Visiting Saudi Arabia can be difficult, expensive and inconvenient - especially for women who have special dress rules enforced on them.
Much as I'd love to visit the country, I've not been able to fit in a 7-10 day land tour.
However the MV Discovery has an interesting voyage in Nov 2011. http://us.voyagesofdiscovery.com/voyage_details.php?cruise_id=18441
It start in Safaga, Egypt then has day stops at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Massawa, Eritrea before continuing to Oman and finally Mumbai, India.
A pity it doesn't stop in Yemen but that's still two or three TCC countries covered with no need to unpack!
MV Discovery is relatively small (around 700 pax) and the fittings modest compared to the big cruise liners. But the staff are friendly and the food more than adequate.
http://us.voyagesofdiscovery.com/ship.php?ship_id=367&type=33
Best of all, the Discovery doesn't do the standard Mediterranean and Caribbean cruise runs all year round - instead it covers some less common locales, which makes it worth checking out from time to time.
Again, I'm not a rep. of the cruise line nor a travel agent - just a FYI for fellow TCC members.
Peter Deegan
Replies
the problem with Saudi Arabia they do not accept independent travelers, tourist must be from an organized group
Business people have no problems obtaining a Visa that said; if you want a visa you have to go from the country its issued from directly to Saudi nothing inbetween, so from New York I was circumnavgaiting the continent of Africa so that woudn't work for me .
What I did I applied for a 3 day transit visa at their embassy in Dijobuti which allowed me to travel to only one place so I chose Jeddah.
Hi Peter, I just joined this. I have been a member of TCC a number of years. I have been to Saudi Arabia and Oman a few years ago. I am in Eritrea in September, so i if you have any questions, you are welcome to ask.
Regards
David
A chance look at the web site shows this itinerary has now changed. http://us.voyagesofdiscovery.com/voyage_details.php?cruise_id=18441
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has been removed from the trip and there’s now an overnight in Massawa and an additional stop in India.
This is a major change in the cruise since I expect many people were interested in the Saudi stop – you've be forgiven for thinking that a bit of ‘bait and switch’ is going on. I wonder how realistic the advertised Jeddah stop ever was and when the web site was updated?
The overnight in Massawa, Eritrea would be interesting but not worth the trouble of the 2 week cruise.
Grumble, grumble.