Mr frogoutofwater and I just got back from a splendid two and half week holiday in Egypt. We decided to organize the trip ourselves, rather than booking a tour or working through a travel agent. Between ourselves, we tend to divide up travel tasks so that I'm the travel agent and he's the tour director. In other words, I do most of the advance planning for the trip (booking flights, hotels and setting the itinerary) and then, once we've arrived in the country, Mr frogoutofwater takes over and makes sure that we leave our hotel and actually see the sights, go out to restaurants etc.

We were lucky enough to "pay" for a large proportion of our lodging and flight costs with hotel points and airline miles. I snagged two business class seats on British Airways during their reward flights sale late last fall, so we flew JFK-LHR-CAI and back in BA's lie flat seats. This was a great relief because, between the time I booked the trip last year and the trip itself, I ruptured two disks in my back - and flying even in Premium Econoomy or cradle-type business seats would have been extremely difficult.

Our itinerary was as follows:

Fri/Sat - late departure out of JFK to LHR and then arriving in Cairo late on Saturday evening
Sat night - stayed at Mena House by the pyramids
late Sunday night one-way flight from Cairo to Hurghada on Egyptair, then taxi to El Gouna where we checked into the Sheraton El Gouna for 6 nights
Taxi from El Gouna to Luxor for a 4 night stay at the Luxor Hilton
Taxi from Luxor to Aswan (with sightseeing stops along the way)
2-night stay at the Moevenpick Aswan
Flew Aswan to Cairo on Egyptair
4 night stay in Cairo at the Marriott, then home to New York

We paid for the stays at Mena House and in Aswan; the rest of the hotel nights were covered by hotel points. We paid for the Egyptair flights and I found the easiest way to book them was on Expedia. The Egyptair website was a nightmare. I also booked the Moevenpick on Expedia and therefore got thank you points for one of the Egyptair flights plus the Moevenpick booking. I booked Mena House by phone - the website was problematic.

Overall, I think our itinerary worked out well. Our overnight stay at Mena House enabled us to wake up with a view of the pyramids (thanks to a low season, complimentary upgrade to a better room) and to spend a half day viewing the pyramids, solar boat museum and sphinx before returning to Mena House to cool down. I wish I had booked a somewhat earlier flight to Hurghada. Our flight left around 9:45 pm and I think I could have booked a 6 or 7 pm flight and still had enough time to sleep in and sightsee. It took about 45 minutes to drive to the airport on Sunday night.

In retrospect, I wish I had arranged our trip so that we did our sightseeing in Aswan and Luxor first (in that order) before we went to El Gouna for the scuba diving portion of our trip. Usually, I like to get the diving out of the way first - I enjoy diving once I'm in the water but I'm often a bit nervous before I take the first dive, so I like to dive at the beginning of the trip and then move on to other activities. I think, however, that I would have appreciated the peaceful setting of the Sheraton El Gouna and the town more if I had gone there after traipsing around the antiquities in the heat for a week.

Also in retrospect and if I'd had the flexibility to do so, I wish we could have done the trip starting in late October (instead of late September). It was still extraordinarily hot while we were there - about 33 to 38C most days. We benefited from travelling in low season - we got complimentary upgrades all but one of the hotels we stayed at, and the tourist sights weren't crowded, but the heat really knocked us out.

I do think it worked out well to go to Luxor and Aswan and then return to Cairo at the end of the trip for several days - and to split our hotel stays between Mena House and the Cairo Marriott.

I'm also glad that we stayed in hotels in Luxor and Aswan instead of taking a Nile cruise. This is just my personal view, and I'm not a cruise fan, but it seemed to me that the people on cruises were just being shuffled into and out of the tourist attractions in sheeplike crowds on buses. Just not our style but it might suit others well.

I will post more later, but I will conclude this post with a short list of things I'm glad I packed. In the next post, I'll talk about overpacking.

1 - 3/4 sleeve no-iron shirts from Lands End. I packed two of these shirts and wished I'd packed two more. They washed and dried very quickly with practically no wrinkles and felt cooler on when I was sweating than tshirts (which get limp and stick to you). The 3/4 sleeve protected me from the sun and also was modest enough to be appropriate for certain environments like mosques, the Nubian villages, etc.

