Egypt/Jordan Itinerary Comments/Advice
 

Hello fellow Fodorites,
As I've been waffling back and forth for a little bit now on my itinerary to an upcoming trip to Egypt that has morphed into an Egypt/Jordan combo, I decided to seek some "outside" help, so here I am. I have two things I hope to accomplish: the pyramids and a taste of ancient egypt, and petra.

11/19 - Arrive CAI ~4:30 pm - head to the hotel / acclimate
11/20 - pyramids, including Giza, Sakara, Dashur with driver & guide
11/21 - islamic & coptic cairo - PM train to Aswan
11/22 - Aswan - philae / high dam / felucca
11/23 - Abu Simbel in the morning via car - PM??
11/24 - AM departure for luxor stopping at esna, edfu & kom ombo - in the afternoon luxor temple
11/25 - luxor east and west bank temples
11/26 - not sure here - another day for cairo and slide things down? else this is a travel day to Amman by the 1:10 pm flight from luxor arriving at about 6:30. plan to spend the night at Madaba
11/27 - Madaba to petra, stopping off at dead sea and kerak to arrive Petra by night?
11/28 - petra day 1
11/29 - petra day 2, including petra by night tour
11/30 - depart for Amman -stop at ? or spend afternoon in Amman? - late PM flight back to NYC

Suggestions or comments? Initially I was coming back from Cairo on 11/29, but since I'm changing my ticket to return from Amman I have this extra day [or 1/2 day] to fill. Tickets to Amman are cheaper from Cairo, so I guess my other option is to take the night train to Cairo when I arrive via either a 5:15 flight [I get in at 4:25 pm] or a 6:05 or 8:30 pm flights]. 2 days Aswan, most of the next day en route to Luxor, then 2 days Luxor, 2.5 days in Cairo, fly to Amman via the 4:45 pm flight on friday , then follow the same as above. i would welcome comments - realizing that I'm probably not doing either country justice, but hopefully will be able to return one day to do so :)

Couple of questions/comments

- in Cairo are you planning to visit the Museum?
- have you read about the train to Aswan here? Mixed reviews...we flew
- re flying - same comment about Abu Simbel. It's a long drive. And for that afternoon you might want to explore the Aswan market
- the day of 11/24 has a lot of temples - might be ambitious although you could do Luxor at night which is lovely with the lights
- not sure about leaving Madaba to see the Dead Sea - seems to be the wrong direction but perhaps there is a different route?
- The Jordan part feels disjointed - likely due to two full days for Petra. There are differing opinions here - we had one full day at Petra and were very happy with that - is there a reason you've scheduled 2 full days?

I just flew to Abu Simble... A drive is so long. What is the price difference.

I had one full day in Petra. 2 days would of been too much for us. We were happy with 1 day and wouldn't change it.

I was disappointed in Amman. After the magnificence of Egypt it did pale in comparison.

Thank you for the comments.

Elizabeth_S, yes, I do plan to visit the museum - although where, I'm not too certain. The reconfigured itinerary below actually gives me a free morning, so that may be when. Decided to fly to Aswan straight after landing. With Abu Simbel, I will take another look - my earlier dates didn't have the availability. I agree with you about the Jordan part. This was a very recent decision so haven't had the time to really look into this. My itinerary there is being driven by wanting to do the petra night walk on Monday night and spending two full days in the area. I did the same for Machu Pichu and was glad that I did. I got to see it under two different weather conditions [bright sunny day and overcast with mist, lending a really dream-like quality], and got off the beaten path a little by following some of the walks, and plan to do the same in Petra.

MissGreen, the price difference was substantial, at least for my initial dates. I will check into it again and see if it gets any better - flying would be my preference as well.

Actually, after I posted this, I thought about my second option, and the long trains, etc, and am strongly leaning towards option 2:

11/19 - Arrive CAI ~4:30 pm - 5:15, 6:05 or 8:30 egypt air flight to aswan.
11/20 - aswan / philae / high dam / felucca
11/21 - Abu Simbel in the morning via car - PM??
11/22 - AM departure for luxor stopping at esna, edfu & kom ombo - in the afternoon luxor temple
11/23 - luxor east and west bank temples - pm train to cairo
11/24 - pyramids, including Giza, Sakara, Dashur with driver & guide
11/25 - islamic / coptic cairo
11/26 - am museum - 1:10 pm flight to amman - pm in madaba
11/27 - Madaba to petra, stopping off at dead sea and kerak to arrive Petra by night
11/28 - petra day 1
11/29 - petra day 2, including petra by night tour
11/30 - depart for Amman -stop at ? or spend afternoon in Amman? - late PM flight back to NYC

Wow. That's a lot crammed into a short time. A couple of thoughts......

- You will need to do the 8:30 am flight to Aswan, as there is no way of making the 5:15 flight and the 6:05 fight is doubtful.
- How are you getting to Luxor? Private car?
- Seems ambitious to do all of Luxor in 1 day, but I guess it's do-able.
- If you are flying to Amman at 1:10, then you need to be at the airport about 11:10, which means leaving your hotel about 10 - which basically rules out the option of going to the museum that morning.

Grcxx3 - yes, it's a lot, and while a couple of the flights may be fixed, once I'm there I tend to go with the flow, and I realize I may not get to everything that I would like to do, and probably not even everythiing I'm planning for. At least with planning, I know my options.

The current plan to Luxor is by private car but I haven't arranged that yet - hoping to do that once I'm in Aswan. I've considered moving on after Abu Simbel in the afternoon, but don't think I'll be able to take another car ride after the amount of time in the car that morning - even I have my limits ;)

The museum... hmmm... too bad they're not open at night :) Since I'm an early riser [at least when on vacation], maybe shuffle around some things with the islamic/coptic cairo walks and do that before heading to the airport. On a Friday, which is what 11/26 is, can I expect the same amount of insane traffic as a weekday?

Fridays - especially Friday mornings - are a little better traffic-wise, but it's always unpredictable.

Depending on what exactly you want to see in Islamic/Coptic Cairo - you might be able to fit in the museum that afternoon. You wouldn't necessarily have hours to wander around, but at least you would be able to see it.