Skip to main content

All In The Family

In a world where travel is more accessible than ever before, where experiences trump the typical ‘bucket-list’ items, and giving back to local communities is of utmost importance, it’s the unique local travel experiences like Trafalgar's Be My Guest that make a trip stand out.

Visiting a foreign place and being invited into a local’s home for a lovingly-prepared meal – an exchange of conversation and a first-hand look into the local life – was a revolutionary concept 15 years ago. Enter Be My Guest, the original local travel experience, born from the concept of enabling human connections between host (the local) and guest (the traveler).


Today we connected with the locals on Luxor's West Bank.  We had the opportunity to enjoy freshly baked bread (more carbs!) with honey and mint tea.  


This local family farms the area and takes advantage of Luxor's tourism as a side hustle....camel rides, anyone?  These types of "home experiences" are becoming a staple on each international tour we go on and, obviously, we make a difference to these people by providing a small source of income while preserving their local customs and heritage.

This local family has a small property in the village where they board the animals and grow some crops, but own more land outside the city of Luxor that they also farm.  



Our Trafalgar tour guide spoils the kids each visit with lots of candy.  The kids absolutely loved seeing a bag full of lollipops show up this afternoon.  


Trafalgar was the first in the industry to offer this type of experience to guests over 10 years ago. There are now 100+ experiences across all seven continents Trafalgar visits, with all guests getting the chance to experience Be My Guest for themselves.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Surviving Day 1 In Egypt

Hey!  How you DUNE? Get it?  How you dune?   I think this Egyptian heat is already making us delirious.  Or maybe it was the three flights (17+ hours) to get here.  Or maybe it was the thirteen hours we spent passing time in airports between Baltimore, Dallas, London and Cairo.   Let's just say we are glad to finally be here.  Our Trafalgar tour officially starts in two days, so we pre-planned a few adventures in the meantime to get things started.  It seems our tour company does not recommend participating in any third-party activity where our safety is a liability.  Sorry, Trafalgar!...but Egypt has lots of camels and I'm definitely planning to put my ass between some humps on this trip!  A few other activities we deemed "must do" while in the desert included dune surfing, ATV's, and a desert safari ride.  We accept full responsibility for dying in the desert this summer. We searched the Viator travel website in search of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rise + Shine In The Valley

How much does it cost ?     You can't go anywhere with Leonard without hearing those five words!  He's known to be quite the cheapskate back home, but I can usually get him to splurge a little when we travel.  We both want to experience as much as possible on these trips.....and, it's no secret, nothing is cheap (except beer on the cruise ship!). A hot air balloon ride was not even an option heading into this Egypt trip.  One of the couples in our tour group happened to mention this activity when we arrived in Luxor.  The Trafalgar tour company once again discourages activities like these due to safety concerns.....but our tour guide wound up offering to book a sunrise balloon ride over The Valley of Kings for anyone who was interested. This was something Jenesa and I actually debated, because we had spent a lot of money on a balloon ride during a previous trip to the  Australian outback ....and it was a little disappointing.   The Valley of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Heeeeeeere's Johnny!!!

Our Trafalgar tour officially began this morning when we received our 2:30am wakeup call at the hotel.  Yup!  You read that correctly .  Our travel group was scheduled to fly to Luxor on an early flight from Cairo.  Once we arrived in Luxor, the tour would continue on the Nile River. Check out our luxury riverboat for the next five days! Luxor, often called the "world's greatest open-air museum," is a must-visit destination for its unparalleled concentration of ancient Egyptian temples, tombs, and monuments.  Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes , the capital of Upper Egypt during the New Kingdom.  Among the highlights of Luxor are the 3400-year-old Luxor Temple and the Karnak Temple Complex, the Valley of the Kings (and Queens), and the massive stone statues known as the Colossi of Menmon. Upon arriving in Luxor we started our day by visiting the Karnak Temple.  In ancient Egypt, Karnak was not a person, but rather the name of a vast templ...
Post a Comment
Read more