ED TRIPPE’S PAHF TOURS
2014-2020
Cuba Tours: Fall 2014 - Winter 2016
Tehran: 2017
Southeast Asia: 2018
Morocco Tours: Spring and Fall 2019
Egypt: March 2020
CUBA: 2014 - 2016
In 1927 Pan American Airways completed its inaugural flight from Key West to Havana, and 90 years later we are thrilled to return to Cuba. During our special visit to the Camaguey Airport, we plan on commemorating the important relationship between the original Pan Am Terminal and Pan Am’s historic relationship with a commemorative plaque.
I hope you will join us on a visit to Cuba, an amazing country unlike any other in the Caribbean. Our program has been designed to explore the richness of Cuban culture while interacting with local residents and professionals to gain a new, in-depth perception of Cuban life. You will enjoy extensive tours of Camaguey, Cienfeugos, Trinidad, and Havana and will enjoy private performances by some of Cuba’s leading dance and musical groups. Also planned are interactions with Cuban historians, architects and economists. Accommodations while in Havana, will be at the Hotel Nacional, Pan Am’s former travel partner in Cuba, which also became an Intercontinental Hotel in 1955.
More about Pan Am's Cuban Roots
Cuba Beckons
PAHF Clipper Newsletter: Ed Trippe's report on the first Cuba Tour. PHOTOS: Copyright Greg Young Publishing, Inc. (Artwork by Kerne Erickson)
TEHRAN: March 29 - April 6, 2017
Pan Am returns to Tehran !
Dear Friends,
Pan Am’s service to Iran dates back to the 1950s when Pan Am landed in Tehran. The airline had a long and successful history in the country, which included a Technical Assistance Program in the 1960’s and the operation of the Inter-Continental Tehran Hotel.
The Isfahan Inter-Continental was under contract to be built when the revolution curtailed all plans. Pan Am continued its Tehran service through the beginning days of the revolution and played a historic role in the 1979 evacuation of many American families.
We returned to Iran to explore this magnificent country. Over its rich history successive civilizations have left a wealth of images from distant caravans to immense vaulted bazaars surrounded by rose gardens. Our journey began in Tehran’s National Archeological Museum where Iran’s history comes to life. We continued on to Shiraz, a city known for its poetry. We explored Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of Darius the Great who ruled the Persian Empire in the 5th century B.C. The program ended in Isfahan known for its UNESCO-listed architecture and a new generation of artisans who continue the city’s artistic traditions.
The Pan Am Historical Foundation is partnering with Distant Horizons, who has managed our Cuba tours, and first pioneered the new era of travel to Iran beginning in 1997.
Warmest regards,
SOUTHEAST ASIA: Feb. 18 - Mar. 4, 2018
Legacies and Landscapes
Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos
with The Pan Am Historical Foundation
Dear Friends,
The Pan Am Historical Foundation has in the past sponsored trips to Cuba and Iran, and is now planning this trip in February 2018 to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Southeast Asia was an important region for Pan Am, and the planned visit to Saigon will be particularly poignant for those of us who traveled or were stationed there with Pan Am.
Although bound together historically by French colonial rule, these three countries possess quite different cultural heritages and our rich program will unravel some of the world’s most beautiful landscapes.
Our itinerary begins in Hanoi where the Temple of Literature honors Vietnamese scholars. Explore Hue, an imperial, tranquil town where the life of the strongly Buddhist population focuses on the 82 pagodas that sprinkle the city.
Drive along a spectacular coastal road to Hoi An, which, in the 16th century, was an important trading center and a port of call for Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese ships.
Discover the Cham site at Mi Son where the ancient towers look stark against the intense green of the mountainsides. From Saigon explore the bustling Mekong Delta before flying to Siem Reap visit the magnificent temple complex at Angkor.
The central temple, Angkor Wat, is a hand-carved mountain of sandstone, its 12th century walls covered with intricately carved bas-reliefs.
End the program with two nights in Luang Prabang, the former royal capital of Laos, located on the banks of the Mekong River. This sleepy town is intensely religious and monks in saffron robes shuffle through the streets each morning, holding out their brass begging bowls to be filled with food by the faithful. I look forward to traveling with you on this wonderful journey!
Edward Trippe, Chairman
MOROCCO TOURS: Spring & Fall 2019
"Imperial Cities of Morocco"
Spring 2019 Travels in Morocco with The Pan Am Historical Foundation
The PAHF trip to Morocco was an outstanding success. We were 25 strong, including a number of PAHF members who had been on prior trips to Cuba, Iran and Southeast Asia. Our Moroccan guides and our tour leader, Erin Siess, a veteran of other PAHF trips, were great and made for an interesting and well organized trip.
