Hi Everyone,

My family and I (husband & teen) will be arriving in Cairo at 4:30 PM on a Saturday in August. We will only have that evening and the next full day to see a few sights in Cairo. We plan to spend the full day at the pyramids, the Egyptian Museum, and possibly the Solar Boat Museum. It would have been nice to fit in a Mosque but I think that may be overbooking a bit. Our international flight out of Cairo leaves at 10:45pm that day. What I was wondering was if there is anything we could see the evening we get in. By the time we travel from the airport and check in to our hotel (Fairmont Nile City) I assume the mosques and most other places will be closed. I'm not sure what time the shops at the Khan el Khalili close. We prefer to see the pyramids the next morning rather than see the laser light show. Any recommendations for that evening or both days for that matter?

I keep on recommending the free Sufi dancing show on Wednesday and Saturday, but it really is a great and fun show. It starts at around 7 pm though, and I'm not sure how long it'll take you to get to your hotel, get settled in, get some dinner and then find the location of the show, etc.,...

I'd be very surprised if Khan el Khalili closes early, especially on a Saturday night. It caters to tourists so I would think it would be teeming with tourists in the evening.

I think you'll have time the next morning to visit Khan el Khalili also after your pyramid and museum trip.

I agree that the Sufi show would be a blast (we saw it and loved it), but it might be a bit much, logistically, for your first night. You don't say where you're flying from -- if it will have been a long flight, you might not feel like braving the crowd at the Sufi show. I would think the Khan would be open, and I think that would be a lot of fun. You'll have a pretty busy day with the Museum and Pyramids, so I wouldn't count on having time to go to the market that day. Also, since you're flying out on an international flight, you'll need to be at the airport early, and the airport is easily an hour from anywhere you'd be sightseeing in Cairo.

The Khan IS open on Saturday night. It closes up (the good shops are closed for the most part) on Sunday. Go to the Khan if you feel like doing something.

I know I will get arguments about my statement that the Khan is closed, as I see those comments all the time on here. Yes, there are people there, and to the untrained eye, it will appear to be open, BUT... the craftsmen that are there that make it more interesting than a mall with Chinese souvenirs being sold, ARE closed. They are the heart of the market and you won't find them on Sunday. Instead, there are loads of temporary stands set up infront of closed doors, selling plastic pyramids, t-shirts and more that were brought directly here from China. This DOES NOT constitute the Khan el Khalili market to me.

Go there on Saturday, have dinner at the Naguib Mafouz restaurant and do a bit of shopping. It will be fun. If you are so inclined to see the Sufi Dance show, you might manage it as well, if you are lucky. The venue is a little hard to find, and it will be a bit of a rush to get out of the airport, checked into the hotel, and down in line early enough. I hear you should be there at least 1 hour in advance to get a decent seat.

Thank you all for your advice. We will be coming from an overnight flight from NY so yes, we will probably be tired. We will have a 4 hour layover in Athens which may or may not be restful.

The Sufi show sounds like fun but I agree that we may be too tired for something logistically challenging or rushed. The Khan and a nice dinner may work out best for that first night.

Thank you for the recommendation of a restaurant as that would have been my next question. I would like to have a nice dinner that is culturally authentic especially since we may be rushed for dinner on Sunday night. We also considered Buddha Bar for dinner. We listen to some Buddha Bar music and were surprised to see there was one in Cairo. I'm not sure if they serve dinner, if we can bring a teen there, or if it is anywhere near the Khan. Any thoughts?

I think you are right about Sunday being a full day with the Pyramids and the Museum (we tend to over book). We'll probably need to get back to our bags at the hotel and head to the airport by dinner time. Especially if the airport is an hour away.

I would personally stick to the Naguib Mafouz restaurant at the Khan. It is THE restaurant at the Khan. A decent 5* restaurant, owned by the Oberoi corp, so it's a good one.

The Buddah Bar is here at the Sofitel Gizera hotel. My first thought on that is that if you go there, you will have expectations that might not be met. Ergo, you are disappointed on your first night in Cairo. If you go to Naguib Mafouz, you have no expectations that might be dashed.

