Making a Dream Trip to Egypt a Reality

I have always dreamt of Egypt ever since I was a little girl. I loved ancient history (and Indiana Jones) and wanted to see the temples and monuments in person. It was fascinated how they complex and old they were. And they were so beautiful from the photos! I would watch the history channel and just eat up anything related to ancient Egypt.

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But it was always this far off exotic place that I hadn’t really thought of actually going to. Not until I heard a character in Anne of Green Gables shout this:

“I want to travel. It’s the one thing I’ve always longed for. I remember the one and only picture than hung on the wall of my room…a faded old print…it was a picture of palms around a spring in the desert, with a string of camels marching away in the distance. It literally fascinated me. I’ve always wanted to go and find it. I want to see the Taj Mahal and the Pillars of Karnak! I want to know…not just to believe…that the world is round. “

Due to my voracity for all things Egypt I knew that Karnak was an amazing temple in Luxor. And the quote stuck with me. If this simple teacher in the early 1900’s wished to go to Egypt, then one day I had to visit it as well.

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As I grew up I continued my love of ancient Egypt. I would go to museums and special exhibits. I remember traveling to Chicago in 2006 for the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit. My mother was going to get tickets…but didn’t. I was in tears when I found it was sold out. A man walked up to me and said “I’ve got 1 ticket, its yours!” My family couldn’t care less, they went off and did something else. I, however, was in heaven and enjoyed walking (quickly, as I knew my family didn’t want to wait on me) through the exhibit. The treasures were small but amazing.

I was inspired to start saving up. I knew not when I’d be able to go but I knew that I’d make the trip. A few years after graduating college I actually saved quite a bit of money and so picked up a guidebook to Egypt and read it cover to cover. But then life had other plans. After a horrific roommate experience I used the money to buy a condo in Boulder, CO in 2009.

This set me back but gave me more time to plan out my trip. I found a tour company GAP Adventures (now G Adventures) who had cheap tours to Egypt and was delighted to find that they didn’t charge you extra to go on your own like other tour companies. So I started saving hard again, now with a goal and plan in place. In 2010 I almost had enough money for the tour, now I only needed to save up for the flight! To fuel my aspirations I went a few times to to the Denver Art Museum’s Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs and really took the time to study the pieces there.

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That December 2010 I went to a special talk by the head of antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass. It was great to hear about the latest discoveries in Egypt directly from the source. I even had a chance afterwards to talk with him and get a book and one of his signature hats signed. I was so pumped up after this lecture that I decided I’d book the trip for the following year in early 2012.

But then in January 2011, I was glued to my computer, watching Al Jazeera as the revolution took place. I was happy for the Egyptian people to finally have a say in their government’s future. And as things turned violent I weeped for them. And I realized I had to put my Egypt travel dreams on hold. Instead in 2012 I went to Costa Rica, a place that hadn’t even been on my radar, but since I had the money to burn decided to go on my first trip alone anyway. And I had great adventures in Costa Rica, and then a few years later to Guatemala, Belize, & Mexico. But Egypt kept calling me in my dreams.

In 2014 I had a lot of changes in my life. I got a new job, sold a condo, bought a new one. It also saw a 5 year relationship end. It was tough and I could feel myself falling a bit into depression. But I decided that I wasn’t going to do that again. Instead, while talking to my mother, I explained I needed to get my mind on something else. True to form, she suggested I plan a grand trip. So I started to price out trips. The new Harry Potter land interested me, but would be an expensive undertaking as a single person. I then looked at Panama…and found tickets to be nearly as expensive as a trip to Europe! So I then looked into Jordan to fulfill my Indiana Jones fantasy. That seemed like the winner, until I priced out Egypt. Egypt, Orlando, and Jordan would be around the same price. I figured my mother would say, “No! Don’t Go! Its not safe!” But she just looked at me and said, “Baby girl, this has been your dream since you were a child. And its time.”

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She was right. And so I started furiously saving, cutting my budget down as much as I could. After finding a great deal on the flight I decided to book the trip for October 2015, a year after the relationship ended. That way I had enough time to save, and so I wouldn’t be focused on some arbitrary depressing date that didn’t matter. And it worked! After spending nearly 10 months saving, and reading every single book, blog, movie and documentary I’ve had nothing but Egypt on my mind. I completely forgot about the reason that made me book the trip in the first place!

So in a few weeks time, I’ll be on my way to my dream trip of a lifetime! I talked about this trip so often to my friends, family, and co-workers that I managed to convince one longtime friend to come with me! I cannot wait to make this childhood dream a reality!