Mumbai to Athens

Oman’s capital city is hemmed in on one side by spectacular jagged-peaked mountains and on the other by royal blue sea. The architecture is a traditional, sophisticated arabesque blend of white-washed, low-rise buildings surrounded by manicured palms, intricately designed domes set atop the minarets of the mosques, sand-colored villas, a surprising blend of modern art installations, like a giant incense burner that towers over the Corniche, and ancient forts set in the rocky hills. Though tradition abounds, from distinct, local cuisine to the widely worn national dress, the dishdasha, Muscat is a completely modern city, featuring opulent luxury hotels, international restaurants, excellent cellular and data service, sprawling shopping malls, pristine beaches, lively nightlife, world-class performing arts, and a highly educated population, most of whom speak English, Arabic, and often Hindi. Muscat is the ideal base for exploring other areas of the country since many of the most desirable destinations are within a few hours’ drive.

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Oman’s capital rests overlooking the coast of the Gulf of Oman, tucked away among the country’s mountains. Discover a city surrounded by neat gardens – with streets lined by palm trees and crumbling Portuguese forts providing a tangible link to the past. Explore an elegant array of domes, minarets and marbled Arabic archways, as you’re immersed in a city where a traditional conservative outlook mingles with a pragmatic modern approach. Despite a relative boom in recent years, Muscat has clung to its old-world Arabian charm. 

Port Safago has been undergoing a transformation, slowly metamorphosing into a holiday rsort. Like other cities on the Red Sea, the commercial port town sits close to great offshore dive sites. Unlike others, however, tourist development hasn’t taken off in a meaningful way. But if the mass tourism in Hurghada is a turnoff, Safaga offers a small-scale and much more low-key alternative, though the best dive sites can still be seen on a day trip from Hurghada. Safaga is also the closest beach resort to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, which lies 200 km (124 mi) to the southwest; when cruise ships offer land excursions to Luxor, they often do so through Safaga.

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Unravel the mysteries and marvel at the artistry and scale of some of Ancient Egypt’s most important and impressive monuments which rise from the fertile plains and palm groves of the River Nile. Safaga’s port sits on the Red Sea’s dazzling coastline where gorgeous beaches and super waters for diving and snorkelling await. Unwind here amid the colourful fish life or lie back to soak in ever-reliable sunshine. Most will choose to head inland to the banks of one of the world’s longest and most storied rivers – where the immense treasures of Ancient Egypt loom in the desert’s haze. Modern Luxor rests beside the Nile and is set amid an unparalleled archaeological site of swirling legend and ancient beauty. This vast open-air museum sprawls out below the burning sun and you’ll discover preserved ancient tombs momentous statues like the Colossi of Memnon and vast columned temples with rows of statues such as the Temple of Karnak. Soak in the surroundings on boats which meander up and down the river or head out to tick off as many of the remarkable ruins as you can. Cultural treasures like the World Heritage Site listed Valley of the Kings – carved into the copper rock of the desert – provided elaborate resting places for Ancient Egypt’s revered Pharaohs. Head into incredibly preserved tombs decorated with majestic and mystical symbols and colourful artworks.

Port Safago has been undergoing a transformation, slowly metamorphosing into a holiday rsort. Like other cities on the Red Sea, the commercial port town sits close to great offshore dive sites. Unlike others, however, tourist development hasn’t taken off in a meaningful way. But if the mass tourism in Hurghada is a turnoff, Safaga offers a small-scale and much more low-key alternative, though the best dive sites can still be seen on a day trip from Hurghada. Safaga is also the closest beach resort to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, which lies 200 km (124 mi) to the southwest; when cruise ships offer land excursions to Luxor, they often do so through Safaga.

Day itinerary:

Unravel the mysteries and marvel at the artistry and scale of some of Ancient Egypt’s most important and impressive monuments which rise from the fertile plains and palm groves of the River Nile. Safaga’s port sits on the Red Sea’s dazzling coastline where gorgeous beaches and super waters for diving and snorkelling await. Unwind here amid the colourful fish life or lie back to soak in ever-reliable sunshine. Most will choose to head inland to the banks of one of the world’s longest and most storied rivers – where the immense treasures of Ancient Egypt loom in the desert’s haze. Modern Luxor rests beside the Nile and is set amid an unparalleled archaeological site of swirling legend and ancient beauty. This vast open-air museum sprawls out below the burning sun and you’ll discover preserved ancient tombs momentous statues like the Colossi of Memnon and vast columned temples with rows of statues such as the Temple of Karnak. Soak in the surroundings on boats which meander up and down the river or head out to tick off as many of the remarkable ruins as you can. Cultural treasures like the World Heritage Site listed Valley of the Kings – carved into the copper rock of the desert – provided elaborate resting places for Ancient Egypt’s revered Pharaohs. Head into incredibly preserved tombs decorated with majestic and mystical symbols and colourful artworks.

