lake is gone. After the dike eruption of July 2025, which collapsed a pit about 400 m wide in the north crater, and the events through January 2026, there is no permanent lava lake left – only hornitos, low lava output and steam. Guides on the ground expect years before there is anything to see.
A partial travel warning from the German Federal Foreign Office: armed groups have expanded their presence, there was fighting in Tigray in January 2026, and the roads carry checkpoints run by the army, militias and local people. Dallol is documented as lying in Kilbet Rasu, and Erta Ale is generally understood to as well.
No permanent lava lake. As of February 2026 observers report several active hornitos, low lava output and degassing in the collapsed north crater. Whether anything glows at night is decided on the spot – and operators refund nothing when the crater only smokes.
Independent travel is not authorized. Without an Afar regional permit, an Afar guide from the community and an armed escort, nobody gets through the checkpoints. There are no public roads, no public transport and no supplies.
Photo: Ji-Elle · CC BY-SA 3.0
613 m (2,010 ft) high, a basaltic shield volcano in the middle of the Danakil Depression – the hottest inhabited place on earth, with an annual mean of 41 °C (106 °F). The altitude is harmless. Nothing else is.
The day before is all track: five to six hours from Semera, about six from Mekele, in a convoy of four-wheel drives with an Afar guide, police and soldiers. At the end sits the Dodom base camp, a handful of thatched stone huts at the edge of the lava field.
You set off after sunset, between 5 and 7 pm. Ten kilometers (6 miles), around 500 to 600 m (1,600–2,000 ft) of climbing, three to four hours – over cooled lava that is razor-sharp. Headlamp with spare batteries, sturdy boots, four to six liters of water a day. If you would rather not walk, you hire a camel.
At the top there is a military post, stone huts and a crater basin that has changed enormously since 2017. How close you may get to the collapsed north crater is decided by the escort and the guide – because of the collapse edge and because of the gases. Sulfur dioxide at the crater is not a theoretical problem: a German trip report from October 2025 describes a climb abandoned and symptoms that lasted for weeks. You start down before sunrise, ahead of the heat.
Affiliate links to GetYourGuide: if you book, we earn a commission and the price stays the same. Prices and ratings as of 22 September 2026. The choice here is thin: only the first tour comes close to 50 reviews. And whatever a tour is called, nobody can promise a lava lake, because there is not one at the moment. Before booking, find out whether the tour runs from Semera or from Mekele, and read your government's travel advice.
Photo: Planet Labs, Inc. · CC BY-SA 4.0
There is no national park here, no ticket office and no ticket. The Afar regional administration and the districts of Zone 2 are in charge. Access is governed by permits and armed escorts – a consequence of the attack in January 2012, when five tourists were killed on the crater rim.
Tours are run by Ethiopian operators with offices in Mekele or Semera. They obtain the regional permit, provide the convoy and book the escort. Rental cars without a driver and an escort are not let through the checkpoints.
An Afar guide from the local community is mandatory, along with armed Afar scouts or police and soldiers. Reports describe two soldiers per group plus rotating tribal police; a permanent military post sits on the crater rim.
The Ethiopian e-visa is applied for online at evisa.gov.et ($62 for a 30-day single entry according to visa portals). You pay the operator, usually in US dollars in cash; outside Addis Ababa cards are barely accepted.
Tours run November to February, at a stretch October and March. In summer it passes 45 °C (113 °F) and many operators stop. The climb always starts after sunset and the descent before sunrise.
