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…

Nairobi: We’re Home

This post is long overdue, because those safari posts took a while! And, I’ve been happily very busy with work. So we’re now closer to the end of our four-week stay in our Nairobi Airbnb than the beginning. Nairobi was not as easy to settle into as many other cities, but we’ve managed to find…

Safari Adventure Part 2

Previously in this blog, I shared how we arrived in Kenya, spent a day in Nairobi, and began our safari at Lake Naivasha and Lake Nakuru. You can read all about it here if you haven’t yet. Now we head to Maasai territory where our safari story resumes.  Transition to the Maasai Mara On Thursday…

Safari Adventure Part 1

Following a wait of three years after canceling our 2020 Africa trip due to COVID, we finally experienced our Kenyan safari. And what an experience it was! So worth the wait and the hours of flying and driving to get there.  There are so many details I want to remember about our safari, this will…

FAQ – What Did We Learn on Leg 12?

More than four months have passed since we left Mexico. One recurring lesson of this travel life is that during the time when we’re at home, I’m significantly less likely to keep up with our blog. But I do want to close out the leg with a quick “What We Learned” post for the sake…