One of the decisions we need to make before booking travel is whether we want to “go it alone” or take a group tour. There are pros and cons for both, but when we decided to go to Egypt, it was group tour for the win. We had visited Egypt twice previously, both times as port stops on a cruise. It’s one of those places where one can easily be scammed; it’s known for it. On our first visit there, a shopkeeper offered to buy me from Clayton! The sad part was, he only offered chickens. Clayton may have been willing to deal for a camel or two but couldn’t figure out how to get them onto the cruise ship. So, he’s stuck with me! Anyhow, it’s not a particularly friendly country for women to visit, so we booked another Gate 1 tour.

The itinerary started in Dead Sea, Jordan, and ended in Cairo. It also included a 4-day Nile River cruise. On our first visit to Egypt, the tour company offered us “lunch on the Nile”, which we were greatly looking forward to. Apparently, we misunderstood the meaning of this statement; we assumed we would be sailing down the Nile while enjoying a meal. Not exactly what happened – we got on a boat, were fed some food, and then crossed the Nile in 5 minutes to get to the other side. So, this trip will give us an actual boat trip (or so we hope).

We decided to arrive a day early, due to flight arrival times from Thailand. Our flight arrived at 5 pm and there was a dinner scheduled at 6:30 to meet the rest of the group. We knew we could not get to the hotel in time (it’s an hour’s drive from the airport to the resort, and we needed to clear immigration) so opted to book an extra night at the Mövenpick Dead Sea Resort. We also booked a transfer with Gate 1, which we normally do not do as their prices are much higher than other options. But, if Gate 1 picked us up, they would also provide our visas at no additional cost. So, it turned out to be cheaper to go with them.

Our flights were uneventful, which is always a nice way to start a vacation. We flew Qatar Airways to Doha and then Royal Jordanian Airways to Amman. Qatar’s service and food were flawless, Royal Jordanian, not so much. On Royal Jordanian, I ordered the Arabic mezze for an appetizer, filet mignon with mashed potatoes for the main course, and cheesecake for dessert. The mezze was fine but was not served with pita or anything else to eat it with. The filet mignon with mashed potatoes resembled a Swanson’s frozen dinner, if you substituted the salisbury steak with an overcooked filet mignon, right down to the fake potatoes. It’s hard to ruin cheesecake, but this one was a jello no-bake special. On the positive side, we did not arrive in Jordan hungry.

The Gate 1 representative met us and walked us through immigration. Next up was picking up our suitcases. We got excited when Clayton’s was first off of the conveyer belt. We were less excited when mine didn’t quickly follow, or follow at all. My luggage tracker had its location as still in Doha, but that turned out to be untrue as well. Mohanned, our Gate 1 guy, found it in the special security area; it had been pulled due to containing a security risk. What was this dangerous object, you ask? Why, a small pair of binoculars! We didn’t get the memo that you are not allowed to bring binoculars into Jordan, due to geopolitical spying.

Eventually, my luggage was released from security jail, and we could be on our way. Mohanned walked us out to meet our driver, Mohammed, who turned out to be quite a talker. He filled us in on how wonderful Jordan was, and that tourism had been irretrievably damaged by Covid, incidents involving Hamas in 2023, and most recently, Israel sending missiles over Jordan to attack Iran. For a few weeks in June, it was doubtful that we would be able to visit the region. I received notifications from the US State Department several times per day regarding the situation. Mohammed said that tourism overall was down 75% which was having an extremely negative impact on the country since tourism is its 2^nd largest industry.

We stopped for a quick photo at sea level before continuing downhill towards the lowest point in the entire world, the Dead Sea. We were greeted by a man wearing the most ornate drink dispenser I have ever seen! He poured a cool, refreshing lemon drink for us by leaning over. The spigot is tucked under his arm in the photo.

After unpacking, we collapsed into bed since with the time zone difference, it had been a very long day.

The Mövenpick Dead Sea Resort is a gorgeous 5-star resort located right on the Dead Sea. The property is quite large; we got lost on the way to breakfast. You can walk to get to the beach, or you can ride in a golf cart. I think it would take 10-15 minutes of walking to get there (at least), so we opted for a ride. The first golf cart dropped us off at the pool which is halfway down the hill. A second golf cart took us the rest of the way.