The resort town of Aqaba, on the Red Sea at the southern end of Jordan, is a popular spot for divers with some of the best coral reefs in the world. Snorkeling and other water sports are popular, and it’s easy to hire a boat for a day or half-day, including lunch.Aqaba has become quite a bustling destination, with several large luxury hotels and a large shopping area. There are many jewelry stores selling pearls, gem stones, and gold and silver jewelry. It’s worth noting that although it’s an international beach resort, Aqaba is quite conservative—certainly much more so than Amman—and North Americans tend to be more comfortable at the private hotel beaches.

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Improbably carved into the rusty-red rock of the Jordanian desert the ancient city of Petra has been mesmerising visitors since being rediscovered by Westerners in 1812. Siq Canyon provides a suitably grandiose welcome cutting a deep track through layers of fiery sandstone and building up the suspense before you first set eyes on the Lost City’s majesty. An early start is best to explore this UNESCO World Heritage Site giving you chance to beat the crowds and avoid the brunt of the heat. The Treasury is perhaps Petra’s best-known structure having featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as the mystical hiding place of the Holy Grail. Imprinted deep into the sheer sandstone it’s a dramatic spectacular achievement of human endeavour. Petra developed as the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom and the sophistication of the Rose Kingdom’s rock-hewn buildings is matched only by the elaborate and advanced water collection and transportation system that quenched its thirst and provided the means to thrive despite its remote location and the intense burn of the sun. Look out for the delicate water channels that lace the city as you explore. High above the city – up a daunting 800-step climb – stands the Monastery. The High Place of Sacrifice is an even tougher hike – with only occasional electric-blue lizards scattering from your footsteps as you rise – but the views of the remarkable city embossed into the mighty sandstone cliffs below will last a lifetime.

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The Suez Canal gouged through Africa is one of the world’s engineering marvels – linking two seas and drastically shortening boat voyages around this huge continent. Few manmade waterways are so storied and iconic and sailing the length of it is a bucket list item for many explorers. The construction of the canal started in 1859 and took ten years to complete with the canal officially opening in November 1869. More than a million people worked on the project often in unimaginable conditions. An engineering breakthrough the canal connected the Mediterranean to the Red Sea – drastically improving global trade’s efficiency. A hugely strategic and precious bottleneck it has inevitably led to conflicts – and been vulnerable to scuttling to block its usage. The Six-Day War closed the canal leaving 15 unfortunate ships trapped within for eight years. An amazing story the crew members of the Yellow Fleet – named as their ships slowly gathered desert sand – adapted and created a community within the confines of Bitter Lake. Sit back and admire the desert views as you transit the 101 Mile expanse occasionally interrupted by little villages with domed mosques and minarets towering into the sky. Look out for the tiny fishing boats that share the canal’s waterway dwarfed by giant container ships – the plucky fishermen courageously refuse to yield to the massive vessels they sail beside.

Founded by Alexander the Great, Alexandria was Egypt’s capital for over 1,000 years. Now, it is visited by tourists looking to enjoy some diving and those interested in the Great Library, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

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There is a wonderful Italo Calvino story about a city so removed from its own history that it is as if the modern metropolis sits on the site of an unrelated ancient city that just happens to bear the same name. At times Alexandria, which Alexander the Great founded in the 4th century BC, feels like that. Yet the fallen Alexandria of the ancient Greeks, of Ptolemy, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, and the Romans, and of pagan cults and the Great Library is underfoot, quite literally, as all of modern Alexandria has been built on the ruins of the old, a city that was capital of Egypt from the 3rd century BC until AD 642, when the Arabs first arrived. Overlay a map of the contemporary city with one from antiquity, and you see that many of the streets have remained the same: Shar’a al-Horreya runs along the route of the ancient Canopic Way, and Shar’a Nabi Daniel follows the route of the ancient Street of the Soma. Near their intersection once stood the Mouseion, a Greek philosophic and scientific center that had at its heart the collection of the Great Library. Yet only fleeting glimpses of this ancient city peak through the modern crust. By the early 20th century, Alexandria was a wealthy trading port. The merchants were fantastically rich—cosmopolitan without beingintellectual—and they enjoyed the sort of idle existence that is born of privilege, a privilege not of high birth but rather of colonial rule, which shielded foreigners from Egyptian law. They lived in villas with extravagant gardens, frequented luxurious shops, gossiped over tea in grand cafés, and lounged on the beach in private resorts along the coast. The population was a multicultural mix of Greeks and Arabs, Turks and Armenians, French and Levantines, Jews and Christians, and this spawned a unique atmosphere. It was this city that belonged to Constantine Cavafy, now regarded as the greatest Greek poet of his era. It was this city to which the novelist E.M. Forster, author of A Passage to India, was posted during World War I. And it was this city that gave birth to Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, which captivated a generation of American readers when the books were published in the late 1950s. Then quite suddenly everything changed. The intellectuals and merchants fled, driven out of Egypt by the nationalist revolution of the 1950s, the wars with Israel, and the nationalization of their businesses. It’s been five decades since most of the foreigners left—some Greeks and Armenians remained. But if you take the city as it is today and not as a faded version of what it once was, you will find that Alex (as it’s affectionately known) remains an utterly charming place to visit. The Mediterranean laps at the seawall along the Corniche, and gentle sea breezes cool and refresh even in the dead of summer. Graceful old cafés continue to draw lovers and friends—Egyptians now, rather than foreigners—while the streets remain as lively and intriguing as ever. Alexandria is still a great city, even now, shorn of its many pasts.

