HEALING TEMPLES OF EGYPT AND THE HOLY LANDS OF JERUSALEM AND PETRA ADVENTURE AND MEDITATION TOUR with Dr. Sue Morter MORTER A MUST READ: Important General Information and Travel Checklist for Egypt and Jerusalem / Petra. PASSPORTS/VISAS You will need a current passport with an expiration date valid for at least 6 months beyond your departure date. Keep a photocopy of the first two (2) pages of your passport in a safe place separate from your passport while on the trip. Leave a copy of your passport at home where it can be reached by relatives or a friend. Please have $25 cash on you for the Egypt Entry Visa fee; for Jordan, please have $15 cash on you for the Entry Visa fee and a $10 Departure Visa fee. You will be able to obtain it once you reach Cairo and/or Amman Airport just before entering immigration. VACCINATIONS/HEALTH Traveling our your tour(s) does not require any type of vaccinations or boosters by either the US Health Department or the Egyptian Government. The US Public Health Service recommends that all travelers have their adult immunizations up to date. These include tetanus/diphtheria. We recommend you discuss immunizations or any of your own health concerns with your physician. PRESCRIPTIONS If you have prescription medicine, bring along an ample supply in the original containers with your physician s name and directions on the bottle. If you wear prescription glasses, bringing a spare pair may be a useful precaution. INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION It is either nine or ten hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time depending on the time of the year. They implement Day Light Savings Time at different times of the year than we do in the USA. If anyone needs to contact you during your trip, the best connection will most likely be during the time we are at the hotels. Hotel phone and fax numbers are included in the itinerary. Please leave a copy at home with a relative in case they need to get in touch with you. We have an emergency telephone number for your tour(s) with your tour guide at all times: #011-2-0122-315-6080 THIS IS ONLY TO BE USED IN CASE OF EMERGENCY. It is less expensive to call Egypt and/or Jerusalem from the US than to place a call from Egypt and/or Jerusalem to the US and collect calls are usually not accepted. Payment for telephone calls can be added to the room bills. This includes a service charge, which is often required for phone use. If you have a smart phone you can download one of the apps to call for free when you have internet. We personally use Viber or Messenger. Make sure the person you are contacting also has the same application. We have found both efficient and work on low signals. Morter Institute 10439 Commerce Dr., Suite 140, Carmel, Indiana 46032 Email: info@drsuemorter.com 855-872-8700 www.drsuemorter.com
ELECTRICITY Standard voltage throughout your tour(s) is 220v. If you are bringing along any electrical appliances, please be aware that electrical outlets there only accept plugs with two round prongs. It will be advisable for you to buy adapters in the US prior to the trip. RADIO Our guide, Fadel Gad, has a wonderful radio communication system which we will be using throughout our trip. When you arrive you will be provided portable radios with an FM band that is compatible with most headphones. Please bring your own set of headphones to use throughout the tour. Bring them with you each day as they will be used throughout the tour, then the portable radio will be returned on the last day. WEATHER Egypt and/or Jerusalem has Mediterranean Weather. Here are links to the weather in Cairo, Egypt and Amman, Jordan. Please click the weather here and any other cities we may be visiting on this tour before you leave. It will help with the packing process. http://www.weather.com/weather/today/cairo+egypt+egxx0004 https://weather.com/weather/today/l/amm:9:jo CLOTHING Informal clothing will be adequate for the trip. PACK LIGHT! Clothes with blends of cotton and polyester wash easily and dry quickly and are comfortable. We encourage you to take only one suitcase and your carry-on. If you want an extra bag for your purchases, take a soft folding bag that can go inside your checked bag. Laundry services are available on the cruise and in the hotels where the price is comparable to the US. Clothes can be casual. However, tank tops and cut off shorts are not appropriate. Skirts and short sleeve blouses are acceptable. Ladies should also remember to bring a head scarf for Mosque visits. In Egypt and/or Jerusalem we will be sharing meals with invited and honored guests. They understand that we are travelers and that we will not be able to dress up much. You may however want to bring a sports jacket or easy travel dress for these dinners. MONEY U.S. dollars can be exchanged easily almost everywhere. You may wish to carry some portion of your spending money in this form. Don t carry more in cash than you feel safe with, and if possible, carry small denominations ($1, $5 and $10 bills) since it will be useful in bargaining and tipping ( baksheesh ). The Egyptian Pound is worth far less than the US Dollar. The rate exchange is controlled by the Egyptian government, and therefore, is the same everywhere within the country. There is no need to change money prior to the trip. Traveler s Checks are not generally accepted. Merchants will also not accept personal checks. Credit Cards such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express are accepted in many places (such as hotels and shops) in Egypt and/or Jerusalem but expect the merchant to charge you a higher price (up to 4%) to cover his service charge from the card company. Also realize that there are few electronic terminals to make credit card purchases in an instant.