| Afar regional permit per person, per the Berahle district site, billed through the operator | approx. $30 |
| Armed escort per group and day, per the Berahle district site | approx. $20 |
| 3-day group tour from Mekele with Erta Ale and Dallol, per person (travel portal, 08/2026) · 2 days without the volcano about $250 | approx. $350 |
| 4-day tour from Semera with Erta Ale, Dallol and Afdera, per person (district site) · plus the Addis–Semera flight at about $200 | $500–700 |
| Ethiopian e-visa, tourist, single entry 30 days, only through evisa.gov.et | $62 |
| European operators, 13-day Ethiopia/Djibouti trip including the Danakil and flights, per person | from €4,190 |
Photo: Ji-Elle · CC BY-SA 3.0
| Semera → Dodom base camp · about 270 km (168 miles) · 5–6 hours | Paved road via Afdera, then a lava track. Semera is reachable by air from Addis Ababa and has been the usual starting point since the Tigray war. A maximum of three guests per jeep plus driver, guide and escort. |
| Mekele → Dodom base camp · about 260 km (162 miles) · about 6 hours | Via Abala through the depression. Tigray carries a travel warning, and the route runs through the Tigray–Afar border area described as increasingly unstable. Cheaper, but the riskier option. |
| Dodom → crater rim · about 10 km (6 miles) · 3–4 hours up | Starting between 5 and 7 pm after sunset, around 500 to 600 m of climbing over razor-sharp lava. You sleep in stone huts on the rim and start down 2 to 3 hours before sunrise. A camel can carry your luggage. |
| The combination: Dallol, Lake Asale, Afdera · 3–4 days | Practically every tour links Erta Ale with Dallol (acid springs, salt terraces, 48 m below sea level), Lake Asale with its camel caravans and – from Semera – Lake Afdera at −103 m. Five to nine hours on rough track each day. |
Photo: Thomas Fuhrmann · CC BY-SA 4.0
A lava lake had been described at Erta Ale since at least 1906 and continuously since 1967 – the longest record anywhere. That record has broken.
Described since at least 1906 and continuously since 1967. In 2019 only eight volcanoes worldwide had an active lava lake.
Gunmen attack a group of tourists at night: five dead, seven injured, two kidnapped and released in March 2012. The escort requirement and the permanent military post date from then.
A fissure eruption on the southeast flank empties the lava lakes, with flows continuing until 2020. Seeing liquid lava becomes a matter of luck.
New lava flows in the summit caldera and, from March 2024, several hornitos – for a while a small lake again.
An ash column rises from the north crater, a 35 km dike travels south and a fissure erupts. In the north crater a pit about 400 m wide collapses.
Hayli Gubbi, the southernmost volcano of the Erta Ale range, erupts for the first time in documented history: an ash cloud 14 km high, flight cancellations as far as India and China. The July dike was the trigger.
As of February 2026: several active hornitos, low lava output, degassing – no permanent lava lake. Guides expect years before there is something to see.
Photo: Hervé Sthioul · CC BY 2.5
Without a car: None into the Danakil. Fly Addis Ababa–Semera (Ethiopian Airlines) or Addis Ababa–Mekele (up to six flights a day as of 06/2026, about 1 hr 20 min); the operator picks you up from there. For Mekele, note the travel warning for Tigray.
By car: Only in the operators' convoy. From Semera a paved road runs via Afdera into the depression (about 350 km to Mekele); the last kilometers to the Dodom base camp are a lava track that needs a 4x4 and local knowledge. Rental cars without a driver and escort are not let through the checkpoints.
November to February, at a stretch October and March: daytime highs of 'only' 30 to 40 °C (86–104 °F) instead of over 45 °C in summer, nights around 25 to 30 °C. The official tourism site gives 41 °C as the annual average of the hottest inhabited place on earth. The climb always starts after sunset, and any glow in the crater shows best at night – if there is anything to see at all at the moment. Ramadan and Ethiopian holidays can make escorts scarce.
Photo: Ondřej Hanousek · CC BY-SA 4.0
If you want to avoid the route through Tigray, start in Semera: fly from Addis Ababa, then take the paved road via Afdera into the depression. It costs more, but it is the option that bypasses the Tigray–Afar border area.
Affiliate links to GetYourGuide: if you book, we earn a commission and the price stays the same. Prices and ratings as of 22 September 2026. These tours have very few reviews, so the star ratings say little. What matters more is whether the operator has its own office in Semera and how the escort is arranged.
