By Virginia López Valiente – General Director of Cruises News Media Group and Editor of CruisesNews magazine
Feeling privileged to be one of the few who have visited the two Nabataean cities and the most enigmatic and captivating ancient civilization in history. That's the feeling you get when you return from an MSC Cruises Red Sea cruise.It's not the first time I've traveled in Yacht Club, nor the first time MSC Cruises has created a truly special memory for me. It already happened when I visited Pompeii during the height of the pandemic—empty, just for us.
This time I visited Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in one week, with all the comforts of the MSC Splendida Yacht Club and experiencing once again how small we are in this wonderful world we live in.
No, I hadn't yet visited Petra, and that alone made this trip worthwhile. Petra was the capital of the Nabataean civilization, the Bedouin people who inhabited the Arabian Desert between approximately the 4th century BC and the 1st century AD. Petra is very well known, and that's why it's always full of tourists, but that shouldn't stop you from visiting it. What I had visited was Egypt several times, in various ways, and even with all the people everywhere, how could you not enjoy it! The Egyptians are probably the 
most famous ancient civilization, and at the same time, they hold many unsolved mysteries. I would go back, I will go back, a thousand times over. Is a cruise worth it just for these two destinations? Of course, we've taken many cruises to simple destinations, and while everything has its charm, this is something more. Up to this point, you're already accumulating unforgettable memories, but this cruise also takes you to Saudi Arabia, where you can visit the other great Nabataean city, Hegra. I'm not going to give away too much because this trip deserves a feature in the March issue, but arriving in Alula, seeing the Hegra burial monuments, that desert, flying in a private plane to make it possible, taking pictures of yourself in front of Elephant Rock at sunset with unparalleled light and without anyone else in the photo, is another one of those special memories that a cruise has given me, already knowing that I am privileged.
I won't make you any more envious, just add to this the Yacht Club service, 2 days of sailing to recharge your batteries and great company to share all these moments with.
