Beyond Normandy

Normandy is only the beginning.

After 29 years in uniform and a lifetime of travel, Joe has guided friends and family through Ancient Egypt, Petra, the Sacred Valley of Peru, and more. A trip to any of them looks a lot like his Normandy tour: small, personal, and built around someone who actually knows the ground.

None of these are scheduled departures. They are custom trips Joe designs and guides himself, built when the right group raises its hand: a couple who finally have the time, a family with older kids, a group of eight or ten friends. You book the flights; everything between the airport and your flight home is his.

Below is a sense of where he can take you. If one of these is the trip you have been meaning to take, say so, and the two of you can start figuring out the details.

Small groups, never a coach bus He has done the recon first
Joe McGrath at Waqrapukara in Peru
The Sphinx in profile against open sky at Giza, shot on black and white film

Destination 01

Egypt

Joe has traveled Egypt extensively, twice over, and he will tell you the order of a trip here matters nearly as much as the stops. A good itinerary runs the length of the country, from Cairo and the pyramids down through Luxor and the Valley of the Kings to Aswan and Abu Simbel, with the quiet of the White Desert along the way, and every piece of it can be shaped to what you most want to see. It is a lot of ground, and Joe knows the first question most people have about Egypt: is it safe? That is the point of going with someone who has been there before, someone with friends on the ground, a family friend in Cairo, his own guy in Aswan. And the scale of it rearranges you: Christ walking the earth is closer in time to us than it was to the men who built the pyramids. Egypt is the only place on earth to stand in front of these temples where they have always stood, now anchored by the Grand Egyptian Museum, among the largest in the world.

Cairo ★ Giza & the Grand Egyptian Museum ★ White Desert ★ Luxor ★ Valley of the Kings ★ Aswan ★ Abu Simbel

"Go there with someone who's been there, who knows the ropes, and we'll keep you safe."

Choose your adventure

Cairo and The Nile Cruise

Cairo and the pyramids, then south through Luxor and the Valley of the Kings to Aswan and Abu Simbel. The river stretch runs on a dahabiya, the handcrafted wooden sailing yacht travelers have taken up the Nile since the 1800s, and they are every bit as luxurious now. The temples come to you from the water, at the pace Egypt was built for.

The Essentials

A tighter week: Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum, then fly south to Luxor for the tombs and temples. It is the Egypt most people picture, built for a group with a week to give it rather than two.

I'm interested in Egypt
Standing before the Small Temple of Nefertari at Abu Simbel Visitors on the approach to the temple complex at Karnak One of the colossi of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel The terraces of Hatshepsut's temple set into the cliff at Deir el-Bahari The great pylon of the Temple of Horus at Edfu The stepped courses of Djoser's pyramid at Saqqara Colossal statues among the columns at Luxor Temple The pyramids of Giza seen from a hotel balcony at dusk, shot on black and white film A lone figure in the sand below the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur Aswan and the Nile seen from above, feluccas on the water A traveler dwarfed by the colossi on the facade at Abu Simbel The great columns of Luxor Temple, shot on black and white film Carved columns of the temple at Kom Ombo One of the Colossi of Memnon against the morning sky The granite falcon of Horus guarding the temple at Edfu A traveler dwarfed by the statues inside the temple at Abu Simbel Two travelers beneath the columns of an Egyptian temple The group walking in along the water with their guide pointing the way ahead A hieroglyph-covered doorway at Medinet Habu Carved capitals and painted ceiling blocks at Kom Ombo A tour group gathered at a temple gateway in the Theban hills Two travelers on deck as the boat moves down the Nile Wooden fishing boats moored along the Nile Travelers on the bank of the Nile beside a moored felucca and the Egyptian flag A pharaoh in raised relief, cut sharp by low sun The Aswan waterfront under haze, seen across the Nile Lamplight in the bar of a historic hotel in Aswan Figures walking the reed-lined bank of the Nile seen from the water EgyptAir aircraft on the apron seen from the terminal
Joe McGrath at Waqrapukara in Peru

Destination 02

Peru

No one passes through Peru on the way to somewhere else. You have to make a point of it, and it rewards the effort. A trip here takes in Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, the markets and rooftops of Cusco, the high country above ten thousand feet, and the deep history of the Inca and the conquest that followed. Lima is the unexpected part: clifftop views over the Pacific, world-class dining, and pisco sours at either end of the trip. And Machu Picchu at sunrise, with the mist climbing the terraces, is everything they say it is. Mountains, jungle, and ruins, guided by someone who has only just walked the ground himself.

Lima ★ Cusco ★ Sacred Valley ★ Ollantaytambo ★ Machu Picchu

"Peru feels like the most exotic place in the New World."

