My husband and I are in our 30s, have climbed Kilimanjaro, race mtn bikes, done Backroads road biking trips. We like to be active.

We're looking at tours that would be fairly active (Red Sea snorkeling, climb Mt Siani, tour pyramids, maybe do a little archeology?). Anyone have a good tour operator that they could recommend. Not looking for an expensive Abercrombie and Kent, maybe one step down from that luxury level.

Thanks!!

You might want to look into MISR travel. They do alot of custom packages with out the big ticket prices. I know they customized mine and at a very reasonable cost.

Also check out Lady Egypt and Egypt Highlights, both get good reviews here; both are in-country outfitters.

MISR as mentioned above is the official Egyptian tour operator. If you're in the States, they have offices here (somewhere... maybe in NYC), though you can also contact them in Cairo.

The coolest thing to do in Egypt is to take a 4-wheel drive camping trip to Gilf Kabir in the SW of Egypt. It's where the original petroglphs that were shown in the movie The English Patient are. Its a 10 day or more trip -- you have to pack in everything -- water, tp, food, etc. etc. etc. -- because there's nothing there. I'm dying to go and the handful of people I know who have gone were in heaven when they returned.

Hany Amr is a well respected guide among the expats in Cairo. He leads Gilf Kabir trips. His email is: [email protected]. That may be his personal email address so put something like Gilf Kabir trip in the subject line. You can mention my name -- Carolyn from CSA.

Also, if you would like a tour consider the itineries offered by www.imaginative-traveller.com. We had a great trip with them to Japan and I highly recommend their style of tour, lots of independent time, small groups, mix of ages, etc. At least some of their tours are more adventurous than others. And they have a wide range of prices. At least their itineries will give you an idea of what's possible.

Another company to look at would be Intrepid Travel -- www.intrepidtravel.com. We took a terrific small group tour to India with them a few years ago and have been looking into their Egypt tours recently. We liked them a lot because they use local transportation (no big tour bus) and really let you have a lot of freedom from the group if you want it, plus a lot of contact with local people.