Travel Advice Request

[commodoremarie]

Okay folksies, I'm hoping to solicit some travel advice! Please

Comments

[zhukora1]

Just as a note on Azerbaijan and Georgia, one of the girls in my cohort is on a dig in Armenia and has lately been complaining about the difficulty--nay, the impossibility--of her routing supplies through one of those countries or traveling there herself even though there is relevant material she'd like to excavate because they A) won't give her a visa, and B) will probably kill her (Azerbaijan only, on that count). It sounds like a lot of this is probably due to the fact that she is Armenian and there's a lot of ethnic strife in the region (though she did just get her US citizenship and doesn't have an Armenian name on account of being married, and this doesn't seem to have changed the situation much). Idk, even if you theoretically can go there, I'd be wary of traveling in a country with such discriminating visa policies, especially alone, just on principle

[mbaokea]

They'll give you a hard time, re: Syria and Lebanon, but they won't necessarily stop you from coming in. A number of people on my trip extended their stay and were able to get in - hassles at borders and in the airport, but not impossible. Still, probably not worth the trouble.

[hllangel]

I spent two weeks in Athens a few years back and loved it there. There's one island in day-ferry range, so you get some of the island stuff on the cheap. And the hostel I stayed at had a killer roof-top bar overlooking the acropolis. Greek/Australian owned. They were fantastic.

[karitawyr]

I always wanted to see Petra, Jordan. It's an Indiana Jones thing.

[jedi_diplomat]

It is TOTALLY worth going! I went a couple of years ago, and I wish I had more time there! It was AWESOME!!!!

[jedi_diplomat]

I've been to Jordan. It's beautiful. However, if you're going in and out of Israel it's off the table. So is any other Arab League country. The Israelis won't let you back in with a stamp from an Arab League country, exception being I think Egypt, and most Arab countries won't let you in with an Israeli stamp. I hear that Cyprus, while gorgeous and fun, is extremely expensive

[zhukora1]

It's totally doable to go back and forth between Jordan and Israel, and also to get whatever entry stamps/visas you need for Jordan at the Israel/Jordan border crossing. I've done this before at the Wadi Araba crossing, and they gave me a lot less grief in both directions than crossing into/out of Egypt.

[half_elf_lost]

Jordan or Egypt.

Research a little bit about how to avoid problems entering both and returning to Israel. Both have a lot of tourist traffic back and forth (at least they did when friends of mine visited), and there are ways to do it if you plan ahead.