A few weeks ago we posted our biggest surprises while traveling to Egypt. If you haven't gone through and looked at some of the photos from our travels, I would definitely suggest checking out one of the oldest places on the planet. It really is that spectacular! Since our return, many have asked "How did you end up deciding on Egypt?" Our response has been two things: First, it has been top on Rebecca's bucket list for a long, long time (she was a ancient classics minor in college) and second, we found a really great deal.

It's the second one that I want to help you understand because if you're anything like us, you would probably like a really great travel deal as well.

Our journey to Egypt was in December 2015. However, deciding on a trip started much earlier, back in April 2015. Rebecca had first thought about going to New York City for Christmas, so we began looking for deals to NYC.

After looking for deals to NYC, she was turned on to a deal to Bogotá and Cartagena, Columbia in South America. It was a deal for 6 days, including airfare from Ft. Lauderdale for $599 per person. We began looking into the "What is there to do in Columbia? and Is it safe?" questions. The deal we were considering was on Groupon, so we decided to check a few other "deal sites" as well.

While at a meeting one morning, I received a text from Rebecca saying "We can go to Egypt for 10 days for $1350! Should we book it?!? I found it on Living Social!" 

I took the stance, "That's WAY to good to be true! If it's that cheap, it won't be good!".

So here is what I did next. I used TripAdvisor to search for the travel company offering the tour. In our case it was Encounters Travel.

I took to reading reviews like crazy and all of them said the trip was out of this world! I've since started doing the same with other vendors on the Living Social site.

After finding the trip to be a "legit" travel deal, we found an amazing promotion within Living Social which is why I'm even writing this post today. They have a promotion called "Me+3", which means if you purchase your trip and 3 other individuals use your referral code to purchase the same trip, YOUR TRIP IS FREE!

I quickly realized that even though our trip was $1350, if we found 2 other friends to go with us, the trip would soon not be $1350, but just over $1000 per person! 

If you do the math, $1350 x 3 = $4050, which when divided by 4 travelers, is $1013 per person including air out of Chicago!

So the next decision we had to make was who would become our "Boondoggle Buddies"? One of our friends, Shaun, I knew would be my "Yes, Man!" guy, so that meant we needed to find one more person to go (a guy preferably to room with Shaun). We found that in another friend, Jeremy, who was able to break away from his wife, kids and work for 11 days to travel with us.

During our time in Egypt, we found that others had used the Living Social deal as well. When we asked if anyone had taken advantage of other Living Social deals in the past, several said they had purchased them and they were all great experiences.

So how do you find a great travel deal? 

First, we will visit Living Social's website to see what is available on their site.

Second, we will think through who else would be interested in going on our next boondoggle with us?

Third, we will use the "Me+3" promotion for a free trip, divide that refund between 4 people traveling and discount our travel an additional 25%!

And just for a little taste of what riding camels near the pyramids is like, here is our group with Encounters Travel.

Tiberius Images is a Grand Rapids photographer that photographs people, places and events. Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, they serve clients throughout the world and are available for travel.

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