Julie Paterson lives and travels all over the world and has a passion for Northern Africa – she presently lives in Egypt. Julie organises trips for women in the area and around the world through her company Venus Adventures 

The motto for Venus Adventures ?  “Life is uncertain – eat cake!”

Pull up a seat, I’d like to have a chat with you about risk, travel and common sense

Yesterday I was sitting with my Dutch friend Jose commiserating the lack of tourists in the Sinai, Egypt. We both live here at the moment, in this sleepy, peaceful Red Sea beachside town, inhabited by ex-pats and the local Bedouin tribe. Since the revolution in Egypt, ongoing unrest and some kidnappings in the past couple of years here in the Sinai desert, tourists have been warned to stay away. Even though you couldn’t be in a safer place. We need to get this in perspective. Read more

When the chance to have a cultural experience comes along, I always take it.

So when I heard about the Wadi Zalaga camel race, there was no doubt in my mind that I had to go.

This Bedouin camel race, held high up in the desert of the Sinai peninsula, Egypt, was a competition between the Tarabine and Mzeina tribe. Read more

    Julie from Venus Adventures For Women writes:

 

Half the year is over, so just thought it might be time to take stock! We are changing a couple of trips and have added a couple of new ones this past year, namely Burma and the African Safari. Both are fantastic destinations, so check out Venus Adventures For Women  for more information.

Burma

Burma has recently opened up to tourism and there is nothing better than seeing a country before it’s spoilt by Western influences (like McDonalds), so dont delay if you want an amazing trip to somewhere very special.

Africa….who can resist?

They say once you have been to Africa it will always claw at your heart to come back, and it has been that way for me ever since I spent 6 months crossing Africa 20 years ago. It is truly a life-changing experience.

I recently read a quote by one of my favourite authors, Paulo Coelho, which I wanted to share with you. You know how sometimes someone says something profound, and it feels like a light switch has gone on?!

“One day you will wake up and there won’t be anymore time to do the things you always wanted. Do it now”

Venus Adventures For Women – check out these and other tours
Africa – Morocco – Vietnam – Burma – Cambodia – Egypt – Turkey

I did a trip with Morocco with Julie Paterson and Venus Adventures and it was the trip of a lifetime – fabulous.

Julie has some last minutes spaces on her trip in March this year – so here is your chance to live a dream

Meeting 30 March in Casablanca  and travelling for 18 amazing days – including Fez, Marrakech, sleeping in the Sahara, shopping and more. INFO about the Trip

Read some stories on this blog about women travel in Morocco

More Trips with Venus Adventures

Julie from Venus Adventures for women reflects on Tea

Recently I was visiting some nomadic Bedouin friends in the Sinai, Egypt. As we sat cross-legged round the fire sipping sweet tea from small tea glasses, the teapot simmering away on the hot coals, I thought about how often tea had been an important focal point in so many countries I had visited.

Read more

Julie Paterson, owner of Venus Adventures for women writes

“There Bulgaria Church. There Golden Horn. There Yeni mosque. Mosque, mosque, mosque. Too much mosque!”

The cab driver turned off the meter, insisting on a free guided detour across Istanbul back to my hotel. In broken English.

In Turkey you have to live in the moment…if you do, little adventures are sure to be had. The cabbie only had about 20 words of English, but he’s a Turk, which means he can’t help himself: hospitality is in his blood. Read more

Venus Adventures is a NZ and Swiss based company which focuses on women travellers.  They can help you organise your own custom trip (mixed or women-only) to Morocco! Read more

Hot, tired and sweaty, Daniela and I flopped onto our hotel beds, turned the air con on, smiled and breathed a sigh of relief to be back from “Jungle Boot Camp”. This is the “affectionate” term we gave the three days we had just spent in the Peruvian Amazon jungle at an eco-lodge, where the wearing of gumboots was compulsory and we were “forced” to do all manner of drawn-out jungle activities from dawn til well after dark in the sticky, oppressive jungle heat. Not only that, we had paid for it. You do these crazy things when you are travelling. Read more

Julie of Venus Adventures for women reports that that Emirates has released a special deal for those who live Down Under and who yearn for a trip to Morocco…

“Emirates have released an early bird special for sales in NZ until the 17th of December 2009. For your Morocco trip, a fare ex Auckland would be $2310 including taxes.” Read more

Julie Paterson from Venus Adventures travel for Women writes:

Salam from Morocco!

Well, we have just completed another 14-day extravaganza of Morocco and thought you might enjoy a few photos!

Highlights of the trip were riding camels across the orange dunes of the Sahara whilst the sun set in the distance and then sleeping under an African sky, hiking up into the Atlas mountains to stay in the basic home of a Berber family and see how they live, experiencing the old medinas of Fez and Marrakech, meeting lots of friendly locals including Nezha who is a Moroccan 5W member (5W = Women Welcome Women Worldwide, an international hosting network) who lives in Fez and joined us for dinner one night. It was great to meet Nezha, who is an English teacher at the American school in Fez, and to learn more about Moroccan life from her. Read more