The shape of the trip

The road to Machu Picchu

Lima first, then up to Cusco to let the altitude settle, through the Sacred Valley day by day, and Machu Picchu to finish.

I'm interested in Peru
Machu Picchu with the peak behind it, mist in the valley The concentric agricultural terraces of Moray Two travelers taking in their first sight of Machu Picchu The salt pans of Maras stepping down the hillside Machu Picchu spread below the ridge, the city in the clouds Travelers silhouetted against the sun above Machu Picchu The great terraces climbing above Ollantaytambo The Sacred Valley opening out between the mountains Market sellers with their produce laid out along a Cusco street Huayna Picchu rising above the ruins in black and white Cloud pouring over the terraces of Machu Picchu The twin rock horns of the Waqrapukara fortress A figure framed in a trapezoidal Inca doorway The red roofs of Ollantaytambo below the valley walls The terraces of Machu Picchu under morning mist The cathedral on the Plaza de Armas in Cusco The Urubamba running the gorge far below Machu Picchu The worked edges of the Maras salt pans up close A traveler stepping through a stone gateway at Machu Picchu The peak above Machu Picchu half lost in cloud A steep green gorge falling away below the trail An Inca stairway climbing into the cloud A traveler photographing the Inca stonework of a Cusco alley wall The green terraces and gabled stonework of Machu Picchu A llama grazing the terraces, shot on black and white film Walkers on a cobbled colonial street in Cusco The steep terracing on the flank of Machu Picchu Waqrapukara riding the ridge line above the valley Palms along the Lima clifftop at sunset The ruins of Machu Picchu emerging from the mist A traveler on an Inca terrace above a field of yellow flowers Water running the channel of a colonial street, in black and white A traveler at an overlook above the Sacred Valley Cloud moving through the stonework of Machu Picchu A narrow Cusco street of colonial houses under morning cloud A stone path beside falling water in the high country A figure crossing the upper terraces of Machu Picchu Cloud sitting low over a green Andean valley A narrow lane of whitewashed walls and iron lamps in Cusco Visitors small against the terraces of Machu Picchu Cut steps threading between boulders on the mountainside The monument to Pachacuti against a bank of cloud
The long curved arcade of the Plaza de España in Sevilla

Destination 03

Spain

Joe builds Spain around the things that make it singular: the Mediterranean light and climate, the long Moorish influence written into the tiles and the architecture, and eight hundred years where Christianity and Islam met. Andalusia is the heart of it, Sevilla and Granada, and Ronda the one he will tell you about first. Madrid and Barcelona carry the other half of the country. You eat well the whole way: spectacular tapas, jamón ibérico, and the Spanish wines to go with them. There is a familiarity to it, since so much of the language is one Americans half-know already, and a real difference too.

Barcelona ★ Madrid ★ Sevilla ★ Ronda ★ Granada ★ Valencia ★ Ibiza ★ Mallorca ★ San Sebastián

"Beautiful countryside, quaint villages, gorgeous cities. The quality of the light: that Mediterranean sun."

Choose your adventure

Andalusia

Sevilla and the Alcázar, Granada and the Alhambra, and Ronda in the hills between them. The route Joe has already run with his own family.

Madrid & Barcelona

The Prado and the grand boulevards on one end, Gaudí and the Gothic Quarter on the other, a fast train between them.

I'm interested in Spain
The tower and tiled arcade of the Plaza de España in Sevilla The Court of the Myrtles at the Alhambra mirrored in its pool, shot on black and white film The spires of the Sagrada Família rising over the trees in Barcelona Carved muqarnas and horseshoe arches inside the Nasrid palaces of the Alhambra Palms and clipped hedges in the palace gardens at Sevilla The Alhambra seen through the trees from across the valley in Granada A traveler resting on a clifftop wall above the valley at Ronda, shot on black and white film Marble columns and carved capitals along a courtyard at the Alhambra Sunlight falling across tiled steps and a monstera in a shaded Sevilla courtyard Balconies and sun awnings over a narrow Andalusian street, shot on black and white film Wrought-iron balconies above a narrow street in Barcelona Two travelers resting on a wall beside a wrought-iron railing, shot on black and white film A traveler climbing ivy-edged steps beneath old cypress trees in Sevilla Pine-covered cliffs above the turquoise water of the Ibiza coast A grand carved facade rising behind palms and plane trees, shot on black and white film Late sun down a narrow street lined with plants and shuttered balconies A wrought-iron lantern and its shadow on a whitewashed Andalusian wall, shot on black and white film String lights over an evening terrace in Barcelona The mosaic serpentine bench at Park Güell above the rooftops of Barcelona

How it works

1

Tell Joe where

Maybe it is one of the places on this page, or maybe it is a trip you have been quietly turning over for years and never quite booked. Either way, a country, a rough idea of when, and a sense of how many of you there are is all he needs to pick up the conversation.