2 - Dry laundry soap sheets.

3 - Immodium and Cipro. We both got sick at different times during the trip and, while I might be oversharing here, I'll just say that the Immodium wasn't enough. Luckily , I had packed a filled Cipro prescription and it did the trick. You can buy Cipro without a prescription in Egyptian pharmacies and I recommend that you buy some immediately on arrival in Egypt. You're going to need it.

4 - A lightweight, light coloured umbrella. I used it a lot to provide shade from the hot sun. It became particularly important later in the trip when the Cipro made me more sensitive both to the sun and my sunscreen, and I found that I was breaking out in a bit of a rash where I was applying sun screen. I wore my 3/4 sleeve shirts and used my umbrella, plus my regular facial moisturizer, which has an SPF of 15 and didn't bother my skin.

5 - Comfortable closed toe walking shoes. I packed sandals but often wore closed toe shoes (either slip on sneakers without socks or my regular walking shoes with socks). There's a lot of sand, dirt and ickier stuff that you'll be walking through. If you wear sandals, you'll be constantly dumping the sand and dirt out of them in some places.

6 - Pashmina. I used it on the plane, covered my head to visit mosques and used it to provide additional protection from the sun during our camel ride in Aswan (the umbrella would have looked really stupid, plus I think I would have fallen off the camel if I'd been holding an umbrella in one hand). On the other hand, if you forget to bring a pashmina, you will be able to buy all kinds of cotton scarves, pashminas and sun hats in the markets.

7 - Our Sony Readers (ebooks). We love travelling with our ebooks and, aside from the fact that they're a lightweight method for carrying a lot of books with you, our use of ebooks prompted a lot of interesting encounters with curious Eygptians (e.g. old men in temples, women and children on the ferries, etc).

Hi-Loved your report & helpful info. I have a few questions as my husband & I are planning next Sept/Oct 2010 for our trip.
I have enough miles on American for 1 business seat-codeshare British Air but I have been told I can't fly on BA until we land in England. Also we are also going to Huragata-do you know who Egypt Air codeshares with? so I have my FF# to get miles.
Looking forward to any more info you privide for your trip & web sites for hotels you stayed at so I can take a peek. Thanks so much Chris

hi, i think egyptair has code share with lufthanza and united airlines,maybe u can check with them. i visited egypt this year with a company called kadmar travel, i actually knew them through a friend who joined their tour of the eclipse in 2006.They responded quickly to my emails and were very professional,also their prices and choice of hotels was very good.hope u will enjoy this wonderful country.i loved it myself.

Egytair is part of Star Alliance (United, US, Lufthansa, Air Canada, etc.

In terms of the hotels we stayed, I'd rank them as follows:

#1 - Hilton Luxor: I ranked it number one because of the incredibly friendly and helpful staff and because of its recent, stylish renovation. The pool area is particularly lovely: although the pools themselves are small, the area is nicely landscaped, they've got recliners in the water, double hammocks with canopies, staff who stop by frequently to offer cool towels and sunglass cleaning, views of the West Bank, etc. The food was tasty, the rooms were stylish and we liked the way they had converted the bathtub space to a double walk-in shower. The concierge was particularly helpful in arranging cars (at good prices) for us to visit the West Bank and for our onward journey to Aswan. The hotel is located downriver from most of the other hotels, but there is a free hourly shuttle bus that will take you to the major sites and pick you up.

#2 - Mena House: This is such a gorgeous, atmospheric and historic hotel. It was well worth a night's stay on arrival. Service was friendly and efficient, and we were offered a free upgrade to a pyramid-view room in the old wing (which has more interesting decor).

#3 - Marriott Cairo: Service at the front desk was a little more impersonal but still very efficient and pleasant. We were given a complimentary upgrade and access to the Concierge Lounge (because I have Gold status). Staff in the lounge were very friendly and went out of their way to be helpful. I saw one of the waiters at one point make special arrangements for one of the guests to prepare special servings of the foods offered in the buffet because the guest had a gluten allergy; he apologized for the fact that it would take 15 minutes. The hotel was conveniently located and has lovely grounds.

