Long fascinated by historic civilisations, meet the Australian couple who took a tailored Egyptian honeymoon.
Self-proclaimed lawyer-turned-funtrepreneur Sarah Davidson – AKA Spoonful of Sarah – and her companion Nic just lately returned from their honeymoon in Egypt. And it wasn’t simply any honeymoon; Sarah bought in contact with Intrepid’s Tailor-Made group about curating the right Egyptian expertise. We sat down for a chat to see the way it all went down.
What made you select Egypt to your honeymoon?
My husband, Nic, and I’ve individually been fascinated by Ancient Egypt since we had been youngsters. Travel has been one our largest shared passions and we realised early on that Egypt was excessive on each of our dream vacation spot lists.
We had our dream wedding ceremony in 2019 and hoped to have our honeymoon a couple of months later, however then COVID got here alongside! But the three-year wait made the journey all of the extra candy as a result of we each had a brand new appreciation for the power to journey freely and see the world once more.
We did contemplate the extra standard “romantic” locations for our honeymoon, however we had longed to go to Egypt for thus a few years and had been thirsty for a transformative journey. So, the honeymoon appeared the right time to go to, and it was so well worth the wait!
What was concerned in organising a Tailor-Made journey with Intrepid?
We leaned very closely on Intrepid’s journey consultants – we barely had any enter into the itinerary (though we may have if we’d needed to). We opted for a non-public tour (solely as a result of it was our honeymoon and we actually needed to maximise our time as a pair); we principally turned up on day one and sat again to get pleasure from.
It was fairly completely different to how we’d normally strategy a visit, however in a spot like Egypt – the place there may be SO a lot to cowl and recognize – no person may have put it collectively higher than the group at Intrepid. Every element of the itinerary was seamless. The planning and stress was eliminated completely, and we bought the advantages from the deep relationships Intrepid has lengthy been nurturing with locals. And the peace of thoughts of figuring out every little thing is guided by B Corp rules regarding sustainability, human and animal welfare is unmatched.
Did your expectations of Egypt dwell as much as actuality?
Egypt is a kind of locations you’ve gotten a number of publicity to lengthy earlier than visiting, particularly from films and TV. It did cross my thoughts that we would arrive at some websites and have that “oh it’s smaller than I expected”-type expertise (like some folks have concerning the Mona Lisa). But from the very first cease on the Pyramids of Giza, our expertise was exactly the other. I’m nonetheless unsure my mind has processed the sheer scale, integrity and significance of every construction we noticed – photos and movies won’t ever do the relics of Ancient Egypt justice. Every day was magic differently.
Tell us about your native chief, Dalia.
We couldn’t have wished for a greater information than Dalia and all of us cried on the finish of the journey. She is a Giza native and a skilled Egyptologist, so her data of the traditional websites and hieroglyphics was extraordinary.
Everything got here alive along with her ardour and background briefings as we walked round – our expertise would have been nowhere close to as wealthy with out her. Plus, we had SO a lot enjoyable within the down time between actions, like attempting out Egyptian meals, sharing tales and images of our households, and evaluating our lives and aspirations. It was so particular!
What had been a few of the highlights out of your journey?
The Pyramids of Giza had been an enormous spotlight, as a result of they’re so quintessentially Ancient Egyptian. It’s unusual to let it sink in that they’ve been precisely the place they’re now for 4,500 years. The indisputable fact that we don’t totally perceive how they had been constructed is sort of magical and reveals simply how superior the Ancient Egyptians actually had been.
Sharing a meal in a neighborhood’s residence was such a uniquely particular a part of our itinerary, and seeing a snippet of a neighborhood’s each day life was an enriching expertise – the Egyptian persons are pretty and happy with their tradition.
Any recommendation for different travellers who may need to organise their very own adventures however don’t know the place to begin?
Consider Intrepid earlier than you do the rest; it’s such an easy, aware and complete solution to journey. You can take the easiest bits of an already wonderful itinerary, after which tweak it both by making it non-public, taking a small group of buddies, or modifying the itinerary. It’s the very best of each worlds.
All photos C/O Spoonful of Sarah. Sarah travelled as a visitor of Intrepid, nonetheless all opinions stay her personal.