Travel Betty

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The national wine of Egypt is red and usually (like most Egyptian liquids) syrupy sweet. It is also non-alcoholic. In a devout Muslim country, what did you expect? I first encountered Karkade as the welcome drink on our Lake Nasser cruise aboard the M.S. Eugenie. It’s actually a tea, not a wine, but our Abu [...]

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I never set out to dislike a place. I mean, it’s my vacation and I want to enjoy it so I’m always optimistically hopeful whenever I arrive at a new place. And the Siwa Shali Resort was no exception. It looked beautiful online and I had read two good reviews on Trip Advisor, but sometimes [...]

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It wasn’t that long ago visitors to the remote Siwa Oasis (literally in Bum Fuck Egypt, 31 miles East of the Libyan border) would more likely find themselves fearing for their lives than being shown a table at one of the palm-shaded cafés dotted throughout town. To say that has now changed is a laughable [...]

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The true craftsmen of bed, bath and beyond reside in Egypt. It isn’t that their towels are extra super fluffy (they’re not). Or that their sheets have high thread counts (I never bothered to check). What I mean is that the country is full of people who can shape linens into an unimaginable array of [...]

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Sometimes the idea of an activity is much better than the reality. Sex on a beach or anywhere near loose and abundant sand falls into this category. And now for me, so does cruising the Nile. Let me set the stage. There are 280 boats that are licensed to ply the waters between Aswan and [...]

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The fact that there are 280 cruise ships belching back and forth between a small section of the world’s longest river when there are only a handful of ships stretching their nautical muscle across the world’s largest manmade lake not much farther to the south makes it an easy decision which will make for the [...]

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Recently I booked a trip to Egypt for 33 days. The problem? Tourist visas are only issued for 30. However, I’ve heard that you get a 15-day grace period for overstaying, but what kind of Travel Betty wants to put that to the test? Finding myself marking off days on the wall of a third-world [...]

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There are two things that turn me off about international travel: long haul flights and inoculations. Sadly neither can really be avoided. And aside from maybe losing weight in an effort to create more room for myself in coach, I don’t see the long haul flights getting better any time soon. Fortunately though, I’ve found [...]

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