#4 - Sheraton El Gouna. The service here was also friendly but a bit more hit and miss in terms of quality. For example, the person who cleaned our room every day never washed the coffee mugs and, despite repeated requests, staff never replaced the regular Nescafe packets that we used unless we made a specific request. The one time we ordered breakfast, there were three errors in the order. (To their credit, they took the charge off our bill.) The room itself was spacious and comfortable, with a nice private terrace. The Orient 1001, featuring Egyptian cuisine, provided the best meals we ate in Egypt and the staff were charming. We weren't overly impressed with the onsite dive shop, TGI Divers. The boats were good (large boats with sundecks, toilets, indoor seating, platforms for entry, etc.) and the local, non-diving staff who helped divers were friendly and helpful. The rental equipment, however, was worn to the point, in some cases, of being dysfunctional in minor ways (it was easy enough to get replacements, though). Several of the divemasters (the women) were very professional but the male dive guide we had on two of the days seemed much more interested in cracking jokes, horsing around and impressing his girlfriend than acting like a proper guide. There were a lot of smokers on the boat and we found the smoke nauseating at times.

#5 - Moevenpick Aswan. This hotel, while reportedly the most luxurious in Aswan pending the reopening of the Sofitel Cataract Hotel, was rather ho-hum tour group central. Except in the panorama lounge/restaurant, the service was quite impersonal. Our room was of a decent size, but the decor was very 80s, and we were given a room directly overlooking a first floor roof. This is not to say that there was anything wrong with the hotel: it was comfortable, clean and of a decent 3.5-4* standard. There was just nothing special about it.

I booked the El Gouna Sheraton, Hilton Luxor and Marriott Cairo hotels directly on their websites (and, as mentioned earlier, used hotel points for the bookings). I booked Mena House by phone because I had problems with the hotel website, and I booked the Moevenpick Aswan through Expedia as part of the Egyptair booking for one of the flights so that I could get Thank You Points.

Thank you all for your info. I am hoping the Softel Cataract Aswan will be open next year when we go.
I will be working with a guide that Elizabeth rec'd but glad to hear of the Hilton Luxor-we are a points memeber there and it sounded wonderful. I know you don't spend much time in a room but when you are in your 60's & 70's you like a tad bit more comfort.Chris

BeniciaChris

We're also the kind of travellers for whom room quality is important. When we dive (as we did in El Gouna), we tend to crash for afternoon naps. And when we were in Luxor, we were suffering from tummy bugs - so we spent a little more time in the room than expected. If you travel when it's very hot, you'll probably find that you spend more time in your room or in the lounge areas of the hotel than you might in a cooler climate. Typically, we would get up and go sightseeing in the morning, return to the hotel for a siesta and to clean up and cool off, then go out again in the late afternoon for some more sightseeing.

In this instalment of my review, I thought I'd talk about flights.

As mentioned earlier, we were lucky enough to be able to travel in Club World on BA for this trip. It was our last hurrah as BA elite members - I dropped down to Blue (I'd been Gold for about 6 years and Silver for two) during the trip.

We were booked on the latest flight out of JFK in late September. We were both very stressed out on departure day - work was incredibly busy for both of us and I was, in effect, leaving my team to fend for themselves during a very busy period for almost three weeks. We were glad of the late departure so that we could put in full days at work. The trip to JFK was quite smooth - the subway stops directly outside our apartment, runs to Jamaica in Queens and then it's a short train ride to the airport. Club/First check-in for BA and Cathay only a takes a few minutes at JFK, and there is a special security line-up that also only takes a few minutes. Then it was off the lounge for pre-flight dining and champagne.

We landed at Heathrow around 11 am the next day and the regular security line-up for T5-T5 transfers was horrendous. It looked like it was hours long, with at least a thousand people in it. Thankfully, we could go through "Fast Track" and it took us only about 20 minutes in total to get through. Then we headed for the BA lounge again where we took showers and settled in for a long layover (nearly 5 hours). I got some work done and then, on the advice of a BA staff member in the South Lounge, we headed off to the B/C gates where he said our flight was likely to depart. Very big mistake! No matter what anyone tells you, never go to the B/C gates in T5 until you see that your flight definitely has been allocated to this wing. (The B/C gates are in a separate building connected by a train and there can be a mix of passengers arriving and departing, so it’s not a secure area. Consequently, you can’t enter, or re-enter, the main part of the T5 terminal from the B/C area without clearing security.) If it turns out, and it can happen, that BA’s plans change and your flight docks at one of the regular gates, and you're cooling your heels at the B/C gates, you have to go through security again and you might have only 20-30 minutes to do so. That didn’t happen to us, but I worried about it for a while.

