Help with Travel Plans please
 

Hi: My daughter (30) and I (60) are not experienced travellers. Would the following be a goer? ... From Bris/ Australia to Cairo/Turkey (?safe)/maybe Greek Islnd/Venice and return.
Is Cairo the destination for trip on Nile and seeing pyramids. Is Turkey safe if not near borders? Where is Petra? Or any other suggestions please. We will leave about Mar/April '05 and will have 4 weeks. We just want basic clean accom. It will be a 'once in a lifetime' trip for me.
With thanks....mandg

Petra is in Jordan.

You're looking to do rather a lot of trekking around. Whilst I appreciate it's a LONG way to come from Australia all the travelling from Egypt to Turkey to Greece to Italy is going to cost you. Do you have a budget in mind (excluding the initial airfare from Australia). Incidentally are you intending to buy an open-jaw ticket? (E.g. Australia to Egypt, then you spend your 4 weeks, then the return ticket is Italy back to Australia). They are more expensive but save you a day's travel and additional cost getting from Italy back to Egypt for the return flight home.

Are you intending to book anything in advance (accommodation, train or airline tickets etc.)?

I think you need to do some research into exactly what it is you want to see most, work out yourself how much time you'd like to spend at each place and then start exploring (via an agent or independently) how feasible this is in terms of availability and costs.

mandg, I can't give any advices but wish you having a great time on your lifetime trip. I wish I could have it one day.

First, Petra is located in Jordan.

We did a trip that included flying into Jordan for a few days to visit Petra then flew to Egypt for 10-days; so those can be done together. From Egypt you should be able to fly to Turkey, and from Turkey fly to Greece.

But you have to determine how, where, how long for each of these destinations.

As Kavey mentions, it would be best you get an open-jaw ticket (in one country, out another) and then there are the flights between countries.

I would you sit down with a reputable travel agent to determine your possible are routing and cost of such a ticket. Given that and knowing the days planes fly, you can determine where to go first and for how long, before continuing onto another country. Within each country you can work with an in-country tour operator to arrange your schedules, sights to see, Nile cruise, etc.; you can choose these on your own or thru a travel agent, but you have to know what it is you want to accomplish.

Suggest you get a few guidebooks for the countries you are considering, so you have an idea of sights, hotels, etc. available before you start on your own, or hand it over to an agent.

Hello Mandg,

A couple of thoughts. I suspect a travel agent would mention these ideas, but here they are anyway.

In the northern hemisphere spring, you'd probably want to travel from south to north so as to follow the progress of the warm weather.

If I was Australian I would love to visit Gallipoli, and if I could arrange my trip so that I was there on Anzac Day, I think I would regard that as all the more special.

Given that so many Australians travel to Turkey for that reason, I'm guessing a fair number of your local travel agents have experience in arranging trips to that region.

Sandi's idea of looking at guidebooks is a great one. If you don't want to commit to the purchase of guidebooks immediately, you might consider borrowing them from the library.

Another thing I do when I'm researching an area that's totally new to me is do an Internet search for guided tours of that area. Even if I have no intention of going on a guided tour, it gives me a quick idea of what the most popular sights in the area are, what timeframe is required to do justice to a given area, etc.

For a really quick overview of a new place, one can look at Lonely Planet's website. I suspect you know of it already, but in case not, here are some of their pages that would be relevant to you.

Egypt

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/africa/egypt/

Jordan

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinat...e_east/jordan/

Turkey

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinat...e_east/turkey/

Greece

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/europe/greece/

Italy

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/europe/italy/

Hope that helps.