Photo: Kalogeropoulos · CC BY-SA 4.0
It depends on what you are after. If you are going for the lava lake you will be disappointed – it has been gone since the collapse in July 2025. If you want the Danakil as a landscape, with Dallol, the salt caravans and the night climb, that is all still there. The travel warnings for Afar apply either way.
The alternative with documented activity and real infrastructure is Kīlauea on Hawaii – a national park, safe viewpoints and daily USGS updates. Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania has been producing lava again since 2017, but it is climbed at night with a guide and is no place for beginners.
No. The two sit about 70 km (43 miles) apart with nothing but track in between. The usual tours need three to four days, with five to nine hours of driving each day.
The southernmost volcano of the Erta Ale range erupted on 23 November 2025 for the first time in documented history: an ash cloud 14 km high, flight cancellations as far as India and China, ashfall on Afar villages, no deaths. The trigger was the magma dike that traveled south from Erta Ale in July 2025. It is not part of any tour.
Travel health insurance with repatriation – and one that does not exclude areas under a travel warning, which many policies do. There is no medical care outside Mekele and Semera.
Tours do run (reports from 2025 and 2026), but the famous lava lake is not visible after the eruptions of July and November 2025 and January 2026; the Volcano Live summary for February 2026 lists only hornitos and low lava output without a permanent lake. Guides on the ground expect years before it returns.
The German Federal Foreign Office warns (as of 22 September 2026) against travel to Tigray and to the Afar zones Kilbet Rasu and Fanti Rasu; Dallol lies in Kilbet Rasu and Erta Ale is generally understood to as well. The US State Department rates all of Afar as 'Do Not Travel'. On top of that come volcanic gases, sudden eruptions and heat above 40 °C. Five tourists were murdered at the crater in 2012 and a German was shot in 2017.
No. In the Danakil an Afar regional permit, an Afar guide and an armed escort are mandatory, and the checkpoints let nobody through without an operator. There are no roads, no public transport and no supplies.
As of August 2026, group tours from Mekele run about $350 for 3 days including Dallol; from Semera $500 to $700 for 4 days plus about $200 for the flight from Addis. European operators charge from €4,190 for 13-day trips including flights. The permit (about $30) and the escort (about $20 a day) are included.
About 10 km (6 miles) and 3 to 4 hours from the Dodom base camp to the crater rim, roughly 500 to 600 m of climbing, starting after sunset. You sleep in stone huts on the rim and start down before sunrise. The whole tour from Semera or Mekele takes 3 to 4 days.
Both are offered. Semera in Afar has been the more reliable base since the Tigray war and is reachable by air from Addis; Mekele is in Tigray, which carries a travel warning, and the route runs through the unstable border area.
November to February, at a stretch October and March. In summer it passes 45 °C (113 °F) and few tours run. With an annual mean of 41 °C the region counts as the hottest inhabited place on earth.
No. The night march over lava, the heat, sulfur gases at the crater, the absence of medical care and the security situation rule children out in practice; anyone with respiratory or heart problems should stay away – cases of gas poisoning with symptoms lasting weeks are documented.
Sturdy trekking boots, light long clothing, a scarf or mask against gas and dust, a headlamp with spare batteries, 4 to 6 liters of water a day (the operator supplies water, but carry a reserve), electrolytes, sun protection, a thin sleeping bag and cash in US dollars for tips.
Fly to Addis Ababa with an e-visa obtained in advance ($62, evisa.gov.et), then take a domestic flight to Semera or Mekele where the operator picks you up. From the airport to the foot of the volcano is 5 to 6 hours by 4x4.
Yes, practically every 3- or 4-day tour combines Erta Ale with Dallol (acid springs, salt terraces, −48 m), Lake Asale and the camel caravans; tours from Semera often add Lake Afdera.
It is permanently active. In 2025 a 35 km dike produced a fissure eruption and a collapse in the north crater, and in November 2025 its neighbor Hayli Gubbi erupted. There is no Ethiopian alert level; current observations are published by the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program, whose site was unreachable on 22 September 2026.
Sources · accessed on 22 September 2026
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