Our flight to Cairo left and arrived promptly. On arrival in Cairo, if you don’t already have a visa stamp, you need to purchase one from one of the onsite bank kiosks (and you can change money, too) that are located just before before proceeding to Immigration. Several people lined up for Immigration, only to be told that they had to go back and buy visa stamps.

Later in our trip, we flew Egyptair from Cairo to Hurghada and from Aswan to Cairo. The new Egyptair terminal in Cairo is very modern and nice, although not yet fully kitted out with shops and restaurants. Check-in went fairly smoothly and we had much more spare time than we needed (we arrived almost 2 hours in advance because our taxi ride to the airport went faster than expected). I think 75 minutes would be adequate for check-in.

The Egyptair planes were relatively comfortable, with 2x2 seating and we had no trouble getting the seats we wanted on check-in at the airport. By the way, if you want an aisle seat, the phrase is (badly transposed into our alphabet) something like “Mamar cursi minfahdluck” (Aisle seat please) This is a phrase along with “Where is the toilet?” (Fi ham-mam?) that I learn whenever I travel in non-English speaking country. The check-in agent thought it was quite funny that I wanted to learn how to say “Aisle seat please” in Arabic, and proceeded to test my memory when we finished the check-in process.

The airports in Hurghada and Aswan were small but also in relatively good shape. The only (very) unpleasant thing about all three airports is that there were mosquitoes flitting about. I am a mosquito-phobe and react very badly (both physically and emotionally - ha ha) to mosquito bites. These were the only mosquitoes we encountered during our entire trip and I have no idea why they’re all hanging out in the airports. Luckily, I always travel with mosquito repellent (in the form of nifty repellent-impregnated wipes that I buy at Heathrow) so I slapped some on and tried not to panic.

Thanks for your report! I'm visiting Cairo and Sinai this summer and am stressing about packing the right clothes. many thanks for the tips! Keep them coming. Great report.

I am trying to piece together a very last minute trip for myself and family to Eygpt over the Christmas holidays (my mom just passed away and I am trying to find a place for us to get away from the memories this year). Your trip report was great and I am taking notes from all of your info-thanks for taking the time to share it with us. Keep it coming!

dutyfree: I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I went through the same thing a few years ago and a change of scenery can be very helpful. If you wanted to plan a relatively short and easy holiday, I would suggest the following:

- Fly to Cairo; stay overnight at Mena House so you wake up to see the pyramids
- Fly Cairo to Aswan and board a cruise for Luxor
- Stay at least one extra night in Luxor, either at the friendly Hilton (where I think you'll get a lot of special attention) or the Winter Palace (atmospheric, but more impersonal)
- Fly back to Cairo for a couple of nights, either at Mena House or the Cairo Marriott.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Frog family... loved the post..

I have a trip planned in the pipeline and I was interested to read your thoughts about Mena House, Cairo Marriott and Movenpick in Aswan as they were some of the hotels our tour company had picked for our private guide.

You make me nervous with your "tummy bug" trouble. I have such a sensative stomach, and like you, don't want to be revealing too much, but the thought of me having to run to a bathroom as you are "bursting" is a touch icky and scary!! Were you careful with what you ate and still got the bug?

We loved the Mena House because it was so atmospheric. It's definitely one of the most architecturally interesting, historic hotels we've stayed in. I can't comment much on service levels because we there for such a short period, but I did find that the front desk staff etc were pleasant. Be sure to ask your travel agent to get you a room in the original wing, which is more in keeping with the period style. The room we had was a complimentary upgrade to a pyramid view room. It was large, traditionally furnished and comfortable but not sumptuous - it made me feel like I was in a room that a traveller could have stayed in 75 years ago (in a good way).

