Egypt and Jordan, Pt 1
Now that the dust has started to settle and I'm mentally back in the correct time zone, I'm ready to talk about it. :)
This was our first "tour" kind of trip. We have always preferred to go it alone on our vacations, allowing us to take our time and see all the obscure things we (read: Brad) want to see rather than follow somebody else's itinerary. But when I was reading up on Egypt, there were so many warnings about the ways you can get ripped off, and there were so many places in Egypt we wanted to see, that we decided that maybe a tour would allow us (read: me) to relax a bit more instead of constantly worrying.
Once we started looking at tours, we noticed that lots of Egypt ones also included Jordan on the itinerary. It wasn't a place that I'd had a burning desire to see before, but the more I read, the more I liked the idea.
We ended up going with Imaginative Traveler, an English company which recently bought Gecko Travel, an Australian company. They specialize in small groups (no more than 15 on most trips), and do more adventurous itineraries. I would definitely recommend them and consider going again - both guides (we had one for Egypt and one for Jordan) were extremely organized and professional, and kept our trip going smoothly. Our group in Egypt was terrific - only 8 of us, 3 Australians, 2 Brits, a Canadian, and us, and all very close in age and appetites. We picked up a few more Aussies and Brits in Jordan, but even a group of 11 felt like a great size. The people we met and spent time with really contributed to our having a great trip.
The Gang (in Jerash, in Jordan):
ETA: Photo album link here:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EbNGrho3ZMWH-
This was our first "tour" kind of trip. We have always preferred to go it alone on our vacations, allowing us to take our time and see all the obscure things we (read: Brad) want to see rather than follow somebody else's itinerary. But when I was reading up on Egypt, there were so many warnings about the ways you can get ripped off, and there were so many places in Egypt we wanted to see, that we decided that maybe a tour would allow us (read: me) to relax a bit more instead of constantly worrying.
Once we started looking at tours, we noticed that lots of Egypt ones also included Jordan on the itinerary. It wasn't a place that I'd had a burning desire to see before, but the more I read, the more I liked the idea.
We ended up going with Imaginative Traveler, an English company which recently bought Gecko Travel, an Australian company. They specialize in small groups (no more than 15 on most trips), and do more adventurous itineraries. I would definitely recommend them and consider going again - both guides (we had one for Egypt and one for Jordan) were extremely organized and professional, and kept our trip going smoothly. Our group in Egypt was terrific - only 8 of us, 3 Australians, 2 Brits, a Canadian, and us, and all very close in age and appetites. We picked up a few more Aussies and Brits in Jordan, but even a group of 11 felt like a great size. The people we met and spent time with really contributed to our having a great trip.
The Gang (in Jerash, in Jordan):
ETA: Photo album link here:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EbNGrho3ZMWH-