2

He designs it

Joe plans these trips the way he plans Normandy, building the days around what is actually worth your time, sizing everything to your group, and sorting out the hotels and the dinners long before you step off the plane. You are not handed a catalog itinerary. You get one built for the trip you described.

3

He leads it

This is the part that makes it his. Joe is there in person for the whole trip, carrying the history and quietly handling the logistics — you will have his cell number, not a help desk — so that all you have to do is show up and pay attention to where you are.

The basilica and the university rising out of the Guanajuato rooftops

Destination 04

Mexico

Mexico sits right next door and still surprises almost everyone who goes, because there is so much more to it than the resorts and the beaches. Joe has been married to a Mexican woman for thirty years, and no country outside his own has taken up more of his life. He builds a trip around the depth most tours drive past: the Aztecs and the Maya and the megalithic cities they left behind, the Yucatán sites and the train that finally reaches them, and Mexico City, which is less a stop on an itinerary than a cultural explosion. It is a deeper read of the country than the tourist layer allows, closer to what makes the place itself.

Mexico City ★ Teotihuacán ★ Palenque ★ Mérida ★ Chichén Itzá ★ Calakmul ★ Bacalar

"There's so much more to Mexico than resorts and beaches."

Choose your adventure

The Mayan Route

Chichén Itzá and Mérida, Palenque by rail on the new Mayan Train, the cenotes, and the turquoise lagoons of Bacalar. With the days for it, Calakmul, buried deep enough in the jungle that most people never see it.

Mexico City

Pre-Hispanic to present in one capital: the Anthropology Museum, Teotihuacán, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, the tree-lined streets of La Condesa, and food that stands with anywhere in the world.

El Bajío

The Spanish heart of the country: San Miguel de Allende, world-renowned for good reason, and Guanajuato, a silver city of painted hillsides and tunnels running under the streets. Colonial highlands, and a very fine trip on its own.

I'm interested in Mexico
The flag over the Zocalo with the Metropolitan Cathedral behind it The temple steps at Palenque rising out of the morning haze Houses stacked in colour up the hillside above Guanajuato A luchador on the turnbuckle under the lights at Arena Coliseo Jacaranda and bougainvillea over a quiet Mexico City street A Palenque temple standing against the jungle wall, visitors on the steps The muses along the roofline of the Teatro Juarez in Guanajuato Stone terraces and a colonnaded temple at Palenque A luchador working the crowd from the ropes at Arena Coliseo A Guanajuato street running down toward the coloured houses on the hill A carved stone doorway and wooden gate on a colonial Mexico City street Boojum trees standing over the cactus flats of the Baja desert Guanajuato from above, the yellow basilica among the rooftops The ball court at Palenque with a temple beyond the treeline

Mexico City in bloom, and Palenque in the Chiapas jungle. Shot on 35mm film.

The Treasury at Petra rising from the canyon floor

Destination 05

Jordan

Petra is the headline, and it earns it, but a trip to Jordan reaches far past one canyon. The country runs from the biblical to the geological: Petra in its valley, the Dead Sea at the lowest point on earth, the red desert of Wadi Rum — if it looks familiar, you have seen it standing in for another planet in Dune — and Jerash, a Roman city preserved on the scale of Pompeii. Ancient history, natural wonder, and a stretch of the world that still feels genuinely far away, kept to a small group and an unhurried pace.

Amman & Jerash ★ the Jordan River ★ Dead Sea ★ Petra ★ Wadi Rum

"I saw the turnoff where, purportedly, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River."

The shape of the trip

Petra and Wadi Rum

Amman and the Roman streets of Jerash, the Dead Sea float on the way south, Petra given more than the single rushed day most tours allow, and a night under the stars in Wadi Rum.

I'm interested in Jordan
Camels resting in the shade of a rock shelter at Petra Ad Deir, the Monastery, carved into the rock high above Petra The Treasury at Petra framed by the sandstone of the Siq Nabataean tombs cut into the cliff face at Petra Carved columns and pediment of the Treasury facade at Petra A lone swimmer floating off the pebble shore of the Dead Sea The resort terraces above the Dead Sea Travelers floating in the Dead Sea with the hills of the far shore behind them

Let's plan your dream tour.

Pick one or more destinations, add a few details, and Joe will reach out personally.

Destinations of interest (select any)

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