Samir Haddad runs the Middle East and North Africa desk: 18 countries that contain an unmatched density of world heritage alongside some of the most rapidly changing travel conditions anywhere. Both halves of that sentence shape his editing.
On the heritage side, his guides put real weight on historical context — a page about Petra, Persepolis, or the Fes medina should leave a reader understanding what they are looking at, not just where to stand — and on the practical mechanics of visiting: ticketing that changes seasonally, dress expectations, photography rules, and the rhythm of prayer times and Ramadan as they affect opening hours.
On conditions, he holds the site's strictest standard for safety and advisory content. Regional coverage that treats the Middle East as a single risk profile is useless; his pages distinguish city from city and date their claims, and when a destination's situation can't be covered responsibly, the honest move is to say less, not to pad. Desert logistics — water, heat planning, guided versus independent routes — round out the beat. Review runs through the standard pipeline under Daniel Mercer.
His verification habit is institutional: ticket prices and opening rhythms on his beat are checked against the issuing authority — ministry pages, site administrations, official tourism boards — rather than against other travel sites, which on this region copy each other's stale numbers freely. Dates matter doubly here, so his pages carry their claims with explicit recency, and anything tied to a shifting situation is reviewed on a shorter cycle than the site default.
Coverage areas
- Archaeological sites and heritage
- Desert travel
- Gulf cities
- North African medinas
- Advisory and safety context
Editorial standards
Every guide Samir edits passes Open Travel Guide's review pipeline — source verification, factual-grounding checks, and quality screening — described in full on our editorial policy page. Our editors write under pen names; editorial accountability sits with the Editor-in-Chief, who is named on every page. Spotted an error in Samir's coverage? Email contact@opentravelguide.com and we aim to respond within 48 hours.