Caravan-Serai's Egypt Tours on Hold Through February

Dear Caravan-Serai Friends:

In the wake of the civil unrest in Egypt and the travel warnings issued by the US State Department we have cancelled all our trips to Egypt until the end of February. We will know probably before that time if the situation is improving or not. We want to make the trip that you plan with us to be comfortable and safe and at this time we are not able to do that. We are offering the clients who have booked trips to Egypt for the next two months a full refund or to have the credit applied to another trip in the region or to do Egypt at a later date.

We are continuing to monitor the situation and we will keep sending you updates on what is happening there. If you want to get information yourselves on Egypt there is the web site of the US Sate Department at http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_egypt.html.

Our office and staff and family and friends in Egypt are all fine. We are in contact with them the old fashion way of land lines that have been working throughout these days of unrest. We are proud of the way the Egyptian people are handling the situation and taking control of the street - they have volunteers that are protecting their neighborhoods, protecting the area of antiquities and also cleaning the streets and set up their own security systems and searching people as they are coming to the rallies. People are feeling secure enough to come to these rallies with their families and kids. The first couple of days that you heard about with some violence was from the prisoners that were released and they are the ones that have been looting, but that is now pretty much under control.

If you have any questions we are in the office regularly and can answer them for you. We also want you to know that other parts of the region, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, etc. are still places safe to travel to. It is only Egypt that we are delaying our trips there for this month and will see what will happen. If you are booked for Egypt later in the year, we are waiving the requirement to pay your total balance 60 days prior to departure and changing it to 30 days prior to your tour.

Thank you all for you regards to the staff at Caravan-Serai and their families and friends that are in Egypt. Maha, in the office, is from Cairo and she is in constant contact with her mother and other family members and friends.

Thank you again and hope that you will consider travel to the "New Egypt" in the coming months


Rita Zawaideh, Maha, Brenda and Hamid and also our mascot "Omar Sharif" (the little Yorkie in the office)