Middle East Tours

The Middle East is the cradle of human civilization — the region where writing was invented, where the world's three great monotheistic faiths took root, and where some of history's most enduring monuments still stand. AIMS Travel's Middle East programs were designed for travelers who approached the region with genuine curiosity and a desire to understand its depth, complexity, and hospitality. These were not superficial highlight tours: they were carefully constructed cultural journeys led by expert local guides who could bring antiquity to life and help travelers navigate the region's rich layers of history with knowledge and sensitivity.

Egypt & the Nile

10 days — Cairo, Pyramids, Sphinx, Egyptian Museum, Nile cruise, Luxor, Valley of the Kings, Aswan, Abu Simbel

Egypt is one of the world's most compelling travel destinations — a country where monuments of almost incomprehensible antiquity still dominate the landscape and where the story of human civilization can be read in stone across three thousand years of continuous history. The AIMS Travel Egypt program opens in Cairo, where the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx rise from the desert plateau on the city's western edge, as overwhelming and mysterious in person as they are in every photograph ever taken of them. The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square holds the world's greatest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including the entirety of Tutankhamun's treasure — the golden death mask, the gilded throne, the canopic jars — all displayed in a state of glorious, slightly chaotic abundance.

From Cairo the group boards a traditional dahabiya or Nile cruise vessel for a journey south along the river that made Egyptian civilization possible. Luxor, built on the site of ancient Thebes, is home to the colossal Karnak Temple complex and the quieter Luxor Temple, still embedded in the heart of the modern city. Across the river, the West Bank holds the Valley of the Kings — the royal necropolis where pharaohs from Thutmose I to Ramesses XI were buried in elaborately painted tombs cut deep into the limestone — along with the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon. The cruise continues to Aswan, a beautiful Nile town of Nubian culture and granite islands, before the final excursion to Abu Simbel: the two great rock-cut temples of Ramesses II, relocated in a feat of international engineering in the 1960s to save them from the rising waters of Lake Nasser.

Turkey

11 days — Istanbul, Cappadocia, Ephesus, Turkish Riviera

Turkey is one of the most culturally rich countries in the world — the successor state to the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, and before them the crossroads of Greek, Persian, Roman, and Hittite civilizations. AIMS Travel's eleven-day program opened in Istanbul, one of the world's great cities: a metropolis of fifteen million that straddles Europe and Asia, where the Byzantine Hagia Sophia (now a mosque, previously a museum) and the Ottoman Blue Mosque face each other across the Sultan Ahmed Meydani, and where the Grand Bazaar's four thousand shops have been selling carpets, spices, jewelry, and ceramics since the fifteenth century. A Bosphorus cruise revealed the city's extraordinary waterfront geography, and an evening in the Beyoglu district provided a vivid experience of contemporary Turkish urban life.

From Istanbul the program flew to Cappadocia, the volcanic heartland of central Anatolia, where millennia of erosion have carved the rock into an otherworldly landscape of fairy chimneys, underground cities, and cave churches decorated with Byzantine frescoes. An optional hot air balloon flight over the Goreme Valley at sunrise is among the most memorable experiences available anywhere in the world. The western section of the program covered the great Aegean archaeological sites: Ephesus, the best-preserved ancient Roman city in the eastern Mediterranean, and the nearby House of the Virgin Mary. The tour concluded on the Turkish Riviera — the Turquoise Coast — where Lycian ruins overlook beaches and azure coves accessible by traditional gulet (wooden sailing vessel).

The Israel Rhapsody

10 days — Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Dead Sea, Galilee, Masada

AIMS Travel's Israel program was one of the company's signature offerings, refined over many years and widely regarded as one of the finest structured encounters with the Holy Land available to group travelers. Jerusalem is the emotional and historical centerpiece: the Old City, divided into its Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian quarters, contains within less than one square kilometer the Western Wall (the holiest accessible site in Judaism), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (built over the site of the Crucifixion and Resurrection), the Via Dolorosa, and the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. AIMS Travel's guides were exceptional at navigating this complexity with knowledge, sensitivity, and respect for all traditions.

Beyond Jerusalem, the program visited the ancient fortress of Masada — the rock plateau above the Dead Sea where Jewish rebels made their last stand against Roman siege in 73 CE — with the option of an early morning ascent via the Snake Path to watch the sun rise over the Judean Desert and Jordan. A float in the Dead Sea (the lowest point on earth at 430 meters below sea level) is one of the program's reliably memorable lighter moments. Galilee covers Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, and the Jordan River. Tel Aviv provides a vivid conclusion: a modern, cosmopolitan Mediterranean city with world-class restaurants, museums (including the outstanding Eretz Israel Museum and Diaspora Museum), and the beautifully preserved Ottoman-era architecture of Jaffa.

Kosher meal accommodations were available throughout the Israel program and on all other AIMS Travel itineraries upon request. The company maintained long-standing relationships with kosher-certified hotels and restaurants across all destinations and was experienced in accommodating the full range of dietary and observance requirements.

Historic Cities of the Mediterranean

11 days — Adriatic and Mediterranean port cities, multi-country cruise/tour

This eleven-day program traced the arc of Mediterranean civilization through a series of extraordinary port cities, each representing a distinct chapter in the long story of the sea that gave Western culture so much of its foundational architecture, philosophy, cuisine, and law. The itinerary touched on both the Adriatic and central Mediterranean coasts, visiting cities whose names resonate through centuries of history: the marble-paved streets and Venetian palazzi of Split and Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian Coast; the ancient harbors and medieval fortifications of Malta; the Greek temples at Agrigento and the baroque piazzas of the Sicilian interior; and the sweeping bay of Naples with Vesuvius looming above it. Depending on the specific departure, the program might also include Valletta, Tunis (and Carthage), or ports along the Turkish or Greek coasts. Each stop was accompanied by expert local guides who set the specific history of that port city within the broader arc of Mediterranean civilization.