So, as you all know through my last post (I'm assuming you read it), we i.e, me and my hubby D were all set for a vacation. By 'all set' I mean we had agreed that we wanted/needed a break from our routines and so had thought of going on a vacation, and after much discussion (arguments??) we had settled on a trip to Egypt.
So what do you do when you've finally decided on a place for your vacation and are all in a tizzy over it? Obviously, you plan ahead. You surf through the net and pay visits to numerous travel sites, call a few travel agents who you feel are giving good deals/packages to your desired destination, maybe spend a day visiting tour and travel companies downtown, read as many travel blogs as you can and make the lonely planet website your homepage. Trust me, I did all of this, only to realize that even after two weeks of trying to find a proper travel package/deal, I was no near to getting it than I was a month ago.
To my utter frustration, I discovered that I'd visited most of the known travel companies and tour operators who were operating Egypt tours and yet had not succeeded in finding one that suited my needs as well as my pocket, and to add insult to injury most of the tour operators were asking me what all I wanted to see in Egypt and I had no answer to it. Well, they are the ones operating the tours; shouldn't they be telling me all the places to see in Egypt. Of course I wanted to visit the great pyramid, the sphinx, the cairo museum, but then that was not all there was to Egypt. Was it?
That was when it struck me that I actually knew very little of the place I so badly wanted to see. Actually, apart from these world renowned sites of which everyone knows, what else did I know about Egypt, its people, its culture, its history? Only as much as my history book and Hollywood had told me, which unfortunately was neither enough, nor accurate.
So with renewed vigor I delved into the history and geography of Egypt, both as a nation and as an empire and civilization. Thanks to the internet and specially Wikipedia.org, I was able to brush up my history as well as Egyptian mythology and religion. As for the geography, and other travel related queries, it was wikitravel.org that came to my rescue.
A wonderful site with all the information you need on a country, state, city or even a specific site. The articles in wikitravel included everything from the culture to the economy of the country as well as the rates of the tickets for entering the pyramids and the museums. Another site which provides detailed information specifically on Egypt is www.ask-aladdin.com. This site provides information on everything starting from the entry visas to train/bus timetables.
So being much better informed about my destination, I now prepared a chart to the places I wanted to see there, and if the tour company could add a few of there own, all the more better.
And yes, I finally found a travel company who provide private guides and cars at reasonable rates.
So if you are planning a vacation, make sure you know the place you want to go to and most if not all of the sites you want to see there. I'm sure you'll appreciate these sites more if you're well informed about them beforehand rather that hunting them up on guide books and on the internet later. And not to mention, the tour companies too will find it extremely difficult to make a monkey of well informed traveler :)
So what do you do when you've finally decided on a place for your vacation and are all in a tizzy over it? Obviously, you plan ahead. You surf through the net and pay visits to numerous travel sites, call a few travel agents who you feel are giving good deals/packages to your desired destination, maybe spend a day visiting tour and travel companies downtown, read as many travel blogs as you can and make the lonely planet website your homepage. Trust me, I did all of this, only to realize that even after two weeks of trying to find a proper travel package/deal, I was no near to getting it than I was a month ago.
To my utter frustration, I discovered that I'd visited most of the known travel companies and tour operators who were operating Egypt tours and yet had not succeeded in finding one that suited my needs as well as my pocket, and to add insult to injury most of the tour operators were asking me what all I wanted to see in Egypt and I had no answer to it. Well, they are the ones operating the tours; shouldn't they be telling me all the places to see in Egypt. Of course I wanted to visit the great pyramid, the sphinx, the cairo museum, but then that was not all there was to Egypt. Was it?
That was when it struck me that I actually knew very little of the place I so badly wanted to see. Actually, apart from these world renowned sites of which everyone knows, what else did I know about Egypt, its people, its culture, its history? Only as much as my history book and Hollywood had told me, which unfortunately was neither enough, nor accurate.
So with renewed vigor I delved into the history and geography of Egypt, both as a nation and as an empire and civilization. Thanks to the internet and specially Wikipedia.org, I was able to brush up my history as well as Egyptian mythology and religion. As for the geography, and other travel related queries, it was wikitravel.org that came to my rescue.
A wonderful site with all the information you need on a country, state, city or even a specific site. The articles in wikitravel included everything from the culture to the economy of the country as well as the rates of the tickets for entering the pyramids and the museums. Another site which provides detailed information specifically on Egypt is www.ask-aladdin.com. This site provides information on everything starting from the entry visas to train/bus timetables.
So being much better informed about my destination, I now prepared a chart to the places I wanted to see there, and if the tour company could add a few of there own, all the more better.
And yes, I finally found a travel company who provide private guides and cars at reasonable rates.
So if you are planning a vacation, make sure you know the place you want to go to and most if not all of the sites you want to see there. I'm sure you'll appreciate these sites more if you're well informed about them beforehand rather that hunting them up on guide books and on the internet later. And not to mention, the tour companies too will find it extremely difficult to make a monkey of well informed traveler :)
