My grandmother used to say - buy cheap - buy twice. :-)

Scotsgirl

Scotsgirl, I love that aphorism - hope you don't mind if I borrow it!

Do not try to go with the cheapest tour operator - quality of guides/hotels, etc can vary greatly. I found out about Lady Egypt on this forum and used them, they were not the cheapest quote I got nor the most expensive. The company provides top notch service and you can customize your itinerary, I do recommend Lady Egypt, they were great.

I would also recommend Lady Egypt, highly.

I had a terrifc time with Casual Cairo.

Debbie lives in Cairo and will custome your tour anyway you want.

e-mail her at [email protected]

I read many good reports here and another sites about Lady Egypt, Le Caire Travel and Travco.

another vote for Lady Egypt. They are very informative, care about your safety (I had my guide actually be mad at me because I wasn't paying attention crossing the road!) They care about animal rights (won't use some of the companies that use horse drawn carriages that don't take care of the horses), and are priced well for the long great days. Very worth the money!

We just returned (on Saturday) from a 19night/18day trip to Egypt and Jordan. We were treated like royalty.....5 star all the way with many upgrades and perks. Our group used Elite Tours (based out of Cairo) - ask for Raouf. And yes, Egypt is perfectly safe. An unbelievable adventure!! This is the time to go.

We just returned 2 weeks ago (April-May 2012) from a 17-day trip. We used the services of Mr. Ahmed Hamed Yousif ([email protected]). See our posting about this.

This is a personalized service. He made the arrangements through local companies, arranges for our guides outside Cairo (was the guide himself in Cairo) took care of arranging van transport each day, airport transfers, took care of booking all travel inside Egypt (and to Jordan). Ahmed knows a few tricks about the way things work -for example, when we went to the Cairo Museum we went straight to the Tut room and worked backward, while everyone else worked their way forward. So we had the whole room to ourselves for about 5 minutes, once the half dozen others already in the room moved on... Just me, my wife, and Tut's solid gold mask and his sarcophagus...

All in all, an amazing and stress-free vacation.

The Cruise ships in the Aswan-Luxor area (the usual run) all seemed to be large-ish 3 deckers; but I am no expert, not sure what the other options are, we skipped the cruise in favour of being driven Aswan to Luxor - so when we got to the temples at Edfu and Kom Ombo, for example, we missed the crowds from the boats.

Off-season in Egypt usually means summer, as in hot weather for May to September. However, the hotels and vehicles have air conditioning, although the pharoahs neglected to build this into the pyramids.

As for reports of violence- we saw nothing, even Tahrir Square was peaceful and almost deserted when we drove through to get to the museum. The elections are due to happen late May with run-off late June, then things should be fairly calm. Most people want this democracy to work, and certainly, NOBODY wants to scare away tourists. However, it is becoming a democracy, so don't let exaggerated stories of protests and rallies scare you off. These will happen in any democracy and they are not aimed at foreigners, they are nowhere near where foreigners are, and despite the issues at stake, most of them are relatively peaceful This is not Syria.