alifafa

how does my 2 week itinerary sound? need your input!

day 1: arrive cairo, sleep - cairo
day 2: pyramids of giza, great sphinx, saqquara, overnight train to aswan
day 3: arrive aswan, temple of philae, sleep - aswan
day 4: day trip to abu simbel, sleep -aswan
day 5: board felucca - elephantine & kitchener islands, overnight - felucca
day 6: not sure where felucca goes?, overnight - felucca
day 7: aswan - day trip to kom ombo & edfu, bus to luxor, sleep - luxor
day 8: luxor - east bank
day 9: luxor - west bank, flight to dahab
day 10: dahab - dive
day 11: dahab - dive / desert excursion?
day 12: bus to cairo, stroll cairo
day 13: cairo
day 14: go home - 4am flight

my main concerns/questions are:
1. do i need 2 night trip on felucca?
2. what is typical route of a felucca trip?
3. i regret not fitting in a longer desert excursion? not sure if they have them in june bc of intensely hot weather. if they do, should i opt for desert of the west or east?
4. anything i should skip or see more of?
5. do you recommend better ways to travel between cities or is what i have sound ok?

thanks!

Casual_Cairo

My first comment is that there are no flights from Luxor to Dahab. And only like once a week is there a flight from Luxor to Sharm, so you would have to plan this carefully to make sure you could be on that flight if you wanted. Since all you talk about doing in Dahab is the desert and diving, maybe you should reconsider location and go to Hurghada. It is an easier bus ride there from Luxor. And there is desert near by too...although, aren't you the one coming in June, and many of us on another post have said DO NOT plan much in the desert in summer.

On day 5 you are talking about doing a "tourist sight-seeing" felucca around Aswan, then you go into talking about the feluccas that go up the Nile to Luxor. Where do they go? What do you mean? They follow the river up to Luxor....or usually not all the way, they let you out at Esna and you take a microbus from there on into Luxor. As for what they see, they will stop at the same temples the cruise ships stop at, and perhaps a few more stops if the passengers have the time.
Now I see you have Day 7 dedicated to doing the same things you'll be doing on the felluca if you take the felluca to Luxor. In your itinerary you have yourself going to Luxor via felluca and via bus. You obviously don't need both.

Since you are confused on this issue, maybe you need to know that if you choose to travel by felluca you will be "roughing it". There are no bathrooms on board a felluca, so if you have to use a bathroom, they pull over to the shore and you do it in the bushes. If you are ready for that, then I guess it is quite the experience. If you need more creature comforts, do only the "tourist sight-seeing" felluca and leave the other one out of your plans, and organize a bus that will take you to the sights you mentioned. The normal transport bus isn't going to stop for sight-seeing.

I just thought of something. You might be interested to look into GO BUS. Check out www.gobusegypt.com Maybe something like that would suit you well. Request their brochure. They have a 15 day Pryamids and Beaches Bus that costs 249 British Pounds. It says it departs Cairo every Sunday. They actually go from Cairo to Aswan, to Abu Simbal, to Aswan, to Luxor, then over to Dahab and back.

Good luck with your trip. I hope you have the trip of a life time.