Al-Ahram Weekly | Travel | Let the magic carpet unroll

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 30 August - 5 September 2001 Issue No.549
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Let the magic carpet unroll
Now your friends and colleagues are trickling back from their foreign hols sporting new accessories and boasting about fine dining, you might be thinking it was time you yourself headed for a change of scene. Here are some late summer deals

zachem?daSummer resorts are quieting down now that children in the northern hemisphere are preparing to go back to school, so this is the time to grab those last-minute summer deals -- the ones that say "valid until October." There are several tempting holidays on offer, at prices from budget to luxury. Tailor-made trips tend to tip the scale at the higher end, but if you shop around you can find group tours at much reduced prices.
Thomas Cook is offering packages to Las Vegas, Florida, Malaysia, Switzerland and many more. Travco can take you cruising the Bahamas or the Greek Islands, shopping in Beirut or on a bus tour through Morocco. Egypt Panorama Tours, which specialises in exotic individual vacations, has a range of holidays including busing through Russia.
All agents are currently offering some excellent airfares, though Egypt Panorama Tour's Outgoing Tourism Manager Ahmed Ali advises that it could be cheaper to purchase air tickets with cash rather than a credit card owing to some unfavorable exchange rates used by the airlines and/or the credit card companies.
We found packages to a wide variety of countries, including Cyprus, Greece, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Tunisia, Malta, Morocco, Mauritius, Kenya, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, India, the Far East, the United States and dozens of destinations in Europe. All the travel agents we spoke to said that if clients can't find a trip to suit their budget or interest they will draw up a suitable customised package.
Here are some of the deals that tempted us. Unless otherwise stated, prices are per person when sharing a double room. Single rates vary from fair to middling. Some holiday prices are based on the dollar exchange rate. Prices are approximate and may be subject to change.
Lazy tours

Egypt Panorama Tours has an Aegean cruise and Athens fly/hotel package: One person flies free when booking a double cabin on a three- night Aegean cruise to Mykonos, Rhodes, Patmos and Kusadasi (Turkey) plus a roundtrip flight to Athens and one night at a hotel in Athens. The package price of $1,206 for the first person and $840 for the second includes flight.
Four-night and seven-night Greek island and other cruises are also available from the same company.
Put your feet up in Rhodes for six nights (seven days) with Thomas Cook's round-trip package, which includes flights, transfers and B&B accommodation for LE2,830, single rate LE3,255.
Thomas Cook has a similar six-night trip to Ayia Napa in Cyprus staying B&B at the Nissi Beach Hotel for LE2,755, single rate LE3,952.
Three nights B&B at the Sandy Beach Hotel in Larnaca, Cyprus, with Cook's is LE1,656, single rate LE2,069.
Travco will take you on an eight-day Greek Island cruise including three nights in Athens for LE3,795. Singles pay from LE4,500 to LE5,000, depending on the type of accommodation. If that's not enough to make you feel you're getting away from it all, they also have a 12-day Singapore Far East cruise calling at Malacca, Penang, Lankawi, Pangkor Island and Phuket for LE6,550, including return flights and three nights in Singapore. Singles can expect to pay between LE7,500 and LE8,000.
Culture tours

Thomas Cook offers six nights, seven days in the city centres of Venice, Florence and Rome, including flights, transfers and B&B accommodation, at LE3,570, single rate LE4,440.
Cook's also offers six nights B&B in Geneva and Montreux for LE3,190, single LE3,820; seven nights B&B in Vienna and Prague from LE3,230; and six nights B&B in London from LE3,950. It has similar city packages to Madrid, Paris and Amsterdam.
Travco is offering a nine-day coach tour of Morocco visiting Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes, Fez and Marrakesh for LE4,450, single rate LE5,100, including flights and half-board accommodation. Travco can also arrange coach tours to Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
If your main cultural pursuit is shopping, Travco makes a milk run for the desperate to Beirut (LE1,900 for seven nights B&B in a four-star hotel, including flight and transfers) and Istanbul (LE3,509 -- note that this is for a couple -- for six nights) as well as similar tailor-made packages to London, Paris and Rome.
Adventure tours
Travco has a seven-day, full board Kenya "Big Five" safari tour priced to suit individual request. Less hard work, but still needing some stamina, are cruising Florida and the Bahamas or the Caribbean (from LE8,305) and tailor-made tours to India, the Far East, the Seychelles or Tahiti.
Thomas Cook is offering seven nights in Malaysia, staying B&B in hotels in Penang, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur, for LE4,035, single rate LE5,160.
Egypt Panorama tours is offering coach trips in Russia: nine nights with the Beetroot Bus backpacker tour taking you to Moscow, St Petersburg and Novgorod. The land package price is quoted in pounds Sterling starting from £290. Flights extra.
The 13-night Big Beetroot Bus backpacker tour is also available from £535, both tours per person based on two people sharing a room, not including airfares and visas.
Trans-Siberian Railway packages are available year-round from the same company.
Each-to-his-own tours
Thomas Cook will take you in 11 days from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Anaheim with bed-only accommodation from LE5,425, but don't go alone -- the single rate is LE8,150.
Cook's also does an 11 day/10 night tour staying bed-only in Holiday Inns in Orlando and Miami for LE4,625, but again the single rate is steep at LE6,195.

If prices still seem beyond your limit, Thomas Cook will accept budget payments for some holidays. For example, a seven-night stay in Tunis and Casablanca, with B&B for four nights and half-board for three, can be paid with a 20 per cent deposit and 12 monthly installments of LE246.
Practical information
Egypt Panorama Tours, 4 Road 79, Maadi
Tel: 359-0200, 358-5880, 359-1301. Fax: 359- 1199.
E-mail: ept@link.net www.eptours.com
Thomas Cook, Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel, Downtown Cairo
Tel: 795-8544, 795-8162, 797-1284. Fax: 795- 7061
E-mail: tcsemiramis@attmail.com
Travco, 13 Mahmoud Azmi Street, Zamalek
Tel: 735-4650, 738-2224. Fax: 738-0400
E-mail: outgoing@travsrv.travco-eg.com www.travco-eg.com
Compiled by Jenny Jobbins

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