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Re: Egypt: Jewels of the Nile
Hi all! Lots of questions here! I arrived in Cairo last evening, flying from Miami to Cairo with a 2-hr stop in Frankfurt on Lufthansa. Really easy connection with plenty of time to spare. I’m on the Jewels of the Nile tour and am happy to answer questions or look for things for you in advance of your trips. The first hotel, Marriott Mena House is a showstopper, with a view of a pyramid from our rooms! The tour starts today, so I’ll try to check in here often! Judy
ChicagoTravelers
Re: Are you ready for Jordan & Egypt? Note about clothing.
So I booked Egypt yesterday and what's the first song I heard on the radio this morning after I got in the car?
Walk Like an Egyptian by The Bangles 
BKMD
Re: Arriving in Edinburgh before 11 AM on day 1
If you can, avoid British Air at all costs. We flew BA Business Class October 2018 From DC Dulles to Tel Aviv via London retrurning via Amman to London for the Israel and Jordan trip and it was terrible. Everything about Heathrow was bad - the Business Lounges, the Terminal itself, the long walk to the bus, the long bus ride to the plane, walking up the stairs to the plane. What was even worse was the Buisness Class. On our flight the Business seats actually faced each other with a up and down window divider between us. If you did not raise the window you would be staring directly at your neighbor. Even if you raise it, the staff will lower it multiple times to ask you questions or to serve food. In addition, we found the seating area to be as narrow as some economy seats. The topper was that the seating arrangement was such that if you had a seat near the window you would have to actually step OVER someone if they were in a stretched sleeping position to go to the restroom. We even paid extra money to sit in the upper level where there were only Business Class seating and that was a total waste of money. My suggestion is to do a lot of research on the type of plane. We use SEATGURU.com all the time. We saw some of this info on the site but we were limited in flights and times. Needless to say, we should have listened more carefully.
Re: Numbers on tour, cash, packing and laundry
Nobody cares whether you dress in the same outfit multiple times.
MCD
Re: Are you ready for Jordan & Egypt? Note about clothing.
I did some research today, the operative phrase now seems to be that the "The Gem is set to open at the end of 2020." According to the Minister of Egyptian Antiquities and Tourism, Khaled Al-Anany, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi could announce the specific date of the Gem's formal opening very soon.
Cairo’s new Sphinx International Airport (SPX) is perfectly located on the northern outskirts of 6th of October City. It opened its doors earlier last year as part of a plan to alleviate pressure on Cairo International Airport, which is on the eastern side of the capital. It is too bad we fly from Luxor to Cairo on a commercial flight, if we had a charter we might be able to land at SPX, which is a very short distance from the Marriott Mina House, the GEM, and the Pyramids.
Here is a link to a current article about the GEM: https://www.aluxurytravelblog.com/2020/01/12/grand-egyptian-museum/
AlanS
Re: Are you ready for Jordan & Egypt? Note about clothing.
Hopefully Tauck is aware and will adjust the itinerary? This will be a great extra day arrival activity on our own for most of a day whether Tauck spends a lot of time there or not on the official itinerary. Then we can head with Tauck to the sections we care to see again the most during their stop. Great research job Alan.
A beautiful day in the neighborhood!
We are headed to Yellowstone in a few weeks. In the meantime I have been routinely checking in on Old Faithful. The Park Service website https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm has a number of static webcams around the park that update every 30 secs. and one live streaming webcam that covers a number of geysers and fumaroles, including Old Faithful, in the Upper Geyser Basin. A bit below the Old Faithful shot on the webpage is an eruption predictor that has been pretty accurate (+ / - 10 min.).
After yesterday's cloudy skies and snow, this morning was beautiful- the sky is blue, not a cloud in sight, and the temperature, a crisp 5° F! 
I just caught the 9:13 am (CMT) eruption. There were a few but not many spectators! A bit early and a bit too nippy? The eruption is winding down in the screen capture below. A kid must be at the webcam controls, because the scene keeps jumping around.
AlanS
Re: CRUISING THE SEINE + LONDON/PARIS - Sept 2019
We are back! GREAT TRIP. We were so lucky and had fabulous weather from start to finish. They warned us throughout the entire trip that Normandy is normally rainy. We had 45 mins of mist and the balance sun.
We went into London 2 days early and walked to the War Room and the Tower from the hotel (23,000 steps each day!). I would HIGHLY recommend both. We went late morning and had no issues purchasing tickets and getting in immediately (on a Thurs and Fri). I will say that when we got out of the War Room, there was a huge crowd waiting to get in. GO TO THE THEATER. I purchased tix in advance for that (saw The Lion King which was 3 blocks from the hotel, and really enjoyed the production). It was such a wonderful experience. We found a little hole in the wall Tapas restaurant close to the hotel/theater that was so good, we went twice, and recommended it to others. Most people commented that the coverage of London by Tauck was shabby, and put that on their comment cards. I do believe they have added a private tour of the War Room for 2020. SMART. British, this was our 4th Tauck trip and you don't allow for one day in London and do so little. It was almost wasteful. Thankfully we took the opportunity to do things on our own.