The Cairo Marriott has a historic facade/public areas but the hotel rooms themselves are standard issue Marriott. Once in your room you could be anywhere (well, anywhere with a nice big comfortable bed). Our room, which was also said to be an upgrade to the Exec Floor was medium-sized, as was the bathroom - nothing really special or stylish but certainly of a high standard. We found the service in the Executive Club Lounge to be very good and very friendly. At the front desk, staff aren't unfriendly but I didn't get that special sense of hospitality that I found almost everywhere else in Egypt - this was just standard-issue, high-end hotel efficient friendliness. The hotel is conveniently located for central Cairo sightseeing and has gorgeous grounds. We didn't eat in any of the restaurants because we were full of food from the lounge and from the daily plates of treats left in our room as complimentary gifts due to Gold status.

The Aswan Moevenpick didn't knock me out. It wasn't that there was anything really wrong with it - it's just that the hotel, rooms, service and food didn't reach the same high standards of the other hotels we stayed at. Our room was more of a 3.5-4* and even though the hotel was far from full, we were given a room that directly overlooked a flat roof. We were only given one complimentary bottle of mineral water over the two days we stayed there (not enough, in my view, when you can't brush your teeth with the water).

I didn't find the staff to be particularly friendly (not unfriendly - just not hospitable), except the wait staff in the rooftop lounge/restaurant and the boat captains (all very friendly). An uninspiring breakfast buffet was offered in an uninspiring room. The meals we had in the rooftop lounge and by the pool, however, were better.

The hotel is nicely situated on Elephantine Island, however, and the shuttle back and forth to the mainland takes just minutes and runs frequently. Unless the Sofitel Cataract has reopened by the time you make your trip, the Moevenpick is still probably your best bet in Aswan - just don't expect to be thrilled by the experience.

In terms of planning your trip, I wouldn't plan to spend a lot of hotel nights in Aswan. For example if you're taking a cruise that starts in Aswan and goes to Luxor, or vice versa, I think you could skip a hotel stay in Aswan altogether if you have the better part of a day to sightsee in Aswan (or allocate at most one extra night in a hotel in Aswan). It's worth spending a couple of nights, however, at the Hilton in Luxor (or the Sofitel Winter Palace).

I don't think you can go wrong with either the Cairo Marriott or Mena House - if you can, try both.

As for tummy trouble, well yes, it was a bit icky. At the risk of oversharing, I can tell you that my purchased in the US Immodium worked just fine for a couple of days, which included scuba diving (not a good moment for your drugs to fail) and a 4-hour drive to Luxor. Then it stopped working but this happened in the evening at our hotel so there were no difficulties. I had a prescription for Cipro in my luggage (acquired a few years ago before a trip to Morocco) and I started taking it about 2 am. We had a slightly late start that morning (around 9:30) and by then I was just fine. My husband's experience was similar. You should be fine as long as you have Cipro to take at the first sign that your Immodium is not working, and a couple of hours to let the Cipro go to work.

I would add that a number of the major tourist sites (temples, tomb complexes, museums) in Egypt - at least where we went - were equipped with decent, Western-style toilets that were relatively clean. Nicer than a lot of toilets I've encountered in Italy and Southern France, in fact. Do bring your own TP when sightseeing (although the bathroom attendants usually can supply you with some and expect a tip). I think I encountered only one squat toilet while I was there, near Esna (between Luxor and Aswan) but it wasn't a toilet for tourists. It was a toilet in a mosque and the nice men at the mosque let me use their toilet and hosed it down for me before they let me go in.

To prepare for possible tummy problems, buy some Antinal as soon as you get into Egypt. It is very inexpensive and works wonders on the Egypt stomach germs. And if you don't need it in Egypt, you will have it when you go to other places where stomach upsets are common.

More on tummy bugs:

We were quite careful about what we ate and drank (at least until we got sick enough to need antibiotics, then we decided what the hell However, I got sick when we were in El Gouna diving and, in retrospect, I think my problem might have been the fact that we were putting regulators (the breathing apparatus for scuba equipment) and snorkels in our mouths that had been rinsed in regular Egyptian water.

