About Nadia

Who I at the

I was born in Cairo and grew up in a flat where three generations argued about religion over lunch. My grandmother kept a small icon of the Virgin Mary above the kitchen door, my father read the Quran in Arabic and English, and my mother would point out, reasonably, that we should all just be kinder to the people next door. None of that gave me a theology degree. It gave me a habit of listening carefully when people talk about the places that made them who they are.

I made my first trip to Jerusalem in 2011. I was twenty-three, travelling alone with a backpack and a borrowed copy of The Guide for the Perplexed that I did not finish. I walked the Old City for four days in a daze. I bought a small ceramic bowl in the Armenian Quarter that I still use for olives. I cried at the Western Wall at 4 At the on my last morning and missed my bus to the airport because of it. That trip changed the direction of my life, although I did not know it for another eight years.

The first pilgrimage I led

I led my first group in March 2019. Fourteen people, mostly over sixty, mostly from a church in Cairo I had visited as a child. Two of them had heart conditions. One used a walking stick. One had not been on a plane in twenty-eight years. We had a licensed local guide, a small coach, and a list of sites that was almost too long for the week we had.

I have written elsewhere that I was not sure I could do it. That is true. What I did not write down was that the group was better than I deserved. They were patient with the queue at the checkpoint. They let me change the morning order when the weather turned. They sat with me when I was too tired to pretend I knew what I was doing on day three. At the Grotto of the Nativity, twenty strangers in our wider tour fell silent together for what felt like a full minute. I watched a man in our group, a retired engineer named Tarek, put his hand on his wife's shoulder and not say anything. That is the moment I understood what I wanted to do with my life.

The two times I have cried in Jerusalem

I have cried twice in Jerusalem. The first time was at the Western Wall at 4 At the on a weekday, the same trip I mentioned above. The plaza was almost empty. The only sound was a man reading psalms under the women's section, his voice steady and low, and the small shuffle of cleaners pushing water across the stones. I did not place a note in the wall. I just stood there for an hour and let the place do what it does. I do not know how to describe that without sounding sentimental, so I will just say: if you can manage it, go before dawn at least once.

The second time was inside the Grotto of the Nativity at 9:15 At the, on the first pilgrimage I led. The crowd went completely silent for about thirty seconds, and the only light came from the silver star set into the floor marking the place. Twenty strangers fell quiet together without anyone asking them to. I cried because I had not known people could do that in a tourist site. I cried because the engineer put his hand on his wife's shoulder. I cried because I was standing in a room that had been prayed in for seventeen hundred years, and the praying had not stopped.

I at the not a theologian

about what I at the and what I at the not. I at the not a theologian. I at the not a priest, a pastor, an imam, or a rabbi. I do not have a degree in religious studies. I organise group trips. I book coaches. I check which gate the bus leaves from. I make sure the person with the heart condition has a seat that is not in the back row. I at the very good at logistics and very bad at pretending to know more than I do about any of the faiths my groups come from.

On my first trip I got thoroughly lost in the Muslim Quarter for about forty minutes. I came out near a small hummus place I would never have found on a planned route. The hummus was the best I have ever eaten. I have been recommending that place, unnamed, to my groups ever since. Most of what I know about the Old City came from getting lost in it and asking people to show me things. If you want a tour guide who will tell you which verse relates to which stone, I can recommend several excellent licensed guides. If you want someone to make sure your coach is parked near the right gate and your mother has water, I at the your person.

How I work

When you book a group trip with me, you are booking a small group, usually between ten and twenty people, a licensed local guide for each city, a private coach, and me as the trip organiser. I handle the booking, the timing, the dietary notes, the medical notes, and the long email threads about which gate the bus leaves from. The local guide handles the history, the theology, and the questions I cannot answer. This split is deliberate. It is also the only way I know to do trips that feel personal without pretending I at the something I at the not.

My one rule, the one I repeat to every group before we leave the hotel: "If a tour doesn't mention which gate the bus leaves from, call before booking." I have watched too many groups lose a morning to a meeting point that did not exist, a driver who was told the wrong gate, or a coach that could not fit through an alley that looks wide on Google Maps. The gate is the single most practical detail in the Old City, and any tour that does not name it is not a tour you should be on.

How this site earns money

This site earns a small commission when you book a tour through a Viator link. My partner ID is P00299531. If you click a link on this site and complete a booking, Viator pays me a percentage of what you paid, at no extra cost to you. That is the entire business model.

I do not run donations. I do not have a Patreon. I do not sell a course. I do not take sponsored placements from hotels, churches, guides, or restaurants. I do not write positive reviews in exchange for free trips. If a tour is on this site, it is because I would actually send my own group on it. If a tour is not on this site, it is usually because I have not been able to verify it personally, not because anyone paid me to leave it off.

The site costs a small amount to run each year in hosting, analytics, and image licenses. The Viator commissions cover that cost and a little more. If you would rather book a tour directly with a local guide and skip the affiliate link, I will happily send you their contact details. The price you pay is the same either way.

Get in touch

If you are thinking about organising a group trip to the Holy Land, or if you have questions about an itinerary I have written about, the easiest way to reach me is through the contact page. I read every message. I respond to most of them within a week. I at the slower in December and faster in February.