Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Trip of a Lifetime (again!)

Well, we're 6 weeks away from my Trip of a Lifetime, which seems to happen on a annual basis for us! We're headed to Jordan and Egypt in March, a trip that I planned on the occasion of my 40th birthday (ugh, I can't possibly be that old ;).

Why this particular destination, you may ask?! Well, we've traveled throughout Asia, which does not seem as exotic to me, since I'm from there. And we've been taking big trips to Europe for the past few years - Tuscany, Denmark, Scotland and most recently, Provence last summer. So for an out-of-this world trip, the two major options were an African safari or Egypt. After discussions with friends who've done both, the consensus was that Egypt would be great for the kids at this age. And besides, I had always wanted to be an Egyptologist when I was younger. I changed my mind after coming to the conclusion that all the really good tombs had been discovered, and that the desert climate wouldn't be great for my skin (seriously!)

So Egypt it was! I looked up Travel and Leisure magazine's top travel agent for Egypt - Malaka Hilton at Admiral Travel. I also chatted with another friend who had taken her family on a 3 week trip to Egypt last year. Malaka helped me put together a personalized itinerary covering Petra in Jordan, Cairo, Alexandria and a Nile cruise, using Abercrombie & Kent as the on-the-ground outfitters.

So we're leaving in mid-March for our two week trip that covers pretty much everything I wanted to do. With another few days, I could have added some desert portions, visiting Siwa Oasis for example. But that will have to wait.