What a trip it was!!! We had a marvellous time and laid to rest many unfavourable impressions that had been with us since our last trip to Europe 10 yrs ago.
Everywhere we went the streets were clean, no "homeless" refugees sleeping in doorways and no stench of urine near the train stations where hundreds of Eastern refugees used to hang out.
The European countries we visited have made a great effort to control "illegals", clean up the litter, and re-habilitate many of the architectural treasures that make Europe what it is.
Paris was teaming with tourists, both North American and British,Italians, Germans, Dutch and Eastern European. Even though it was officially "off-season" the streets and tourist attractions were swarming with eager sight-seers! I could imagine what it was like during "high" season.
During our travels we stayed mainly in five star hotels and resorts. What a change from 10 yrs ago! No longer were rates in the $450-$600US range. The highest rate we paid was $368 Euro at the Schwiezerhof hotel in Lucerne although that included wine, water and fruit in the room,breakfast in the morning,free internet and I forget what else! These prices were regular season prices as "low season" doesn't officially start until Oct 15-Nov. 15th depending on which country you're in. While there were still the "stop light vendors" and "street hawkers" in evidence in some of the countries , they are not aggressive and wait for you to call them over or go to them.
Meals everywhere we went were excellent and very reasonably priced, about what you would expect to pay at home in a better restaurant for a four course meal with apperatifs, wine and digestivo. Of course we stayed out of the "tourist" restaurants and made sure we found bistro's and trattoria's where the "locals" ate. It was a gourmand's delight!
In Northern Italy we met many.many tourists from all over the world but most notably Britain,Canada and USA who were doing the "Cooking and Wine tasting" tours of Tuscany.
These tours have become Very BIG sellers and more and more people are joining in the fun every year. They're largest comment to us was that they had grown tired of doing the "Florida/Carribean" thing and were really impressed with the European tours!
Egypt was the biggest surprise of all!! Not at all what we were expecting for a third world country!!
Our first stop was Sharm El Sheik which we expected to be a "tourist" centre much like the Dominican North coast or Punta Cana/Bavaro area with resorts near the sea and small,dirty villages
nearby. What a shock to find a HUGE "city" that was made up of resorts only!! NO villages at all and everything was first class and SPOTLESS! Even with the sea at one side and the desert at the other!
There were workers cleaning everywhere 24/7 and I'm sure you could have eaten your goumet dinner right off the sidewalks outside the hotel.
English and Italian are the languages most commonly spoken although you would be fine with French or Arabic also.
We were told that 1 1/2 million Italians visited the area this past season (not including guests of other nationalities) and that 2 million are expected for the comming season. There are at present 75,000 hotel rooms in Sharn El Sheik and by the end of March 2003 there will be 100,000 rooms.
Now let's not forget the Na'ama Bay is just a 20 minute bus ride away and this total does not include the rooms there!
The whole area is geared to families and couples who wish a quiet, sun-filled getaway but at the same time there is lots of night life and casinos to be found! Baby-sitting services and "kids clubs" make it extremely easy to vacation with your children and have them well cared for when you wish to have some time without them. Also not a "putana or sanki" to be found!!
We met several Americans at our resort who "overlooked" the State Dept's warnings about the area because they wanted to "dive the Red Sea" and had already postponed going several times. They told us they were definitely coming back next year and would be bringing others with them!
In case you're interested a one week AI from Rome or Milan will cost you about $900 Euro although most Italians get the "half board" for a week's cost of $670 Euro's. Half board gives you breakfast and lunch included and you pay extra for dinner. Which is great if you want to leave the resort and go to one of the restaurants along the "sea walk" which runs for miles along the coast. Most of the resorts have their specialty restauants right on the "sea walk" so you can go for a stroll, stop in a bar for a before or after dinner drink and then choose which restaurant you'd like to have dinner in.
Again the food was out of this world and costs very reasonable.
Cairo was a real treat! For a city with over 18 million people in the desert it was a whole lot cleaner than we ever thought possible. Again prices were very resonable,service better than exceptional, food was unbelievable and we only wished we had more than two days for sight-seeing.
We'll definitely go back!!
As more and more people become aware of the fabulous vacation opportunities in the area I can see less tourists frequenting the DR.
The impression we formed was that the Dominican Republic will become less and less a "family or couples" vacation spot and more a "sex trade" hot spot.
Tourists do NOT like to be stuck in a resort so they won't have to see garbage all over, especially when that's all they see on the way from the airport to the resort. Nor do most want to be propositioned every five minutes by either a "vendor" or a "sex seller".