It’s no wonder that all roads lead to the fascinating and maddening metropolis of Athens. Lift your eyes 200 feet above the city to the Parthenon, its honey-color marble columns rising from a massive limestone base, and you behold architectural perfection that has not been surpassed in 2,500 years. But, today, this shrine of classical form dominates a 21st-century boomtown. To experience Athens—Athína in Greek—fully is to understand the essence of Greece: ancient monuments surviving in a sea of cement, startling beauty amid the squalor, tradition juxtaposed with modernity. Locals depend on humor and flexibility to deal with the chaos; you should do the same. The rewards are immense. Although Athens covers a huge area, the major landmarks of the ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine periods are close to the modern city center. You can easily walk from the Acropolis to many other key sites, taking time to browse in shops and relax in cafés and tavernas along the way. From many quarters of the city you can glimpse “the glory that was Greece” in the form of the Acropolis looming above the horizon, but only by actually climbing that rocky precipice can you feel the impact of the ancient settlement. The Acropolis and Filopappou, two craggy hills sitting side by side; the ancient Agora (marketplace); and Kerameikos, the first cemetery, form the core of ancient and Roman Athens. Along the Unification of Archaeological Sites promenade, you can follow stone-paved, tree-lined walkways from site to site, undisturbed by traffic. Cars have also been banned or reduced in other streets in the historical center. In the National Archaeological Museum, vast numbers of artifacts illustrate the many millennia of Greek civilization; smaller museums such as the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art Museum and the Byzantine and Christian Museum illuminate the history of particular regions or periods. Athens may seem like one huge city, but it is really a conglomeration of neighborhoods with distinctive characters. The Eastern influences that prevailed during the 400-year rule of the Ottoman Empire are still evident in Monastiraki, the bazaar area near the foot of the Acropolis. On the northern slope of the Acropolis, stroll through Plaka (if possible by moonlight), an area of tranquil streets lined with renovated mansions, to get the flavor of the 19th-century’s gracious lifestyle. The narrow lanes of Anafiotika, a section of Plaka, thread past tiny churches and small, color-washed houses with wooden upper stories, recalling a Cycladic island village. In this maze of winding streets, vestiges of the older city are everywhere: crumbling stairways lined with festive tavernas; dank cellars filled with wine vats; occasionally a court or diminutive garden, enclosed within high walls and filled with magnolia trees and the flaming trumpet-shaped flowers of hibiscus bushes. Formerly run-down old quarters, such as Thission, Gazi and Psirri, popular nightlife areas filled with bars and mezedopoleia (similar to tapas bars), are now in the process of gentrification, although they still retain much of their original charm, as does the colorful produce and meat market on Athinas. The area around Syntagma Square, the tourist hub, and Omonia Square, the commercial heart of the city about 1 km (½ mi) northwest, is distinctly European, having been designed by the court architects of King Otho, a Bavarian, in the 19th century. The chic shops and bistros of ritzy Kolonaki nestle at the foot of Mt. Lycabettus, Athens’s highest hill (909 feet). Each of Athens’s outlying suburbs has a distinctive character: in the north is wealthy, tree-lined Kifissia, once a summer resort for aristocratic Athenians, and in the south and southeast lie Glyfada, Voula, and Vouliagmeni, with their sandy beaches, seaside bars, and lively summer nightlife. Just beyond the city’s southern fringes is Piraeus, a bustling port city of waterside fish tavernas and Saronic Gulf views.

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A city of legend, civilisation and enduring culture, Athens is a majestic and magical urban sprawl. Extraordinary elegance and grace combine with grit and graft in Greece’s capital, where highways encase ruins from antiquity, and gleaming museums and galleries stand beside concrete sprayed with edgy street art. These contrasts enhance and elevate the wonders of this 2,500-year-old city, however, which can count notable contributions to philosophy, drama and democracy, among its global legacy. Piraeus’ giant port and naval base welcome you to the edge of the Athens’ urban area. From there it’s a simple jaunt to the centre. The majestic ancient citadel of the Acropolis dominates an elevated platform and is a constant presence as you explore the city. The wonderful remains of the columned temple of the Parthenon – which date back to the 5th century BC – stand here, representing the pinnacle of classical architecture. The nearby Acropolis Museum adds context to your visit and frames the broad views from its giant glass windows. Or rise up Mount Lycabettus, to be rewarded with perhaps Athens’ best panorama of the Acropolis sitting high over the city on its grand stage. See the marble horseshoe of the Old Olympic Stadium, where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896, for more of the city’s enduring legacy. Elsewhere, golden beaches and temples stretch out along the coastline, should you wish to explore a little further afield. Coffee is an art form to the Greeks, and it’s an unwritten rule that coffee time must never be rushed. So prepare to settle down for a couple of hours and lose yourself in a good chat. Feeling hungry – try traditional souvlaki made with sauces handed from generation to generation.