travel to the Middle East?

[[email protected]]

Any ideas on when travel to the Middle East will be OK again - I had been looking at the Nile cruise that was posted frequently on LL but then all the **** hit the fan and travel to the ME has dropped considerably. Egypt and Jordan are on my "bucket list" and the last time this cruise was listed on LL it was such a good deal.

[kyshel]

It was an excellent value. I have a few more small dahabiya sailboat sites to explore if you want info.
Also a steamship. I've now been 3 times and really want to return as soon as DL starts service agai
Petra is an amazing place to see!! have not done other parts of jordan.

[[email protected]]

Since I have 2 LL certificates so far to use, I am trying to stick to LL for my next vacation but I may take you up on your site offer for future reference!

[LL_Travelfan]

I too saw the Oberoi Nile Cruise that was recently listed and voiced some interest in it. Alia contacted me and said she would put me in contact with the Oberoi for the Nile Cruise. When I wrote her back with some questions, she never got back to me. Perhaps she is off traveling....
I have since contacted another outfit called Studiosus Homepage - Studiosus Reisen München to get more information on a Nile Cruises. This is a German group, but I noticed, they also use the Oberoi Hotel Group.
From friends who just got back from Egypt I heard that it was quite safe to travel to the tourist sites in Egypt and that it was a pleasure to have the sites not overrun with hordes of tourists and that the guides had actually more time to devote to the people taking the tours.
From the catalog I saw that the best times to visit Egypt was Feb, March and Oct, Nov, and Dec.
I hope LL will put the Nile Cruise on again in the near future. We would love to see the sites there before it's too late.

[kyshel]

We're hoping for the Oberoi Philae back on LL. The Tosca is gorgeous but it includes too many things we don't want.

High season Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Off season is summer but some of the premium cruise are in "dry dock"
I have several sources for smaller boats, Nour el Nil, The steamship Sudan etc. If you'd like their contact info I'll send via PM, Denise.
We're still planning the Aswan/Luxor cruise for next year--3-4 nights in Aswan/Abu Simbel/Lake Nasser then back to Luxor (which we've just done, so it will just be new tomb options for a day or two. Don't miss Abydos and Dendara while in Luxor. Skip Memfis and use a private guide. If you have Starwood Points use Le Meridien intsead of Mena House at Giza or stay in Cairo at the Sheraton Gezirah Island.
We used Hass in Luxor [email protected]
and in Cairo: Abdo Ellahamy [email protected] good local guide and great driver/nice car

[[email protected]]

No points of anykind to use - we don't fly or stay in hotels enough to get any points ;-( so it would be whatever LL offers and of course if airfare is affordable. Egypt and Jordan is on our bucket list and would like to do it before we get too old. So many places to visit and so little time............

[jmbklj]

In a sign that cruise lines still are struggling to fill sailings that include calls in the Middle East, Crystal Cruises on Monday dropped two 2012 voyages that touch on the area.

Los Angeles-based Crystal canceled a 12-night "Ancient World Wonders" sailing out of Barcelona, Spain starting on Dec. 9, 2012 and a 14-night "Holiday in the Holy Land" sailing out of Piraeus, Greece starting on Dec. 21, 2012 -- both on the 1,080-passenger Crystal Serenity.

The Dec. 9 sailing included calls in Beirut, Lebanon and Damascus, Syria. The Dec. 21 sailing included calls in Ashdod, Israel and Alexandria, Egypt.

Cruise lines have struggled to fill sailings that include calls in the Middle East and North Africa in the wake of this year's unrest in the region. The "Arab Spring" revolts in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, in particular, caused a sharp downturn in bookings for 2011 Mediterranean voyages that included calls in the countries, forcing a number of cruise lines to reroute 2011 itineraries on short notice.

Crystal is one of the first lines to make a change to 2012 itineraries that include stops in the Middle East and North Africa.

The link to the article is below.

Crystal drops two cruises that include Middle East calls - USATODAY.com

[kyshel]

a side issue is that American air carriers have not reinstated flights to CAi or AMM (Jordan) and probably a few other cities. It just makes sense to restructure their cruise routings.

[saiqaro]

I think Dubai is the best place as I have visited it few times and I love to go next time as well. I have not visited other places in middle east so I cant compare with others.