HELP!! Have to cancel Trip to Egypt now France?
 

We (me, my husband and 15 year old son) were booked to fly to Cairo from Venice for a 10 day tour in Egypt starting June 3rd for my Husband's 50th birthday. With the upheavel in Egypt we are obviously cancelling the trip. Now my husband wants to do France, especially the Avignon area. I have no idea where to begin as I know nothing about France.

Does anyone have any suggestions for our Trip? How about tours or travel agents that can help us?

Thank you for all your help!

France can easily be done yourself. Look for a good guidebook, I like Lonely Planet, and look for what your family might be interested in. Paris will be the easiest city to fly into, but with connections you can fly into many other cities.

Things could very easily change/improve before June in Egypt so you could consider delaying canceling if it won't cost any extra money.

Get the Michelin Green Guide for the Provence. It will give you a good idea of sights to see.

With 10 days you could spend the whole time in Provence and not run out of things to do - or split the time between Provence and Paris, or Provence and the Riviera or Provence and Burgundy...

What are your interests? I highly recommend getting a few guide books and seeing what interests you and then coming back with specific questions.

Good luck - we love France!

June is a long way off. Why are you "obviously" cancelling the trip already?

I first visited the Avignon area in June 1970 and have returned there regularly -- sometimes as frequently as once a year. I recommend it, as a place that never stales.

It is a really easy area in which to find accommodation, roads are excellent, food is superlative.

But you haven't given us much to work with. How are you traveling, what kind of accommodation do you want, what are your interests?

If it is a first trip, I would resist the temptation to hop around. Find one place for a week -- rent a house or apartment. The remaining days you could stay in a B&B or hotel in 1 other centre.

You'll need a car to see the region properly.

Just did this Journey last May.

from Venice www.trenitalia.it to

www.lucca.info

www.metropole.it PortoFino/Cinqueterre area

San Remo Monaco Nice Provence

Avignon a bigger city prefer Arles or Aix

www.lecalendal.com a wonderful little hotel there.

www.booking.com excellent hotel resource.

easy to hop on off and self guide had a wonderful journey.

www.seat61.com best train info.

Flignts from Milan to Nice also possible not as scenic

or nice as train for me www.skyscanner.net.

Always prefer to stay flexible for best experience.

Happy Journey,

My thoughts are the same as Kerouac, June is a long way off and as Harold Wilson once said 'a week is a long time in politics'. When this is over Egypt will need all the tourism it can get

This isnt just a political change, there is a major sociopolitical wave that will take place. The social tremors can easily last years. I'd cancel, but then again I already know what it feels like to get caught between a few thousand protesters and the military.

France is a wonderful alternative.

10 day trip easy to do on your own. Since you have never been, try splitting your time between Paris and a region that interests you. We enjoyed our times in Normandy and Loire best

People were afraid to come to France last spring.

The atmosphere in Egypt will be far less oppressive in the coming months, and of course all of the tourist prices are going to drop through the floor.

The reason we are thinking about it now is that the final payment for our trip is due March 3. We don't know whether or not Avalon would impose penalties if we chose to back out within 90 days.

The new itinerary we are thinking is to go to Venice to the South of France then up to Paris. Normandy is one place I would like to do. However, we are concerned that we may be too late to get reservations for the region due to the D-Day celebrations.


Our interests are Mid-Evil History, World War II history, culinary, outdoor activities.

Any suggestions on transportation, hotels, tours etc. would be greatly appreciated

Thanks for all your help.

<<Mid-Evil History>>

Is that halfway between Low-Evil and High-Evil?

"Is that halfway between Low-Evil and High-Evil?"
Lol, you are a one!

Why don't you just call the tour company and see what they say in regard to possible cancellations. I'm sure no responsible tour company would commence a tour if the political/social conditions were unstable.

BTW, it's medieval.

If you travel to France independently, most hotels will allow same day cancellations if necessary.

If your interest in Egypt is antiquities, you may want to consider travel to Israel instead - there certainly are plenty of those over there.

Avalon Waterways advised us that "Deposits are non-refundable if you cancel your vacation" They also said that they are only giving refunds to people who have trips going between now and February 28th. They told us functionally that we have to pay for the Egypt trip, (which is due the first of March), and hope that the situation subsides in Egypt. If not, then they will give us a refund a couple of weeks before our June 3, 2011 trip. Until then that ties up close to $8000 for the cruise and we must keep our reservations for the air travel Venice to Cairo to London. Despite our requests they have not offered to accomodate us on another trip.

Kigallo, looking at your interests i think France may well suit you better than Egypt.

Medieval - you won't find many(if any)in Egypt that I know of but France is full of medieval villages, my favourite are in the Midi-Pyrenees.

World War 11 sites - The only one I know of in Egypt is El Alamein, I havn't been there but intend going in October this year. In France I have visited the D Day Landing beaches several times ( my dad was there) and have never had trouble finding accommodation. The war started in 39, landings 44 and end 45. Are you sure there is a special commemoration this year? I have always stayed at Arromanches which is the British site but have also visited all sites and I don't think you will have trouble finding accommodation in June 2011. If you like WW11 history the sites are excellent.

Culinary - I wasn't impressed with Egyptian cuisine but I didn't particularly like Moroccan or Turkish either. My friends think I have no taste (I prefer French/Italian) so take this with a pinch of salt.

Outdoor activities - In Egypt you will be up early to view the antiquities and ancient sites. In France there are lots of outdoor activities.

I love France and also loved Egypt they are so different. My advice is if you want to see the ancient - wait and see what happens in Egypt. If you want the medieval go to France.

Given what I have read about the Mubarak regime, both in the western press and online on Al Jazeera, I'd say "Mid-Evil" describes Egypt pretty aptly.