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EUROPE TO HOST FIRST-EVER INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HALAL TOURISM

By | July 17, 2014 | Reviews | Comments Off on EUROPE TO HOST FIRST-EVER INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HALAL TOURISM

Recently I have been getting a significant amount of press releases to my inbox, mostly they are related to some award or the other, or some new product or service that is launched by a hotel or that relates to F&B. I usually rummage through them and set them aside, the reason being is that Al Rahalah is not a magazine, and was not intended as one. However, one of these press releases did grab my attention enough to have me post it right here. It falls right within the core of this site: Halal Tourism, and I thought I would share.

It’s about time Halal Tourism got the focus it deserves.

Read more…

CRAFT OF THE TWO HANDS

By | April 15, 2014 | Egypt, Retail + Shopping, Reviews | Comments Off on CRAFT OF THE TWO HANDS

Few arts have been associated with being lady-like as embroidery, crocheting, and cross-stitch. It was considered a sign of refinement. And while there is no decisive evidence of crocheting before its popularity in Europe during the 19th century [source: Wikipedia], embroidery and cross-stitch have been around for a very long time. Embroidery has been dated as early as the 5th century BCE, and Cross-stitch is considered the oldest form of embroidery and can be found all over the world.

In Egypt, as in the rest of the world, these crafts have been traditionally passed down through generations, unfortunately, at some point this tradition almost all but died out, the faster the pace of life become, the less patience younger generations had for learning such delicate arts. Which brings us to the bright point of this post: Coralique, a grandmother/granddaughter team that is reviving this lost art in Egypt. Read more…

COMFORT: THE TOP 12 MID-RANGE HOTELS IN EGYPT

By | December 7, 2012 | Egypt, Reviews, Travel + Leisure | Comments Off on COMFORT: THE TOP 12 MID-RANGE HOTELS IN EGYPT

By Islam El Shazly

There hundreds of hotels of different classes and classifications in Egypt, and that is not much of a wonder for a country heavily reliant on tourism. Hospitality comes with turf.

Picking the right hotel for a specific budget becomes paramount with such a large number of hotels, and choosing the right one is not always a straight forward affair, since the quality of service sometime fluctuates from one visit to the next, depending where you’re staying. Read more…

OPULENT: THE TOP 11 BOUTIQUE HOTELS IN EGYPT

By | November 27, 2012 | Egypt, Reviews, Travel + Leisure | Comments Off on OPULENT: THE TOP 11 BOUTIQUE HOTELS IN EGYPT

By Islam El Shazly

Back in the early 20th century and the late 19th century travelling was a more relaxed affair; because of the nature of travel at the time which was predominantly by either trains or ships, people were away from their homes for months at a time, and that called for a different kind of hotel.

The extended nature of the stay meant that only the well to do and the wealthy could travel for any sustained period of time, and hotels became a sort of a home away from home. Hotels of the day defined luxury, unlike most fancy hotels of today that are mostly glitz and glamour, those ones were truly palatial and decadent. Read more…

15 EXCEPTIONAL TRAVEL READS

By | October 17, 2012 | Retail + Shopping, Reviews, Travel + Leisure | 4 Comments

 

By Islam El Shazly

One thing that should be indispensable is a good book to read while travelling, but how to choose the right one for you from the millions out there is the trick.

This here is an eclectic mix of books that make for an enjoyable, thought-provoking, and even humorous read; from the tales of a fictional archaeologist, to the tantalizing tales of murder and suspense, and from a challenge of the socio-political colonial pretext of orientalism to the good-natured humorous adventures of the indomitable Gauls. There is something here for everyone, even the child in all of us. Read more…

TOP 8 EGYPT TRAVEL GUIDES – PRINT

By | September 30, 2012 | Retail + Shopping, Reviews, Travel + Leisure | 2 Comments

By Islam El Shazly

There is a multitude of guides, both online and in print dealing with Egypt. Some better than others, but only a few stand out in terms of the level of research and amount of useful information they involve. And with smartphones and tablets now being the latest human accessories, there are a zillion apps covering travel in Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.

Getting to the best ones is the trick. Here are the Top 8 Egypt Travel Guides—in our humble opinion—in printed form, ordered by publication date. If you are a fan of good old fashioned paper and ink, then make sure to grab one of them before your next trip to Egypt. Read more…