Welcome to my next trip report series, covering a recent trip that I took to Paris, with a rather circuitous return via Africa. Let me just say upfront that this trip didn’t turn out the way I expected. There were several aircraft swaps, and I (sort of) got banned from a country in the process.
Continue reading: Introduction: Paris, With Some Cairo Drama
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Looking forward to it, especially those Paris hotel ones. Two properties I'll never be at, but interested to see what it's like.
Egypt is such a tempting destination, with its rich history, cradle of civilization status and etc, but they really need to fix their tourism or they're going to kill their golden goose. A recent Taiwanese YouTuber did a Egypt trip and it was literally his worst travel experience yet. And this guy is usually super positive and finds the silver lining in everything (e.g. India), does his research on scams and avoids them etc, but Egypt definitely got to him.
"Ford was staying at two different hotels in Paris, so I joined him for that, which I was looking forward to, since Paris is an incredible hotel market."
Paris is an incredible hotel market because France has very strict hotel regulations. If a hotel calls itself 4 stars or 5 stars, there are very specific requirements it must follow. That's because France taxes a hotel based on its star rating, not a fixed percent like other countries or cities. So, if the French state taxes your hotel at the rate for 5 stars or palace, you are inspected every year to audit compliance.
There are few places with as strict of standards. Maybe the UK with hotels that participate in AA (the British version of AAA). AA is stricter than AAA, in my experience.
Likewise, it's also why French wine is so good. Yes, there's better wine outside France. But French wine regulations are so strict that it's almost impossible to make bad wine if the grape harvest was good.
The Egyptian authorities are complicit in covering up that recent boat incident which is one of many others
Just got back from a few weeks in Egypt last month. I'm glad I went but once is enough. I travel independently, book my own accommodations, transit, day tours ect. When anyone asks moving forward, I will advise them to take a package tour in Egypt if they're dead set on going as to limit interactions within the Egypt tourism flytrap. To not kill the golden goose, they will need to systemically change. They just don't understand that negative reviews travel fast (as Ben found out) & when you plead to me for a positive review after attempting to rip me off, I have zero insensitive to do so.
The reason why Paris has excellent hotels is because France has strict hotel regulations. The government rates hotels and audits them yearly. Mostly because hotel taxes in France are determined by star rating, unlike in the USA where a hotel occupancy taxes is generally fixed at a certain amount or percentage of the room rate regardless of the quality of the hotel. There are extremely high standards imposed by the government for hotels with 4-star, 5-star, and palace designations.
Can you give American Flagship First a star rating this time around ? You didn’t rate your last review.
I find no pleasure in reading about someone taking circuitous routes and breaking up hotel nights so you “experience” more. And just looking at the way you did it makes me sympathetic to your life as wow just another long layover and taxi ride to your next hotel. Such a miserable life!
Isn't the 17.5k Amex offer on ITA only valid for flights originating in the US?
What the heck were you thinking booking another flight through Cairo?! You’ve got a family Sir! Once an airport/government in a foreign country has called you out on social media stay the heck away.
This is the trip where @Ben had the trouble in Cairo; he's now publishing the full trip report, whereas previously he just talked about the Cairo issues since it made the international media.
This is the trip where @Ben had the trouble in Cairo; he's now publishing the full trip report, whereas previously he just talked about the Cairo issues since it made the international media.
Then don't read about it, and if you must, don't whine about it when most of the readers here know what he is doing and why, and enjoy reading it.
Paris also has some of the worst hotels I’ve ever stayed in. Really decrepit. I also stayed in a hotel in Nice and woke up to find a smelly waterlogged carpet. The regulations are not as onerous as you make out.
Was gonna say, Paris has lovely hotels even on the inexpensive end. But still have meh or mediocre hotels.
In Australia, airline offers on Amex are usually for spend in AUD and where the flight is doesn't matter. Many airlines force you to buy on their site in your home country, or the country of your credit card. I've been booted to their AU site on American when I went to pay for a domestic US flight booked while I was there, and was billed in AUD. If I book on Amex travel it always prices in AUD. Either of those cases could have made Ben's ITA fare eligible for the bonus points. (Clearly talking USD not AUD for him.)
This is so true! Egypt is great if you only stay at a luxury resort and do privat tours. Whenever you are outside the hotel you need to ignore the people, once you start interacting with them it gets horrible quickly. For me this is not an ideal holiday experience, but nice to see the heritage.
I'm currently in CPT on my way to JNB, two of the most dangerous cities in the world, and the difference to Egypt is like day and night. You feel save, barely anyone is harassing you and people don't try to rip you off. So sad that Egypt instead opts to be such a shit hole.
I feel like you are not unsafe in Egypt, but just subject to a lot of annoyance (mainly Cairo- get outside of there and this dissipates quite a bit. CPT and JNB there is a real fear of physical danger, but not the fear of people just bugging you constantly. Pick your poison..
However, due to a parking issue with the Emirates A380
Is there something endemic with EK and parking?? Last time I flew MXP-JFK we had a 90 min delay since they weren’t able to connect the jetbridge or something
That's a bit like going to a steak house just to let everyone know you're vegan. Lol.
I love the pool room design for Le Bristol, but I'm a sucker for age of sail theming. Rest of the hotel looks gorgeous as well, I usually don't follow the hotel reviews but I'm excited for this one.