Help Me Pick An October Cruise For Me

D Ball" wrote:

I am so behind on my trip report. Oh well. If I don't finish the Med &
Millie, that's okay, but I do want to complete the Egypt/Nile report as
that
was, as your Mom says, a spectacular journey that I think more rtc'ers
should consider.


I'm looking forward to your report on the Nile Cruise, too, Diane.
In which order did you take your cruises? Nile first or the Med?
Would you do a similar combination again in the future, i.e. a river cruise and
an ocean cruise? Did you spend much time between cruises on land?

RTCReferee: (1) We cruised the Med first, then the Nile. (2) We did not plan
the trip around cruising, so until you presented it that way, I had never
thought of it as a combo ocean/river cruise trip. All of our prior trips to
Europe have been land trips-throwing the Med cruise in with the Egypt trip
was something of a fluke. I'm not sure if the Nile cruise is even comparable
to other river cruises? The Nile river experience is more akin to a floating
hotel situation than a cruise like we know it. (3) We spent 4 days on land
in Egypt before boarding the Nile cruiser.



To be perfectly honest, I cannot recommend the trip we took to any sane
person, LOL. We had a glorious time, of course, but it was borderline
brutal: 1 travel day; 5 days on land (Madrid/Barcelona) before boarding the
Med cruise; 12-night Med cruise with 8 port stops/2 At Sea days; 1
intermediate travel day; 4 days on land Egypt + 3-night Nile cruise; 2
travel days to get home. I won't bore you with the details of how our trip
ended up looking like that, but it wasn't by design. Under ideal
circumstances, what I'd recommend to anyone desiring to make a journey to
Egypt is to allow for a minimum of 5 days on land and a 4-night Nile cruise
(3- and 4-night cruises are the norm, there are variations I won't go into
here), plus travel days on either side (it's a pretty good distance away,
hence each trip will likely span the better part of 2 days). If at all
possible, I would add to that trip a minimum 3-night "rest and relaxation"
stop at the end. The logical choice would be Sharm el Shiekh on the Sinai
Peninsula-it's a very cosmopolitan beach resort featuring a full range of
properties, including a luxurious Ritz Carlton, plus the draw of the Red Sea
for divers & snorkelers. For a non-beachy respite, a perfect option that
occurred to me when we flew home via Milan [the best air connection out of
Egypt for us, London was a distant second and much longer/costlier] was the
Italian Lakes District. We went up to Lake Como once to recover from a
flight from the States to Milan-the mountain lakes scenery is drop dead
gorgeous, and there's not much to do there but eat, drink and relax in the
good hands of friendly Italians.



Talking about it again should spur me on to finish the Egypt/Nile report.



Diana Ball

near Houston, TX



"RTCReferee" wrote in message
...

I'm looking forward to your report on the Nile Cruise, too, Diane.
In which order did you take your cruises? Nile first or the Med?
Would you do a similar combination again in the future, i.e. a river
cruise and
an ocean cruise? Did you spend much time between cruises on land?