The riverboat was comfortable, the food was exceptional and the staff on board could not have been nicer. We had a category 6 room which was spacious and had a fabulous bathroom with a big shower. If your weather is good, get a drink and go to the top level of the boat. It's so relaxing.
Monet's gardens were jaw dropping, and the after hours visit to the Louvre a treat. Normandy will tug at your heart. A woman from Paris came up to my husband and me, asked where we were from, and when we told her the US, she thanked us over and over. OMG....
As always, we met so many wonderful guests aboard the ship. One couple was on their 26th Tauck trip.
Tonto524, let me know if you have any questions while everything is fresh in my mind. I'd be happy to share the name of the restaurant with you, if you'd like it. I hope your weather is as good as ours was and that you enjoy the trip as much as we did.
MarilynandGary
Re: Are you ready for Jordan & Egypt? Note about clothing.
UPDATE: New info about dinner on Day 4 (Petra Day). In my post above I provided info about the dinner on Petra Day. The online itinerary (I don't have my Green Book yet) says,
"Join us tonight for a private tented dinner in the desert, enjoying a fruit-infused hubbly-bubbly smoke, music and dancing by a local troupe of sword dancers."
I was just informed by a Tauck agent about a change- we will have a choice between dinner at the Movenpick or dinner with a local family. I will need to think about that one. Eating at the hotel gives me more time for my trek! See the note I added to the Google time-dist. map of my planned Petra trek in my post above.
I'm sure more adjustments will happen, especially after the first few tours have submitted critiques.
AlanS
Re: Are you ready for Jordan & Egypt? Note about clothing.
Mil- I don't have my Green Book yet but from my research, discussions with prior Israel & Jordan tour travelers, and talking with Tauck HQ, the Jordan & Egypt tour day in Petra should go something like this:
Early breakfast (6:30), depart the Movenpick around 8:00 walk to the site entrance, then (downhill) to the Siq, to the Treasury with a guide using Vox/Whisper listening devices. What follows is a guided walk along the Street of Facades, stop for tea, etc., past the theater, the colonnaded street, and old city center in the open area to the Crowne Hotel Basin Restaurant, arriving for lunch around 11:30 for a buffet lunch. It is 2 mi. walk but all down hill. There are no stops at the Royal Tombs nor organized climbs to Ad Deir (Monastery), the High Place of Sacrifice, or the climb to the Treasury overlook. The method of travel back to the Treasury/entrance to the Siq which is all up hill is your choice of camel, donkey, horse/donkey cart or walking. The afternoon is free if you want to stay at the site to explore more. After lunch, some will choose to make the climb by foot or hire a donkey to take them from the Basin Restaurant up to Ad Deir. If you stay at the site you need to be back in time for dinner- the bus departs the Movenpick hotel at 5:30 or later???? (argh can't find my notes!!!!) for a (Movenpick catered) Bedouin style dinner at 7:30. Remember, any or all of this is subject to change.
Here are varous maps of the site (the second one is for serious "hikers" so if you are not one of those don't rely on times). I will stay with the group through lunch (if I decide to eat lunch), then plan to make the (800 step!) trek up to Ad Deir, then, if I have any energy left after arriving back down at the Basin Restaurant, I will follow the Wadi Al Farasa trail (marked in yellow) to the far side of Jabal al-Madhbah (the Treasury mountain), up to the High Place of Sacrifice, then back down to the Street of Facades and back to the hotel. You can use Google Maps to view the site in detail, do time distance planning, and even use Google Maps Street View to "walk the entire site AND trails virtually (someone walked all the main and many of the side trails with Google's 360° digital mapping camera!!!)
The Google Map below shows my planned afternoon trek route - (toilets at) Basin Restaurant - Ad Deir (Monastery) - Basin Restaurant - Wadi Al Farasa trail - Renaissance Tomb, etc. - High Place of Sacrifice - (toilets at) the Street of Facades. If I can't get a cart, I will also need to walk back (uphill) through the Siq to the main entrance (and to our nearby hotel). If you do the math, Google's time is based on a speed of 3 mph- pretty fast stroll, even on flat terrain!!! (when I do my training walks, I do a 16 + min. miIe but that is non-stop on flat terrain and doesn't include stops to rest, drink water, or take photos. So, please, don't use these figures for hard planning. On a positive note, at least for me, if we choose to have dinner at the hotel instead of in a private home and for our, tour sunset doesn't occur until 5:53 pm. That should give me plenty of time to complete my trek even if it takes me twice as long (as long as my body holds out! )
AlanS