Save the Buddah Bar for one of your other nights in Egypt. I've been inside the facility, but not for a meal or drink - just to look around. From what I hear, it is expensive. Yes, teens do go there. High School students from the American school go there IF they are wealthy enough to go there.

I'm not saying the Buddah Bar WILL be a disappointment, but I'm afraid it might be.

CC - I think I agree. I looked up Naguib Mafouz and it looks very nice. It had great reviews as well. I also feel like it's more culturally appropriate if that's the right term than a Buddha Bar chain. I want to feel like I'm in Cairo. It's also a plus that's right in the Khan. Thank you for your help.

One more question. Do you think it would be necessary or beneficial to have a guide with such a short list of sights to see? DH has been a long time ago and is confident that we can just have a taxi take us to our sights. I think I agree, considering we'll be there barely over day, unless it will be a timesaver and would allow us to see more.

Thanks again for all your help.

Well, you are sort of asking the wrong person here, as, if I say YES you need a guide, then I get accused of SPAM.

It's up to you. If your husband thinks he can guide you through this well enough, then you can do it that way. You might want to look at some of the other posts on Fodors here about what happened to others that did a self guiding tour and had a miserable time with everyone from the taxi drivers to the vendors. If you want to avoid that and be sure to have a pleasant experience, then take a guide you can trust with you.

I understand. We'll have to discuss the guide vs. no guide topic. Thank you for all the great advice!

We are traveling to Egypt in a week and for us, we wanted to use a guide because a local guide will always be able to add some knowledge of the local sites and customs that you would otherwise not know.
With such little time in Cairo, I would think a guide would save you a ton of valuable time by being able to navigate the city easily.
I would definately consider a guide if I were you. When we were checking on guides, we found several highly recomended guides that were very inexpensive.

tbrown - it would be greatly appreciated if you could share those names with me.

long2travel we corresponded with several agents. I would have been happy to use any of the guides below:

Nibal Gouda with Egyptguest [email protected] - Very patient with our many questions and details.

Debbie Senters with Casual Cairo Detours [email protected] - Frequent poster on Fodors. Her posts have been extremly helpful.

Amanda Whittome with Lady Egypt [email protected] - Lady Egypt and Amanda are highly recommended on all of the boards.

Abdo Ellahamy [email protected] - Not an Egyptologist but came to us highly recommended by a friend. We didn't use him becuase of the cruise we were taking but if we were going to need a guide for a day, I wouldn't have hesitated to use him.

I hope this information helps. All of these guides are reccomended.

Good luck to you guys.

Thank you so much! I love this forum. It's been so helpful in planning this trip.

I hope you have wonderful time and I look forward to your trip report when you get back.

We stayed at the Marriott and went to Khulkhal Arabian Restaurant which is right outside the entrance moored on the Nile River. We just loved it. I reviewed it on Trip Advisor:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...ant-Cairo.html

ps: not expensive either and you can just order several appetizers and make a meal out of the variety. Also, get the warm dolmas which are delicious and different to cold ones.

Wow Tinydancer you do a great review, pictures and everything! It looks great. I'm thinking we may be able to fit it in on Sunday. We could go there for lunch between the Pyramids and the museum or for dinner before we leave for the airport. It's very close to our hotel were we'll need to pick up our bags before leaving.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Whatever you do, ABSOLUTLY go to the solar boat. It's in a specially built building next the the Cheops (big) pyramid and is fascinating. The story behind it's discovery and how long and hard it was to figure out how to put it together is amazing. I went in as a fluke and found it one of the most interesting awesome sights/visits of my entire trip.

Really? I'm glad you mention it because I haven't heard much talk about it. In all honesty I didn't even know what it was. Our original Cairo trip was going be with a tour company and it was on their list of sights so I included it on ours. I figured it was probably easy to fit in with the Pyramids and the museum. I'm glad that you confirm that it's a good choice. Thank you!