The group met in Fez on March 20th and spent four fantastic days in this amazing medieval city, which is undergoing restoration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We stayed in the Palais Amani, a small boutique hotel, which was formerly a 17th century palace located in the Medina. The Medina is a walled city with a labyrinth of narrow allies, mosques, ancient houses, palaces, and souks, and today hosts a wide variety of restaurants. After three days exploring the Medina we made a side trip to the ruins of Volubilis, the Roman empire’s third century commercial center for the region.
From Fez we headed west to Erfoud, on the northern edge of the Sahara, and to our night in a desert camp. This was to be one of the highlights of the trip. We arrived at the camp by camel crossing the desert in a caravan that brought us to our tent city, a collection of private tents which hosted all the conveniences of a five-star hotel. The desert camp was a unique and amazing experience taking in the sunset over the sand dunes, enjoying drinks around an open fire, and experiencing an Arabian night of stars.
The next day we continued west over the High Atlas Mountains toward Marrakesh. The drive was long, but we were rewarded in Marrakesh to stay in a truly five-star hotel and enjoy outstanding restaurants. And after the many hours on the bus, the excellent accommodations and the quality restaurants were a welcome respite. Marrakesh was a curious mixture of European sophistication and underlying Arab and North African cultures. The Marrakesh Medina with wider alleys and larger souks was seemingly more chaotic than Fez or other medinas we visited. Motor bike traffic was an issue, whereas in Fez we needed only to move out of the way for donkeys.
After ten days our trip was over and we were on our way home, and all of appreciative of the antiquities, the culture and the raw beauty of nature that was Morocco.
The next trip to Morocco is scheduled for September 22 to October 2. The trip has been organized to coincide with the end of the Stockholm World Wings Convention.
Edward Trippe, Chairman
PAHF Tour in Morocco March 2019 (Photography/Sudhir Puri)
Fall 2019 Travels in Morocco with The Pan Am Historical Foundation
The trip has been organized to start in Rabat on September 22, 2019. For those travelers attending the World Wings International Reunion in Stockholm, there is an Air France flight via Paris that departs Stockholm at 10:40am and arrives in Rabat at 5:15pm.
To travel in Morocco is to move from one era of history to the next surrounded by spectacular landscapes and a rich culture. Our journey begins in Rabat, whose status as the country’s diplomatic center appropriately reflects the city’s diverse cultural influences.
Visit Fez, Morocco’s beating spiritual heart, where we weave through the maze of winding streets, narrow alleys, tiled archways and lively souks of the medieval walled medina. Explore Volubilis with its impressively-intact collection of magnificent ruins and exquisite mosaics before heading south to Morocco’s soulful, enigmatic Sahara Desert. Spend a night here in a deluxe camp surrounded by towering sand dunes and the gentle gaze of thousands of glittering stars. Visit Ouarzazate, Morocco’s cinematic capital where the majestic terrain of the Atlas Mountains provides the backdrop for its striking kasbahs. In these mountains discover the village-life of Morocco’s original inhabitants, the Berbers whose lives have remained largely unaffected by modernization.
End the program in Marrakesh and let your senses run wild with the sounds, sights and smells of this ancient trading center and rich cultural treasure chest
Edward Trippe, Chairman
EGYPT: March 3-15, 2020
“Ancient Treasures of Egypt”
Dear Friends,
Sign up for the March 3-15 Tour. After several successful recent departures to Morocco and Southeast Asia, we are delighted to offer a trip to Egypt next Spring when the weather is pleasant and the fertile Nile weaves its way through a magnificent landscape and remarkable historical sites.
Led by an Egyptologist, our trip begins with two nights at the historic Cecil Hotel in Alexandria where the city’s ancient library was home to many of the world’s great intellects. Visit the magnificently rebuilt library and admire the city’s architecture which recalls a great age of Alexandria’s past. Drive to Cairo and stay at the Semiramis Inter-Continental Hotel, a property I was closely associated with in my IHC days. Explore the Giza plateau where the Great Pyramids and Sphinx have stood for thousands of years. Fly to Luxor – the world’s largest open-air museum - to discover some less-visited sites including the Tombs of the Nobles. Nestled in the foothills, the Nobles decorated their tombs with wonderfully detailed scenes of their daily lives.
Board the Farah Nile Cruise Ship, for four nights cruising “up” the Nile to Aswan, stopping at isolated temples en route. Spend one night at the Movenpick Resort in Aswan, the gateway to sub-Saharan Africa, and learn about Nubian culture in the southern extremity of Egypt. Discover Abu Simbel, where four magnificent and colossal statues of Ramses II wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt sit, guardians of an architectural masterpiece of ancient design. Return to Cairo for one night before flying home.
Edward Trippe, Chairman
