Buzz’s Travel History

In December of 2022, I took my first trip to the African Continent. After completing my trip to Africa, I have now visited every continent except Antarctica. To get to Africa, I flew from Washington Dulles to Casablanca on Royal Air Maroc. 

I spent a few days in Casablanca to help acclimate myself to the new time zone. In addition to resting for a day, I took a tour of the City of Casablanca and enjoyed a visit to the Hassan II Mosque.

After spending three days in Casablanca, I took the train from Casablanca Voyagers Station to Marrakech. Once in Marrakech, I spent a full day walking around the Medina of Marrakech. The next day, I got up early and set off for a three-day tour of the Sahara Desert. 

The first day of my Sahara Desert tour was spent traveling through the Atlas Mountains. Stops along the way included Ait Ben Haddou and Ouarzazate. After spending the night near the Dades Gorge, our tour group got up early to visit a Berber Village. 

I purchased a beautiful Berber Carpet, although negotiating the price was an extremely stressful event. Our Sahara Desert tour continued with a visit to the Dadas Gorge before finally arriving in Merzouga.

Merzouga is the gateway to the Sahara Desert and the Dunes of Erg Chebbi. A one-hour camel ride took us to a beautiful location to watch the sunset. We then rode our camels a bit further to our accommodations for the night. Our night two accommodations would be in a Berber Camp deep in the Sahara Desert. 

The next morning, we woke up early and were back on the camels before sunrise. We stopped to find a beautiful location to watch the sunrise. Then, we continued back to Merzouga, where it would take 10 hours by van to arrive back in Marrakech.

The next day, I flew from Marrakech to Istanbul, Turkey, for an overnight layover. This flight was my first experience on Turkish Airlines.

After landing at Istanbul International Airport, I took a taxi to my hotel, which was located right near the Hagia Sophia Mosque.

I only had about sixteen hours in Istanbul and decided to focus on visiting the Hagia Sophia Mosque. The Hagia Sophia has always been fascinating to me as it began as a Christian Church and then became a Muslim Mosque. After being a museum for a brief time, the Hagia Sophia was converted back into a Mosque in 2018.

After touring the Hagia Sophia Mosque, it was time to return to the airport for my flight from Istanbul to Nairobi. Once again, this flight was on Turkish Airlines. I was extremely impressed with Turkish Airlines and understood why it is one of the world’s top-ranked airlines.

I landed in Nairobi around 4:00 am and went straight to my hotel. Since I had been traveling non-stop, I decided to use this day as a rest day and barely left my hotel. 

The next day I would depart for a three-day Safari at Maasai Mara National Reserve. My guide picked me up at my hotel around 7:00 am. After picking up the other four tour members, we left for Maasai Mara National Reserve. The drive was just over seven hours, and we made multiple stops, including at a stunning viewpoint for photographing the Great Rift Valley.

When we finally arrived at Maasai Mara, we went directly into the park for a brief safari. We drove around viewing animals until dark, and our guide took us to our accommodations. I had superior accommodation (tent camp) for the first night and was extremely impressed with the quality of my tent.

The next day we woke up early and spent over twelve hours on safari. We drove all around Maasai Mara National Reserve and saw many different species of animals, including lions, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, hippos, Zebras, wildebeests, baboons, African buffalo, hyenas, impala, gazelles, topi, ostriches, crocodiles, warthogs, mongoose, and a variety of birds.

Our guide even drove to the border of Kenya and Tanzania so we could walk into Tanzania, which I proudly added to my list of countries that I had visited. 

My night two accommodations were at a budget camp. These accommodations were not nearly as nice and I found myself struggling to fall asleep.

The next day, we woke up early and visited a Maasai Village. I teach about the Maasai, and it was an amazing experience to visit their village and learn about their culture first-hand. We then loaded back into the van and began the long drive back to Nairobi. 

I spent the night in Nairobi before an early morning flight from Nairobi to Cairo. This flight would be my first experience with Egypt Airlines.

After arriving in Cairo, I went to my hotel and relaxed for the remainder of the day. I would go on two marathon tours in Cairo and wanted to make sure I was well rested.

The next day, I woke up early and headed back to the airport, where I would catch an early morning flight from Cairo to Luxor. This flight was on Nile Air, my first and only experience with this airline.

After landing in Luxor, I was met by a wonderful guide named Nermeen, who would show me the main attractions of Luxor. 

The highlight of my trip to Luxor was a visit to the Valley of the Kings, where I went inside the tombs of Rameses IV, Tutankhamun, Merenptah, Rameses I, and Rameses V/VI. At this point in my travels, I’d been to almost 40 countries, and I felt like the Valley of the Kings might have been the most spectacular place I’d ever visited.

While visiting Luxor, I also visited the Colossi of Memnon, Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple, the Karnak Temple, and the Luxor Temple.

After a long day of touring, I returned to Luxor Airport and flew back to Cairo on Egypt Air. I would have a few hours to rest before a second big day of touring.

My second day in Egypt would focus on the Pyramids. I booked a tour that included visits to the Pyramids of Giza as well as the Saqqara and Dahshur Complexes. In my opinion, the pyramids at Saqqara and Dahshur were more fun to visit than the Pyramids of Giza.

This tour would conclude my time in Egypt. The next day, I flew home with a stop in Warsaw, Poland. I was supposed to have a ten-hour layover in Warsaw, but a last-minute schedule change negated my layover.