Plotting My Next Adventure: Saudia First Class & RwandAir Business Class

Dear Lucky, There are so many great ways to get to Israel nowadays. In addition to El Al, United now flies Polaris on the majority of their TLV flights, as well as Hainan's new flights between TLV, Beijing, and Shanghai. Korean, and Cathay also fly to Tel Aviv. Another possibility can be the MANY low-cost carriers, including Wow Air which starts flying to TLV from Keflavík in September. El Al's Up, or Sun D'Or, as well as Arkia, and Israir, can be compared to JetBlue, or Alaska in terms of you get what you pay for. Israir, and Arkia offer international flights, as well as Domestic flights from Sde Dov, and TLV to Haifa, and Eilat. I advise not to go in the summer, as the weather is similar, although not as hot, as what you'd fins in the Gulf. Avoid Jewish holidays, such as The High Holiday season, Passover, Shavuoth, in addition to popular vacation times such as, Christmas week, and the "Yeshiva Week", a time where many Jewish Orthodox schools have break. Those times are exceptionally more expensive, and significantly more crowded. The Pride events in Tel Aviv, are MAJOR events, and the city gets very into it, houses, hotels, and street poles are draped in rainbow. The Jerusalem marathon is a great event as well. If you don't mind the prices and crowds, the Jewish Holidays are a sight to behold in Jerusalem. The western wall attracts tens of thousands of Jews at specific times, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashana, Birkat Kohanim (Priestly Blessing times) on the High Holidays and Shalosh Regalim (Succoth, Passover, Shavuoth). On Shavuoth, early morning (around 4/5 AM) the Vatikin prayer occurs, where the entire plaza is filled up, Tisha Ba'av also attracts a major crowd who mourn the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash (The Jewish Temple, where the Dome of the Rock, and Al-Aqsa mosques now stand). In addition, Modern Israeli holidays such as, Yom Haatzmaut (Israeli Independence Day), and Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day, celebrating the liberation of Jerusalem in '67). The dates of all the holidays occur on different times each year, in occordance with the Jewish calendar. I recommend visiting Jerusalem (a must), Tel Aviv (Beautiful beaches, amazing food and nightlife), Eilat is cool, although not nearly necessary, the Golan and Galil if you get a chance, and the Negev to see the dessert bloom. I hope you visit Israel soon.

Lucky: We were in Kigali last week and trust me, GO! We were blown away by it, not at all what we expected. There are some brand new hotels that made me feel like I was in Singapore, and we stayed at the new Marriott, which was one of the nicest hotels I've stayed at anywhere in the world, obviously not what I was expecting in RWANDA! There is also a brand new convention center with a Radisson Blu that I think you would like. The city itself is also gorgeous as it's lush green rolling hills as far as the eyes can see. Seriously, experience Kigali, it was absolutely worth it, don't waste time on Joburg this time.

How about checking out ET's new A350 between DXB and ADD?

Lucky and gorilla trekking? What, is there a new Park Hyatt in Bwindi?

DXB to MBA is getting downgraded to the 737 later in the year - I'm flying there for Christmas and unfortunately won't get to try out their A330 business class. Look forward to hearing a report on Rwandair if you go though!