I've been looking into tours in these countries and will probably add on a few days to tour by myself. Has anyone been to either country? Any must-sees? Any advice?
you should do a tour that includes both! Sorry I don't have any recs for you, but those are two places that are pretty high on my list of places to see.
you should do a tour that includes both! Sorry I don't have any recs for you, but those are two places that are pretty high on my list of places to see.
I wish that existed! Did you ever book your trip to Egypt? That was you, right?
It includes Israel, Jordan, and Egypt (yeah, I'd go again!), but alas, it's too much money, too much time off of work, and I think that my family would have a heart attack if I went to Israel (not that Turkey and Jordan are the safest places to be going, but you just tell someone you're going to Israel and they will flip out).
I think I will end up going to Turkey because the only tours I can find of Jordan include Israel or are too short. I am considering one of these three:
I did a tour of Italy and highly recommend Trafalgar Tours. They are great, they get you to see everything without feeling too rushed and still leave you time on your own to shop or whatever.
I went to jordan at the end of march last year and loved it. I went to petra(part of indiana jones was filmed there) and the dead sea, and wadi rum(part of the old star wars was filmed there as well). I had amazing time, I was there for ten days. My aunt was teaching there overseas though so I had a place to stay and students of hers to show me around. :) If you want any more info about it let me know! I was mainly in the capital city for most of the trip.
I was just in Turkey a little over a month ago. Istanbul is very beautiful, friendly and historic. Great silver, great tea sets and some BEAUTIFUL mosques. In addition, they have cool Bazaars and the Bosphorus bridge. We went to a small tea shop that looked down over the sea between the Asia/Europe sides and it started to snow... GORGEOUS! I actually have many friends in Istanbul, but was only there for 3 days and was working, so didn't get to see much, but I'll e-mail them about the must-sees.
The beach/resort area is in southern Turkey and it is full of fruit trees and beautiful coastline, but that is rather far from Istanbul.
Always wanted to go to Petra (my colleagues have told me it is one of their favorite places). I'll try to get their recs in the next couple of days since they've been both places and PM you.