How did we choose this trip?

Welcome to our trip to Egypt vacation blog! I'm Jen and will be doing most, if not all, of the blogging, and hubby is J. We figured this would be the best way to share our trip planning, photos, possibly videos, and trip journal with our friends and family (and anyone else who happens upon this blog).

How did we choose Egypt? We like to take one "big" vacation a year, it doesn't always happen, but we've been able to take several great trips together. Due to job and vacation schedule constraints, we usually have about 2 weeks for a real vacation. In the past it's been Las Vegas, Washington DC, Mexico, and a few cruises to the Caribbean. This year we were looking at Peru. It sounded wonderful, but, well, it involved a lot of hiking, canoeing, and sleeping in an "eco hut" (guess which one of us was not into that!). So, the search was on for a fabulous vacation. We literally looked at our globe and asked ourselves where we've always wanted to visit. J has been to so many places - more countries than I can count - and I've been to a few places in Europe. We hope one day to go to China, Australia, back to Europe, Russia, Greece, and on and on, but this time we both said: "Egypt!"  

Let the planning begin! If we had more time, say 4-6 weeks, we wouldn't bother with a tour company and just do it ourselves, but our jobs necessitate shorter time constraints. We wanted something authentic, but not too authentic (i.e. no "eco huts"). The first company I looked into sounded nice, but upon further investigation, we found they stop at every tourist trap and several of our meals would be at chain restaurants, which we don't even choose to eat at when we're home, so we certainly didn't want to eat there in Egypt. The search continued and we booked with a great company that J has used before. They have small tours that are authentic, but still comfortable. We found flights that are reasonable and at great times for us. I'm not looking forward to the 17+ hours of travel, but it will be worth it when I get to see the pyramids and, hopefully, ride a camel (we'll be taking lots of pictures of that experience!). For now, we're still working on backpacks and proper clothing. Thankfully, we have several months to prepare, but I know the time will fly by!