Advice for Middle East/Egypt Trip
 

Hello!

I’m planning a trip at the end of January with my mom to the Middle East and Egypt. We have our flight to Dubai booked and our flight home from Cairo 13 days/12 nights later and need a little help deciding on how to divide up our time. We really want to see Oman and the sharqiyya sands, wadi Shab, as well as spend the majority of our trip in Egypt seeing Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbal.

I was thinking of 2 nights in Dubai, 3 or 4 nights in Oman, leaving 6 or 7 nights in Egypt. How would you recommend breaking up our time, hopefully including the Nile river cruise from Aswan to Luxor.

Thanks in advance!!

What you are proposing for Egypt is close to impossible, as any overnight cruise along the Nile is 3-4 nights, which will leave you with 2-4 nights. You need at least 3 nights for Luxor, preferably more, even if you only want to see Luxor Temple, Karnak Temple, and the Valley of the Kings and Queens. Abu Simbel requires at least half a day to and from Aswan. With 12 nights, you're better off spending it all in Egypt or Oman / UAE.

Ditto to what tripplanner says! If you have your flight already booked out of Cairo, then skip Oman entirely and focus on Egypt. There’s no way you’ll see all those places in 6 or 7 nights, and you’re underestimating the time it takes to get to any of the locations you’ve identified.

Once you decide when you’re going to be in Egypt, reach out to an agent to help you finalize your itinerary, book hotels according to your budget and provide driver and guides that you’ll want.

Ok thanks for your advice! How do you recommend finding a guide in Egypt? We don’t use travel agents

I don't generally use guides or agents for my travels either. But I did have a guide in Cairo, to get me around the very specific places I wanted to go and he was very good in every way. And I booked a cruise from Luxor to Aswan with an agent in Luxor recommended by my Airbnb hosts who took me to his office while I was in Luxor.

You may find something of use in my Egypt series, link below. Contact information for my Cairo guide, Ahmed, is at the bottom of the 1st segment, The Pyramids, a lovely man.

https://www.travelgumbo.com/blog/portmoresby-in-egypt