Middle East articles

Some friends shake their heads, and others are envious of Moreen and me for our travels in the Middle East. They ask, as do some ITN readers, if it is safe there for travelers. I can’t offer a definite yes or no, but I believe it’s relatively safe in many Middle Eastern countries.
East of Amman, Jordan’s capital, stretches the desert, a seemingly endless empty expanse of land wedged in between Syria to the north, Iraq to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south. It’s mostly flat, dotted with low-growing shrubs, bushes and cacti.
Dear Globetrotter: Welcome to the 368th issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine.
I realized last year that I am becoming limited in what I can physically do, so I took a Mediterranean cruise primarily to places I had already been, just to see if cruising was easier.
On Feb. 21, 2006, a companion and I flew on EgyptAir from New York (JFK) to Cairo, Egypt, with Grand Circle Travel. We were on GCT’s “Ancient Egypt and the Nile” tour with a 5-day pretrip extension to Jordan. We upgraded to business class (which we do on long flights).
My husband, Al, did his homework and found a tour company in Cairo that made all of the arrangements for a 19-day holiday go like clockwork.
The itinerary for our 12-day “Aegean, Danube & Black Sea Explorer” tour from Insight Vacations, Inc.
Our getaway to Lisbon in early March 2006 was intended as a late winter escape from New York’s prolonged freezing temperatures.
by Marcia Brandes, Atlanta, GA
I would like to respond, if I may, to the letter from the reader who was told by a cruise line that Guayaquil was not the chosen port of entry in Ecuador because “Quito is a much safer city” (July ’06, pg. 38).