The Grand Maghreb and the Near East

Tour Jerusalem , Marrakech and the Nile - All in 16 Days : Tour Starts Daily . Year Round
This is a private tour . Choose your own travel date

DAY 1 - MARRAKECH - Daily Arrival - This is a private tour - Choose your own date
Our staff escorts you to the airport for your flight to Marrakech. Air fare Paris Marrakech is included in our rates. Our international flight arrives in Casablanca. After completing customs and immigration formalities, we connect with our flight which takes us south to mystical Marrakech. Our staff escorts us to our hotel . Welcome mint tea & Moroccan sweets .

DAY 2 - MARRAKECH (BLD)
We board a horse-drawn carriage for a clip-clop tour of this ancient royal capital, including the Kotoubia, a former royal palace, and of course the labyrinthine souks (bazaars). Lunch is included at a charming local restaurant.

A complimentary Dinner is included at a local home:
Meet the locals, you may wish to bring token gifts to exchange with the host family ( T shirt , small souvenirs of your home town ) This evening we'll venture where few ordinary visitors ever tread . . . right into the homes of some of the people of Marrakech l! You'll be invited to a family dinner, and while you enjoy wholesome home-cooked specialties, you'll learn about and appreciate the outlook, aspirations, and way of life of your hosts. Of course, you may enjoy a quiet evening with your travel companions, by letting us know your preferences.

Henna party ( For ladies only ) :
One of the "insiders" excursions into Moroccan culture, a chance to attend a henna party, the painting of hands and body r with this natural red dye is a symbol of joy at weddings and regarded as a way to enhance one's beauty , if interested in attending a Henna party , please let's know in advance.

One of the lounges at Dar Donab Riad

Deir El Medinah is on Luxor's west bank you get a totally different perspective on ancient Egyptian life, at the ancient workers' settlement of Deir el-Medinah. While most of the imposing stone monuments and sites of Egypt honor the lives and after-lives of royalty, Deir el-Medinah gives us unique and surprising insights into the ordinary citizens who constructed and decorated the tombs.

Here we'll see the excavated homes shared by laborers with their domestic animals. These quarters were surprisingly large, with three good-sized rooms, courtyard, kitchen, and even storage cellars. While ancient Egypt might not have been a workers' paradise, we'll see that artisans and builders were highly regarded in their community. We are proud to be the only operator to offer regular visits to this singular ancient settlement in its tour and cruise programs.
Of course there is more : We visit the Valley of the Kings ( including King Tut's Tomb ) , Valley of the Queens including Queen Hatshepsut Deir El Bahari Temple and the Colossi of Memnon.

Lunch is included at Al-Moudira , or return to your hotel for lunch .
Afternoon horse drawn carriage ride through the local village and souks, stop for a tour at the small yet charming Luxor Museum. For your tours : Private air-conditioned vehicle . Private Egyptologist.

The wilds of the desert begin right on the outskirts of Cairo, and continue for hundreds of miles to the east and west, through sands, rock, mountains, oases, and a surprising variety of scenery and inhabitants.

Join us for a day ranging across the desert like modern nomads. In place of camels, we’ll travel in comfortable, reliable four-by-four Toyota Land Cruisers. Your guide and drivers will meet you at your hotel, and soon you’ll leave bustling Cairo behind as you undertake the drive toward the Oasis of El Fayoum, 150 kilometers to the southwest. Hard as it is to believe, a great inland sea once covered these sands. It was a holy reserve of sacred crocodiles, symbolized by the god Sobek.

We’ll visit the temple of Kom Oshim, drive over ancient lake beds, and alongside the waters of today’s Fayoum Lake to reach the fishermen’s village of Chak Chouk. There we’ll stop for a lunch of fish caught fresh that morning. There will be time to wander the village lanes and discreetly watch the everyday activities of baking flatbread, irrigating crops from the lake’s waters, and bringing in the catch. We’ll also include the craft and pottery museum where the best works of local artisans are on display.

Then it’s into our four-by-fours again, for an off-road adventure! We’ll head alongside and across desert washes, between dunes, and over ancient lake beds for 35 kilometers to the Valley of the Whales ( In Arabic : Wadi-El-Hitan) . Incredibly, these great mammals once thrived - almost forty million years ago- in waters surrounded by sands. We’ll stop and gaze in amazement at their fossilized remains alongside smaller sea creatures that remain in stone.
This valley was discovered in 1936 , by the German geologist George Schweinfurth in the northwestern corner of Wadi El-Rayan.

