Hi there,

Do any of you have suggestions for a one-week itinerary for Egypt in April? This would be early April, for a family of three with teenagers looking mainly to see the historical/archaeological sites. We will be arriving from India, so jet lag is not a major factor, and we think we would like to include Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan (but are open to suggestions).

Thanks for your input (in advance)!

Anybody?

Let me give you the name of a very nice lady in Egypt that does private small group tours.

She is originally from the USA but has been living in Cairo for the past 15-16 years.

E-mail Debbie Senters
at
[email protected].

Please mention my name as she does know me well and I have sent two ladies from my city to her for 2 weeks in April.

I booked her two years ago and enjoyed my days with her.

Percy

Doing all of Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan in a week can be a bit of stretch. But it depends on several factors...

I would set aside 3 days for Cairo IF you hire a private driver or tour guide to take you around. If you're planning to explore on your own, you might need 4 days because Cairo is a difficult city to navigate so you would need to add in some padding time to find your destinations, etc.

Luxor is pretty far from Cairo. I believe it would take 10-12 hours on the train. However, you can fly there via Egypt Air and save some time. I would spend 2-3 days in Luxor, again depending on whether you hire a private driver or guide.

Aswan is a good 3 hour train ride from Luxor. I would spend 2 days here.

Other options include staying around in northern Egypt - visit Cairo and Alexandria, or staying in southern Egypt - Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel.

We are planning a trip for Egypt in April where we have only 5 days on the ground (arrive late one night, leave early six days later). It's not ideal but it is what we have. We plan three nights and two days in Cairo and two nights and two days in Luxor. Flying back and forth to Luxor. We are leaving open the last day for now, not sure whether to fly early that last day back to Cairo, spend the day in Cairo or fly back late to Cairo and spend night at airport hotel. Tentatively, we were planning first day Cairo with pyramids and Egyptian museum, second day in Cairo in old Cairo to see Jewish, Christian, Muslim highlights and the bazaar, third day fly early to Luxor, see temples and museum on east bank, fourth day temples on west bank, fifth day open. We are not also trying to do Aswan or Abu Simbel, although I believe many people do one or the other in a day trip. Nor are we planning to do a nile cruise. We do plan to have a guide and driver, at least for the two days in Cairo and the two days in Luxor. You might also look at typical one week itineraries with group travel, not that you can't do it on your own or with a private guide, but that will give you ideas. One company we have used before in Asia, although not in Egypt, is www.imaginative-traveller.com. They do exclusively small group travel. They have a number of different Egypt itineraries, including some aimed at families.