Two other tips if you're worried about your stomach. The first of these may again fall into the "too much information" category: don't rush your meal and post-meal digestive time. For example, my husband usually likes to sleep as late as possible, then jump out of bed, eat and get going with the day. Not a good plan if you are recovering from a tummy bug. I made sure that we started breakfast at least an hour before we planned to go anywhere - giving us time to, ahem, deal with digestive developments - before going anywhere. I would think this would be particularly important if you are on a tour with scheduled departure times for activities. Generally, we didn't eat lunch while sightseeing - instead we'd head back to the hotel in mid-afternoon for a snack, a nap, some more sightseeing and a late dinner. This reduced the risk of being caught post-meal/in a digestive tizzy, away from the comforts of our hotel.

The second tip is a language tip. The Arabic for "no ice" is "bidoun talc". I find that easy to remember because who wants talc in their drink?

I am thinking of skipping the Nile Cruise deal because of time,money and not really seeing/doing what I want to do. So with that in mind,how many days would you stay in Aswan before you went up to Luxor? How many days in Luxor would you stay?
Did you do the trip to Abu Simbel?
We are doing a combination trip of Egypt and Jordan so want to do the days we need in Cairo then Aswan, Luxor and back to Cairo before leaving for 5/6 days in Jordam. Thanks for your help!

frogoutofwater, after many years of dreaming about a trip to Egypt, I am now starting to plan a trip for 2010.

dutyfree, which company are you thinking of using. I would like to visit Jordan too.

I have been following threads on Egypt since early this year. I remember there was one sometime ago about whether to take a Nile cruise or to skip this. If I can find the thread I'll post the link here with my apologies to frogoutofwater.

dutyfree, here's the thread, I hope it is useful to you:-

http://www.fodors.com/community/afri...ea-mistake.cfm

frogoutofwater, were you able to find places to cool off from the heat? Once inside the monuments was it cooler/bareable? I was thinking of travelling in September 2010. If I wait until October the prices go up.

frog-
some might think you're oversharing on the tummy troubles, but as a frequent tummy turmoil person hesitantly stocking up for next week's trip, I appreciate the strategizing.

We are also staying at the Hilton Luxor on points and I am quite looking forward to it, it's the last stop for us so I am hoping for some down time. Although I do wonder if we have enough time and side trips planned to see all I want in Luxor!

germanblonde, the hottest I have ever been in my entire life was on my visit to Karnak Temple in late August of '08. No exaggeration. There is no relief from the heat except in the pool or an air-conditioned hotel or restaurant. It's bearable once the sun goes down, though.

germanblonde:

Whether the weather in September is bearable probably will depend on what you're used to, how you dress and how you cope. My husband, for example, is a hardy soul who never seems to get bothered by temperature extremes and has a very "mind over matter" attitude to physical discomfort. I, on the other hand, am temperamentally a more delicate flower who gets cranky when she's too hot, too itchy, too stinky or too sweaty. I also get heat rash from time to time, just to add to the fun. I grew up in British Columbia (where the summer temperatures ranged from about 18C to 27C) and I used to have panic attacks in the hot Toronto summers (where temperatures often reached the low to mid 30s).

I found temple/tomb wandering in Egypt in early October to be more challenging than our 2005 trip to Oman, where we were never far from an air-conditioned car or restaurant - but not unbearable. You'll be very hot if you're walking or standing in exposed areas, but once at the temple itself you can usually find shade to stand in from time to time. Tombs (e.g. the Valley of the Kings) and pyramids can be very, very hot - and claustrophic, too, but usually you're only inside them for 10 minutes or so. Some of the entrance buildings for tombs and temples have mild to good air-conditioning, e.g. at least one of temples in Luxor, the Solar Boat Museum near the pyramids in Giza, the entrance building for the Valley of the Kings, etc, so you can get a break.

If you have travelled in very hot climates before, you should be fine. One good thing is that, overall, the heat is fairly dry rather than humid.

Dress appropriately, bring a fan and either a hat or umbrella (I liked using an umbrella because it provided more shade and didn't make my head sweat), walk in the shade whenever possible (watch how the locals walk), move slowly, and pack a hanky (to mop your face) and a water bottle to avoid dehydration.