All feedback welcomed!
Everywhere we went the streets were clean, no "homeless" refugees sleeping in doorways and no stench of urine near the train stations where hundreds of Eastern refugees used to hang out.
The European countries we visited have made a great effort to control "illegals", clean up the litter, and re-habilitate many of the architectural treasures that make Europe what it is.
Paris was teaming with tourists, both North American and British,Italians, Germans, Dutch and Eastern European. Even though it was officially "off-season" the streets and tourist attractions were swarming with eager sight-seers! I could imagine what it was like during "high" season.
During our travels we stayed mainly in five star hotels and resorts. What a change from 10 yrs ago! No longer were rates in the $450-$600US range. The highest rate we paid was $368 Euro at the Schwiezerhof hotel in Lucerne although that included wine, water and fruit in the room,breakfast in the morning,free internet and I forget what else! These prices were regular season prices as "low season" doesn't officially start until Oct 15-Nov. 15th depending on which country you're in. While there were still the "stop light vendors" and "street hawkers" in evidence in some of the countries , they are not aggressive and wait for you to call them over or go to them.
Meals everywhere we went were excellent and very reasonably priced, about what you would expect to pay at home in a better restaurant for a four course meal with apperatifs, wine and digestivo. Of course we stayed out of the "tourist" restaurants and made sure we found bistro's and trattoria's where the "locals" ate. It was a gourmand's delight!
In Northern Italy we met many.many tourists from all over the world but most notably Britain,Canada and USA who were doing the "Cooking and Wine tasting" tours of Tuscany.
These tours have become Very BIG sellers and more and more people are joining in the fun every year. They're largest comment to us was that they had grown tired of doing the "Florida/Carribean" thing and were really impressed with the European tours!
Egypt was the biggest surprise of all!! Not at all what we were expecting for a third world country!!
Our first stop was Sharm El Sheik which we expected to be a "tourist" centre much like the Dominican North coast or Punta Cana/Bavaro area with resorts near the sea and small,dirty villages
nearby. What a shock to find a HUGE "city" that was made up of resorts only!! NO villages at all and everything was first class and SPOTLESS! Even with the sea at one side and the desert at the other!
There were workers cleaning everywhere 24/7 and I'm sure you could have eaten your goumet dinner right off the sidewalks outside the hotel.
English and Italian are the languages most commonly spoken although you would be fine with French or Arabic also.
We were told that 1 1/2 million Italians visited the area this past season (not including guests of other nationalities) and that 2 million are expected for the comming season. There are at present 75,000 hotel rooms in Sharn El Sheik and by the end of March 2003 there will be 100,000 rooms.
Now let's not forget the Na'ama Bay is just a 20 minute bus ride away and this total does not include the rooms there!
The whole area is geared to families and couples who wish a quiet, sun-filled getaway but at the same time there is lots of night life and casinos to be found! Baby-sitting services and "kids clubs" make it extremely easy to vacation with your children and have them well cared for when you wish to have some time without them. Also not a "putana or sanki" to be found!!
We met several Americans at our resort who "overlooked" the State Dept's warnings about the area because they wanted to "dive the Red Sea" and had already postponed going several times. They told us they were definitely coming back next year and would be bringing others with them!
In case you're interested a one week AI from Rome or Milan will cost you about $900 Euro although most Italians get the "half board" for a week's cost of $670 Euro's. Half board gives you breakfast and lunch included and you pay extra for dinner. Which is great if you want to leave the resort and go to one of the restaurants along the "sea walk" which runs for miles along the coast. Most of the resorts have their specialty restauants right on the "sea walk" so you can go for a stroll, stop in a bar for a before or after dinner drink and then choose which restaurant you'd like to have dinner in.
Again the food was out of this world and costs very reasonable.
Cairo was a real treat! For a city with over 18 million people in the desert it was a whole lot cleaner than we ever thought possible. Again prices were very resonable,service better than exceptional, food was unbelievable and we only wished we had more than two days for sight-seeing.
We'll definitely go back!!
As more and more people become aware of the fabulous vacation opportunities in the area I can see less tourists frequenting the DR.
The impression we formed was that the Dominican Republic will become less and less a "family or couples" vacation spot and more a "sex trade" hot spot.
Tourists do NOT like to be stuck in a resort so they won't have to see garbage all over, especially when that's all they see on the way from the airport to the resort. Nor do most want to be propositioned every five minutes by either a "vendor" or a "sex seller".
All feedback welcomed!