The valley provides evidence of one of the major changes in this mammal evolution has been declared by the UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site. It is believed that these land based whales once had feet that may have helped them somewhat while ashore . A team from the University of Michigan discovered in the late 80's that these Zeuglodon whales did have rudimentary feet , this was a startling discovery , suggesting that whales of Wadi -El-Hitan had recently started living in water as well , these whales were not related to any of the whales we have today , rather a more slender body and may grow up to 75 feet long. Several skeletons of whales are exposed in the sand. George Schweinfurth named this extinct specie the Zeuglodon Isis Whales .

In the evening, you’ll return to your hotel in Cairo. Land transportation in air-conditioned four-wheel-drive Toyota Land Cruiser with the services of driver and English-speaking driver. Lunch is included

DAY 11 - TEL AVIV & JERUSALEM (B)
Air fare is included Cairo to Tel Aviv in economy class, tax included .
Our local rep. meets you at Ben-Gurion airport, assists with arrival formalities, and escorts you to your Jerusalem hotel. When you choose your own date, we may have to change tours / sites visits around to accommodate religious holidays and Sabbath. Private air-conditioned vehicle, private chauffeur , private guide for the tours.

DAY 12 - JERUSALEM ( tours are subject to change in Jerusalem subject to the weekend and religious holidays (B)
We start our explorations of Jerusalem, holy city to Christians, Jews and Muslims, with a drive to the Mount of Olives, which offers panoramic views. We visit the Church of Pater Noster and the Chapel of the Ascension on our way to the Garden of Gethsemane. From the Garden, we enter Jerusalem's walls to the Old City for a visit to the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock. We follow in Jesus' footsteps along the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Private air-conditioned vehicle, private chauffeur , private guide for the tours.

DAY 13 - JERUSALEM (B)
Now that you've had a tour of the city, set out on your own to discover its charms: the narrow bazaar streets of the Old City, the cheerful cafés of New Jerusalem, and the broad boulevards surrounding the modern city.

DAY 14 - JERUSALEM & BETHLEHEM (B)
We start our tour at the scale model of Jerusalem as it appeared in Herod's time, then go on to the Shrine of the Book to see the sacred Dead Sea Scrolls. Then it's on to Ein Kerem and Bethlehem for a visit to the Church of the Nativity, stopping at the Shepherds' Field on the way back to Jerusalem. Private air-conditioned vehicle, private chauffeur , private guide for the tours.

DAY 15 - BETHANY, DEAD SEA & MASADA (B)
We drive to Bethany and the site of the Good Samaritan's inn, then continue through the Judean Hills down to the Dead Sea, below sea level. At Qumran, we see the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. We go on to the verdant oasis of Ein Gedi, and return to Jerusalem passing by fabled Jericho, the oldest city in the world. Private air-conditioned vehicle, private chauffeur , private guide for the tours.

RATES per person in USD

Your tour includes:

• Regional airfare from Casablanca / Cairo / Tel Aviv , including tax in economy class with tax .

• Domestic airfares within Egypt and Morocco as well as Cairo Tel Aviv, all in economy class , including tax

• First-class day train Marrakech-Casablanca and sleeper train Cairo-Luxor, including tax and service

• All airport and train station transfers in Morocco and Egypt as described in the tour itinerary, always on a private basis

• Your hotel room at a carefully-selected deluxe, first class l, whichever you prefer, including tax & service. Egypt : we use Hilton/ Sheraton/Meridien/ Sonesta for Deluxe or for First Class : Shepheard's or similar

• B = Breakfast, (or aB, American Buffet Breakfast), L = Lunch, D = Dinner and all Egyptian airport taxes.

• Private guided sightseeing as listed in the itinerary including all entrance fees. US , Australian, EU , Canadian , NZ, and Japanese passport holders need a visa to enter Egypt. You will obtain a visa at the airport upon arrival in Cairo With our compliments, as long as you have an American or Japanese passport that is valid for at least 6 month . Visas are not required of US and Canadian passport holders for entry into Morocco.
  
  
  

   

  What's not included:

  • Insurance of any kind.
  • Tips.
  • International air fare from/ to your home country
  
  

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE ON LUGGAGE: When flying between North Africa cities and Tel Aviv you will be allowed only one piece of luggage to be checked in plus one for the carry on