FAQ – What Did We Learn in Africa?

Spending almost 10 weeks in Africa was eye-opening. We had a number of incredible experiences and learned so much. Here are a few of the lessons we’ll take with us: Beware of Bad Reputations Egypt really does have a terrible reputation among travelers – mostly due to the touts (the people constantly trying to sell…

FAQ – How Well Did We Budget for Africa?

Leg 13 was our first time visiting Africa, our first new continent since 2019. I tried to budget a little high for this leg since there was a fair bit of uncertainty, even reallocating part of our year-end time-at-home budget to Africa. Turned out that wasn’t necessary and we finished the leg $455 under my…

Last Days in Cairo

We ended our time in Egypt back in Cairo where we could be ready to catch our flight home. This time we chose the island of Zamalek as our home base and I booked our Airbnb for 5 nights, though we left before sleeping on the fifth night to accommodate our 1 a.m. flight. Before…

Nubian Aswan with Abu Simbel

After our tough week in Luxor, we were eager to get to Aswan and see what life on Elephantine Island would be like. Our travel day was slightly stressful dealing with aggressive porters and the train delayed for over an hour, but we met a nice couple on the platform that made passing the time…

Overnight Train to a Week in Luxor

Luxor held the most spectacular sights of our trip to Egypt. I think it is a must-visit for any Egyptian itinerary. The week we spent there was probably a bit too long, even with balancing work with sightseeing (especially because we had internet issues there). But it was well worth it to see the amazing…

Three Days in Alexandria

Chad and I both love history, so we couldn’t resist spending three days of our Egypt itinerary to visit the famed city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE. To be honest, I’m not sure it was worth it and we had many challenges during our time there. But we saw some…

Egypt Arrival and the Pyramids of Giza

Our arrival in Egypt involved a little bit of luck. When we checked in our luggage at the Nairobi airport, the airline asked to see our yellow fever vaccinations cards. Nowhere in my Egypt research did I find any mention of this being a requirement, and it appears that it is only so if you’re…

A Week in Karen Hardy

Because the tourist visa for Egypt is only 30 days, we had one extra week in Kenya before the timing would be right to fly to Cairo. In our 2020 itinerary, we’d planned to spend that week in Mombasa. This year, that seemed like too much trouble since  it requires a roundtrip flight or long…

Wrapping Up Our Time in Nairobi

After my We’re Home post, we had another week and a half in our Airbnb in Nairobi. It was fairly uneventful but we managed a couple of fun adventures. The first was a staycation to a hotel in an adjacent neighborhood called Kilimani. Early in our stay I thought it might be fun to find…

Doubts About Safari

I am so happy that we were able to do our safari. It is an experience I’ll never forget and is something I’d absolutely do again, hopefully with my sister one day. But I have to admit, there were times on the safari when I had qualms. Simply as food for thought, I want to…