Jordan & Egypt Trip Comments
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26 February to 17 March 2006
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It was a great trip! We visited many ancient temples and monuments, entered a number of
beautiful and inspiring Moslem mosques, saw some early Christian churches and monasteries,
bathed in the Dead Sea, smoked a water pipe, shopped in several souks, cruised the Nile,
sailed in feluccas, rode camels through the desert, stayed in luxurious hotels, dined on exotic
fare, learned something of Jordanian and Egyptian history, religions and customs, had the
pleasant company of an interesting group of fellow travelers, and the services of excellent
tour escorts and guides.
What more could we ask?
We could ask EgyptAir to improve their food and beverage service and do a better job of
keeping their restrooms clean and adequately supplied.
Overseas Adventure Travel could be asked to schedule their air transportation from New York
to Amman more directly, without tourists having to start their vacation with a five-hour
layover in the Cairo airport. We could also ask OAT when scheduling excursions to bear in
mind that no vacationer enjoys a series of pre-dawn wakeup calls. We could also ask OAT that
after marketing their small-group tours as "never more than 16 travelers" they should not
combine two of their groups (totaling about 30 persons) to go together to the same places at
the same time, as they did on our tour. OAT tours would be more pleasant if OAT paid their
tour escorts, guides, and drivers adequately, thus doing away with need for the many
requests/reminders regarding tips. With these exceptions OAT did a good job of providing
us with an excellent tour of Jordan and Egypt.