The year 2020 will be remembered as the year of COVID-19 that resulted in national lockdowns, closed borders, travel restrictions and what was to become, the new normal. Our lives changed instantly. Fear at the start of the pandemic, panic buying, isolation, stay at home rules, masks and face coverings, social distancing, wash your […]
New rules require British Airways and other airlines flying to certain airports outside America to submit passengers’ personal data to United States Authorities. The information is checked against a “No Fly” list containing tens of thousands of names. Even if the flight plan steers well clear of US territory, travellers whom the Americans regard […]
Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajökull eruptions disrupt flights in Europe because of ash clouds. Scotland and Scandinavia have some 250 flights cancelled. In 2010 the volcano ash grounded most of northern Europe for more than a week, causing chaos among passengers and airlines, costing billions. I was lucky to have flight bans lifted the day I […]
The complex of temples dedicated to the Pharaoh Ramsis II “the Great”, Abu Simbel in Upper Egypt was saved from the rising waters of Lake Nasser, growing behind the Aswan Dam, in a massive archaeological rescue plan sponsored by UNESCO in the 1960s. Abu Simbel is a village lying 280 km south of Aswan and only 40 km north […]
One of the driest inhabited places in the world, Aswan is a city in the south of Egypt. It stands on the east bank of the Nile and is a busy market and tourist centre. Aswan is some 680km (425 miles) south of Cairo, just below the Aswan Dam and Lake Nasser is far more relaxed and smaller than Cairo and Luxor. The smallest […]
Cairo, literally “The Vanquisher” or “The Conqueror”, is the capital of Egypt. Nicknamed “The City of a Thousand Minarets” for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region’s political and cultural life, associated with Ancient Egypt due to its proximity to the Great Sphinx and the pyramids in adjacent Giza. One of the […]
Giza is a city to the west of the Egyptian capital, now absorbed as part of the heavily-populated and sprawling Cairo metropolis. One of the premier attractions of Egypt, the Pyramids of Giza represent the pyramid structures of ancient Egyptian civilisation. The city of Giza, or Gizah, is the third-largest city in Egypt located on the west bank of the Nile […]
Luxor is the premier travel destination in Upper (southern) Egypt and the Nile Valley. Vast temples, to ancient royal tombs, via spectacular desert and river scenery and a bustling modern life. As the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, Luxor has frequently been characterized as the “world’s greatest open-air museum”, as the ruins of […]
Cancelled trip to Egypt as per advice from UK Foreign Office, means travel here is now dead until peace is restored. Three hours into my flight the captain announces we are diverted to Athens. Later it is confirmed the flight landed due to a bomb scare as reported by the BBC. The rising unrest in Egypt and […]
A list of some of the world’s most dangerous airports, scary landings and take-offs. It’s not the sort of thing you always wanted to know before you travel, but there are some airports around the world notorious for risky landings and take-offs. I’ve researched and found a list of some of the worlds most […]