Holidays in Adjoining Countries?

Morrocco is definately a good place to see.....Also Jordan is very nice as long as you dont limit yoursefl to amman....

Alliecat,

We just spent last weekend in Muskat, Oman and it was wonderful!  So clean, miles of flowers, great food, wonderful friendly people, nice Souq, and the tour of the city was terrific.  They took us to the Grand Mosque - breathtaking!  The old Palace, the Old City, the Souqs, the old Forts, etc.  The tour was 5hrs and it was well worth the money.  We stayed at the Crown Plaza which had several restaurants, pool, beach, on a hill overlooking the Gulf.  Very, Very nice.  The only down side was the cost.  The dollar is much lower than the Oman Rial.  Example:  1 OMR = 2.6 USD.  If you contact a travel agent, you may be able to get a deal on flights & lodging.  Our trip was a last minute deal, hubby called me at noon and we left KSA at 530pm.  I think our next trip will be to Thialand - we have always wanted to travel there.  Good luck in your search!

CAF

I would definitely go to Jordan. Rent a car and make a road trip to Aqaba, the southernmost part of Jordan, while stopping along the road to see Petra, Wadi Rum, etc, of course.

I lived in Qatar for 2 years but wouldn't really recommend it unless shopping is your idea of a holiday. And I'm guessing it's not!

MOROCCO, JORDAN & OMAN, not necessarily in that order, are he best offers around in my long experience in the region

What about Lebanon??

Lebanon (Of course at night, having good food, drinks, and listening to live music are great, too.) And if you like to be in a place where nothing makes sense, depending on when you plan to go (Now you can do some snow sports as well) and how long you plan to stay (If your trip isn't long it's ideal since it's a tiny place) But make sure you plan ahead what you want to do. And if you don't mind the snobbishness (Lebanese excel in that).
Antiquities, Damascus is great albeit you're in for another Cairo deal almost.
But yeah, Jordan, Morocco and Oman are good candidates, Oman is close to the Scottish highlands.

Oh, and I would dodge Lebanon on the 14th of Feb if I were you (+/- 2 days).

Great thread, Allie.

Traveling in and around the ME is cheap, if you are here and know how to book your own travel.

I work with a man, brilliant linguist, who is doing Jordan on this break...Petra, Wadi Rum...as suggested above.

He's not really internet (or even computer) literate and went through a travel agent and spent about twice what he should have for flights and hotels, but it was still fairly good value.

I hope to do Egypt and a trip down the Nile in June, at my next break.  This little mini-break next week will just be a quick run home to Thailand for a few days.  Pork and beer!  Pork and beer!  Pork and beer!