Beach towels are provided and fortunately, there are showers to rinse off as the salinity of the water is 43%. Mud is available; our driver yesterday claimed that the mud treatment takes ten years off your age, LOL. I had to give it a try, so slathered mud all over before testing the conjecture that you float really easily in the water. The water was warm and lovely. Mohammed had warned us that the beach is rocky, so I had worn my Teva sandals which were perfect. And yes, I was exceedingly buoyant in the water! I was so buoyant that when I tried to stand up after back floating, I had trouble standing up (my sandals wanted to float). I foolishly wore my sunglasses when I went in and they slipped off my head. When I tried to retrieve them, I splashed water in my eyes. Suffice it to say that it hurt like heck! I do not recommend getting water in your eyes.

Though there were showers available, the beach attendant personally hosed me off to remove the layers of mud I had slathered on myself. When we were done at the beach, we rode the golf cart back up the hill to the resort.

In case you travel here, I learned from our tour guide, Waleed, that there is a traditional Jordanian way of “taking the waters”, so to speak. You are supposed to float for 15 minutes, then apply mud. Sit for another 15 minutes for the mud to bake on and then go back into the water for another 10-minute float. He claimed that this will take 20 years off your age! If only I’d known before. Oh, well, I will have to settle for looking like I am in my 50’s rather than in my 40’s.

Our time in Jordan (as always, click on the link to read):

Day 1: The baptismal place of Jesus by John the Baptist

Day 2: Drive to Petra; tour Mount Nebo, Madaba, and Shobak Castle

Day 3: Petra

Day 4: Drive to Amman, tour Kerak Castle, city tour of Amman

On the 5^th day, we flew to Cairo. I was happy to leave Jordan behind, though we saw some interesting things. It is a perfectly safe country to visit; we had no concerns whatsoever at any point during our stay. We would be getting a new tour guide in Egypt, so said goodbye to Waleed, our Jordanian guide.

We arrived in Cairo at 11 am and spent the rest of the day relaxing. We met our new tour guide, Walid (pronounced the same as Waleed in Jordan) Ghonem. We were immediately impressed with his personality and warmth. He proved to be an excellent guide throughout the trip. We did have a little issue with our room at the hotel (the air conditioning didn’t work properly, and it smelled of smoke) and Walid immediately had us moved to another room. We had an evening meeting to go over some details of the rest of the trip.

Day 6: Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx

Day 7: Up bright and extremely early for a flight to Luxor. Then, tour the Temple of Karnak

Day 8: Tour Dendera Temple; board cruise

Late afternoon tour of Luxor Temple

Day 9: Optional tour of Valley of the Kings, etc. We opted out since we have done this exact tour twice on other trips

Day 10: Edfu Temple

Day 11: Optional tour of Abu Simbel. We opted out, due to the extreme heat as well as the 3 am wakeup call for those that went!

Day 12: Disembark cruise; tour Philae Temple; fly to Cairo

Day 13: Optional Tour of Grand Egyptian Museum and Grand Bazaar visit

Day 14: fly home!

Technically, this is advertised as a 16-day tour, but day one is flying and day two is arriving and relaxing.

I would like to point out that though the Nile River cruise is advertised as four days in length, most of that time is spent docked rather than cruising. We spent our first night on board but did not yet leave Luxor. The following day was an optional tour of Luxor’s west bank sites. Likewise, the final night of the cruise was spent docked at Aswan. So, essentially, two days cruising, two days docked. There were no balconies on the ship (nor are there on any of the other ships we saw), and as is typical of river cruises, we docked next to several other ships while in port. The ships were stacked five deep at one stop! This meant walking through other ships to get to shore. It also meant that there was no view from the cabins, other than looking directly at another cabin on the ship next door. The windows had some type of glazing so that you could not actually see anything. I couldn’t believe how many other ships there were on the Nile River; this is obviously a very popular activity.

Here are some pictures along the way:

Our tour guide, Walid Ghonem, was excellent. He was a fount of knowledge regarding the temples we visited and took care of any problems immediately. If you have any thoughts regarding booking an Egypt tour with Gate 1, I would find one where he was the tour guide (he leads all the different tours Gate 1 offer of Egypt; not just the one we booked). Just like in Jordan, we had an Egyptian police officer with us everywhere we went. We felt perfectly safe and would not hesitate to recommend visiting this part of the world.