The system is much slower than in the U.S., so please be patient with the merchant. If you plan on using credit card internationally, inform your bank of your travel plans before you leave. ATMs are more common now. However, it is not guaranteed that you will find them everywhere you go. SHOPPING Shopping in Egypt and/or Jerusalem is a wonderful experience. Expect bargaining. Don t be afraid to make a low offer you may be pleasantly surprised! ALCOHOL Wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverages are available for you to purchase at most lunches and dinners, depending upon whether the establishment permits alcoholic beverages; a few do not. FOOD AND WATER Water at many hotels is purified, however, we advise against drinking tap water in general. Bottled water will be provided daily during the tour. Drinking any beverages with ice is not recommended, unless we specify otherwise. Also, plan to brush your teeth with bottled water. To be on the safe side, stay away from raw or uncooked produce, except for fruits or vegetables which have been peeled or washed in purified water. The mixture of Egyptian and continental cuisine will delight the palate, and you will have a chance to sample superb seafood to go along with marvelous traditional dishes of lamb, beef and chicken. The Middle East is famous for its generous hospitality. HOTEL DEPARTURE/BREAKFAST/LUNCH Please settle charges for such items as laundry, telephone and the like, with the hotel the night before departure. Breakfasts are generally buffet style. We will stop for lunch each day at approximately 1:00 or 1:30. Lunch in Egypt and/or Jerusalem is the main meal of the day and is often lengthy. We will try however to keep time spent in the restaurant midday to a minimum in order to have more time for sightseeing. SMOKING Smoking is not permitted during group activities. However, we will have a rest-stop if travel time in a bus is longer than two hours. AIRPORT CHECK-IN Please check-in for your domestic connections at least two hours before your flight and arrive at the check-in desk at least 2 1/2 hours before departure for international. If you belong to a frequent flyer mileage club that is a partner with your carrier for this trip, please contact the airline and ask them to credit you for that mileage. From your starting destination your luggage should be checked all the way through to your final destination. During the tour, you will be notified when to have the bags outside your hotel room before departures. We strongly recommend that you personally verify that your own bags have been brought to the curb before boarding the bus.
US CUSTOMS You will clear immigration and customs at your first stop re-entering the US. OTHERS TRAVELERS Please remain aware that travel within a group situation invariably involves compromise to accommodate diverse desires, travel goals, personalities and physical abilities of group members. Remember that the tour leader may be required to improvise and exercise his or her good-faith discretion and/or make decisions based upon the consensus of the group which may not please each traveler, but will satisfy the larger desires of the group. GOODIES FOR CHILDREN Prior tour participants have asked about bringing goodies to give to children along the way. Of course bringing such things is not required, but you are free to do so if you choose. If time permits, we may visit a social service organization for children and they are always grateful for such things as: Educational games Materials for arts and crafts Crayons and coloring books Pens, pencils, erasers and notebooks Band-aids, toothbrushes and other toiletries Tennis shoes for ages 7-18 and clothes for playing sports TRIP PACE On the trip we will generally depart each day between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. Some domestic flights however may require our departing extra early some mornings. We will try to end our daytime activities at about 5:30 p.m. to rest before dinner. Departure time will be announced each evening before dinner. We almost always have dinner around 7:00 or 7:30. We will try to maintain a comfortable and relaxed pace with some sense of freedom. TIPS/GRATUITIES All tips are included throughout the trip for waiters at meals, for the bus driver, etc. Naturally, if an additional courtesy or assistance is made to you, an additional tip is appropriate. Porters carrying your bags to the room at check-in usually expect an extra tip, $1- $2 is sufficient. At the end of the trip, an honorarium for the Egyptologist is customary. This might be done as a group or individually in a sealed envelope. A suggested amount is $5.00 to $10.00 per day. Please put your tip for our tour guide(s) in an envelope and be prepared to give it to Elisa. We will be presenting it to our guide(s) at the closing dinner(s). We have a small group of experienced travelers, and an experienced tour operator/guide, and we will do all that we can to see that you have a great trip. Feel free to approach us at anytime for any issues along the way. Egypt and/or Jerusalem is a wonderful and magical place, and the destination alone is almost enough to guarantee a good journey. While not all parts of your tour(s) are like a Third World County, it is also not Western Europe. Occasional glitches may pop up as they often do in these parts of the world. With a little flexibility on your part, and some ingenuity on ours, these little bumps in the road will be quickly overcome. As you can deduce, this is a very special, elite trip. We feel confident that you will come home from this journey full of much new knowledge and beautiful, distinctive and precious memories. Should you have further questions, please call us at Joy Travel International. #310 313 2588.
Travel Checklist Traveling on your tour(s) is easier with some pre-planning. Here is a list of things to remember before you go: 1. MANDATORY o Your passport - Make sure that your passport expiration date is valid 6 months before the date of departure o Airline tickets o Money 2. MISCELLANEOUS MEDICINES AND HEALTH AIDS *We do not expect you to get sick, but recommend that you bring these just in case items: o Stomach supplements (i.e. Acidophilus, Papaya Extract, Imodium, Pepto Bismol, etc.) o Prescriptions and over the counter medicines (aspirin, extra pair of eye glasses, cough syrup, etc.) o Handy-wipes for washing your hands o Band-aids and perhaps Tiger Balm or Arnica Cream for those sore walking muscles o Ziploc bags (for hundreds of possible uses) o Any sleeping aids like Melatonin you may use to help with jet lag o Extra toilet paper, tissues or moist towelettes (Public toilets at some sites are not always well stocked) o Insect repellent (we suggest lemon eucalyptus it can be found in travel stores) 3. CLOTHING o Sweater and light jacket o Comfortable walking shoes are obviously a must. o Long pants or skirts, and head scarf for women for inside the mosques o Shorts and skirts, t-shirts for the day. Cotton is optimal for the dry desert heat. o Hat and/or bandana for the sun, sunglasses and sunscreen! o Bathing suit. You will be staying in the finest hotels, and they have swimming pools. o At least one nice evening outfit o Undergarments, socks, sleeping clothes 4. DAY PACK o Day pack, back pack or some kind of daily carrying bag to keep with you throughout the day for munchies, water, journals and room for small purchases at the temple sites. o Small flashlight (optional) 5. OPTIONAL ITEMS o Gifts for the children such as pens and pencils or other educational items. o Snack food/protein bars, dried fruit and packets of lemonade or Gator-aid o Electrical plug-in adapter o Plenty of film or extra memory card for digital o Extra battery for your camera Morter Institute 10439 Commerce Dr., Suite 140, Carmel, Indiana 46032 Email: info@drsuemorter.com 855-872-8700 www.drsuemorter.com