Viator Travel Blog

Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital city, is fast becoming the go-to destination in the Middle East. It’s the richest of the all the Emirates, with enough oil to last another 50 years, but with clever forward planning the city is rapidly turning into a tourist haven gearing up to out-Dubai Dubai.

You’ll find Essaouira, which is amazingly inexpensive, safe, and exotic, to be one of the most relaxed, likeable resorts in Morocco. This gentle city, surrounded by white walls and fringed by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, is especially popular with independent travelers and a few in-the-know Europeans, but it remains largely undiscovered by most travelers.

More than two years have passed since Egypt’s 2011 Revolution, and the country is still feeling the effects. Images shown around the world of the violence in Cairo’s Tahrir Square both during the uprising and after have had a profoundly negative impact on the country’s reputation, causing people worldwide to believe that the entire country is dangerous now. This is not true. Egypt is approximately 385,000 square miles in size. The majority of the violence which still sporadically occurs is in an approximately one-square-mile area in downtown Cairo. The rest of Cairo remains perfectly safe as does the rest of the country, from the Mediterranean city of Alexandria to the tombs and temples of Luxor and Aswan, from the Red Sea beaches of the Sinai to the pyramids which give the country its signature skyline.

The political situation in Israel is complex and can be tense, but that doesn’t stop millions of people who visit the historic country every year. With a rich history and fascinating culture, beautiful beaches, a surprising range of adventure activities, and fantastic food, Israel is more than the headlines splashed across the evening news. If you decide to visit Israel now, here’s what you need to know.

For many travelers, the trip to South Africa is a long one, which means it ends up getting relegated to “once in a lifetime” status and often gets put off in favor of trips to places closer to home. But Cape Town – and, indeed, all of South Africa – warrants more than one visit. Not only that, if you keep putting it off, who knows when you’ll ever get there.

Meet Sunil Sathyan, one of Viator’s local experts in Dubai with a license to provide private tours.

Welcome to the 2012 Viator Travel Awards: Africa and Middle East Edition! Rather than make this a list of specific tours, as we’ve done in the past, we decided this year to make a list of 25 of the most fun and interesting things to do in Africa and the Middle East – with a few specific tours as options in each destination.

HURRY! Book by December 6, 2012 to save 50% on the recommended retail prices for a Dubai Super Saver: City Sightseeing Tour and Desert Safari. This exclusive offer applies to all scheduled departure times and dates through October 31, 2013. Please note that this offer is available for new transactions only and cannot be applied to any existing booking.

Zipping between sandy bays and swank wine estates, our driver pointed out Kalk Bay—a popular site for seeing southern right whales—then drove us to the oldest winery in South Africa. We’d only left downtown Cape Town a mere 25 minutes prior, and my mind was trying to throw off preconceived notions as quickly as the formidable sandstone mountains were shrugging off the morning mist. I found the numerous wine regions near Cape Town overwhelming: Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, Constantia, Paarl, Durbanville—all beckoned with their idiosyncratic qualities like a row of red wines during a blind tasting.

If lying on a beach all day sipping coconut water while working on your tan does not sound like your ideal holiday, why else would you visit the tropical island of Mauritius? Aside from all the well-known clichés about its shiny white beaches, vast coral reefs and endless sunshine; this compact island actually offers so much more than just swimming and snorkeling.