Help planning my 1st trip to Egypt - thank you!!
 

Thanks in advance to anyone that responds - greatly appreciated!

I'm planning a trip Feb 5 through the 11th to Egypt. My rough ideas

Arrive in Cairo at 3:00pm (Saturday) the 5th - rest

Day 1 Giza on Sunday
Day 2 Egyptian Museum, other on Monday
Day 3 Fly to Luxor? in morning - see temples
Day 4 Valley of Kings and Hatshepsut Temple (can these 2 be done in 1 day?)
Day 5 back to Cairo (or could stay in Luxor) - my flight is at 1:00am - so have full day

My questions
Would you spend 3 days in Cairo or Luxor?
Can Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut be done in 1 day?
Any good tour guides you know for Giza? I am a 40 year old male traveling alone. I'm very self sufficient - have travelled extensively - just want something reputable
Any good suggestions for hotels in Cairo & Luxor? Safe and central are important - price not a big concern.
Are sites open on Fridays and Saturdays?

Thanks!!

Most tours of Hatshepsut and VOTF are usually done in 1 morning. You can also do an early a.m. balloon ride and then arrange to have the tour pick you up afterward for touring the VOTF and Hatshepsut (my Cairo guide said I can pronounce it as HasChickenSoup :) ).

If you don't want a tour guide you can certainly arrange a taxi through your hotel for your West Bank exploration. You can hail one off the street also (or rather they find you, lol) but it's a hassle to negotiate a price if you don't know what the correct rate is.

It's a tough call as to which city to spend 3 days on. Both have their charms and headaches. It depends a lot too on what you want to see. Luxor has temples galore if that's what your main interests are. If you want more time in the old city then I would spend more time exploring the Islamic Cairo part of the city. I think a good idea would be to make a list of what you want to do and see in each city and then decide base on that.

I believe sites are open on Fridays and weekends.

Have a great time when you go.

We did Hatshepsut Temple and VOTK one morning (starting very early) and did Karnak and Luxor Temples that same day (after lunch and "siesta"). Very doable (we had a guide and driver).

We just got back from Cairo and our experience was frustrating to the point that we didn't even do the Nile River Cruise. The less time you spend in Cairo the better. We did our sites in one day and left Cairo!

We hired a driver through the hotel and told him we wanted to go to the pyramids, the Citadel and the Egyptian Museum. We specifically told them we didn't want to do any shopping or stopping at the "government factories/manufactures." Our first stop was the "paper museum," the second stop, "perfume store." We then spent 35 minutes haggling over the cost of the camel ride to the pyramids. While on the camels someone came up and put the head gear on us and charged us an arm and a leg. Enjoyed the camel ride and the sites until our "guide" extorted a huge tip from my husband. I was afraid they weren't going to let us off the camels.

The tourist police would take a photo for you and then put their hand out for their 10 seconds of helpfulness. We would discuss the cost of a bottle of water and they would ask for a smaller bill and try to do the short change routine or change the price. TRUST NO ONE!

Cairo is filthy, the traffic is horrendous, and everyone wearing a suit coat is packing a huge gun.

Best of Luck!

jam0267,

When your driver stop at a shop, couldn't you have then refused to say "no" and not get out of the cab?

I refused all offer of camel rides at Giza, but weren't they all touting the same price of 20 L.E. for a ride? Did they demand more once you agree to get on the camel? I would've jumped right off the camel if they didn't let me down, lol.

I have one funny story about price of water bottle. I went into this store in the afternoon and the lady there charged me 3 L.E. Good price. I went back into the exact same store and the guy that worked there attemped to charge me 10 L.E.!!! I looked at him and said "Uh, I was here at this very store yesterday and water was only 3 L.E. Why is it 10 L.E. today?" He then started to apologize and then praised how great the Americans are and how I can now trust him, etc. LOL.


While I agree that the baksheesh system and constant haggling from the touts at the seemingling lack of changes at some stores/restaurants at Cairo-Luxor-Answan wore me down at times, I'm still glad I visited and would gladly go back (hopefully much wiser :) ) to do the things that I missed or redo some things.

Two days in Cairo is enough and three days in Luxor is a must as there is so much to see and do. Luxor Museum is well worth seeing. If you don't make eye contact or engage touts in any way and just keep walking you will be fine. Don't buy water at the hotels, but rather at small shops. Our guide would often go into a shop and buy water for us and paid next to nothing for it. It's too bad jam0267 let the traffic and garbage get to him/her. We found Cairo fascinating.

Some people elect to hire a good trustworthy guide to help them through all of this hassle. The cost sometimes feels worth it, to come out of Cairo feeling like you had a good time rather than fought with someone the whole time you were here.

There are plenty of choices for guides, but if you elect to do it yourself, too often the woes of jam0267 are the same as you'll experience.

<<Cairo is filthy, the traffic is horrendous, and everyone wearing a suit coat is packing a huge gun. >>
The same thing could be said of NYC I suspect.

mike22

This was the tour guide that I had in Cairo: Ahmed Ali Mohammed ([email protected]). He was very good and very fun to be around with. Ahmed was provided through Lady Egypt, but he works as an independant contractor so you can contact him if you like.

I can't thank everyone enough for all the great responses! Honestly - I am so amazed at how helpful everyone has been - thank you!!!! One more question - any good hotel recommendations in these two cities? Thanks!!

What "level" of hotel do you like? We stayed at the Steigenberger Palace in Luxor and it's very very nice. We had a city view, which is nice, but of course the Nile view is even better. We spent one whole day at the pool, which was great (the restaurant at the pool is quite good). That all said, we walked through the main floor of the Sonesta St. George next door and it looked even nicer! (We didn't stay there because at the time, there was ongoing construction). (Note that these are "in town", which we prefer -- there are some resort-like hotels outside of the downtown area that are supposed to be really nice).

If you want a budget hotel in Luxor, I still think the St. Joseph's is the BEST value in Luxor. They are across the street from the Sonesta St. George, so if you are on a floor over the 3rd, you have the same view of the Nile and West Bank that those paying over $200 a night have. They are clean. They have a pool. They don't have anyone there sitting around pressuring you to take tours through them, but they can arrange it if you want. I stayed there on my first trip here in 97 and every time I've been to Luxor since. I really like them. email them at [email protected] if you need to know prices or more info.

We also liked the Steigenberger Nile Palace in Luxor. In Cairo, we opted for the Marriott and loved that too. I have heard good things about the Longchamps (hope I'm spelling that right) in Cairo, as well.

I agree with Debbie (Casual_Cairo) about getting a guide in Cairo. In fact, you might want to contact Debbie, who is a guide in Cairo. We met her when we were in Cairo and can attest to the fact that she is really fun to talk to and very knowledgeable. :)

Abby97 - nice to see you back again. I think of you often as I use my steamer, and my sister was elated by the bamboo one. Did you ever get yourself one?

Hi Debbie! So glad your sister liked the very well-traveled steamer. :) I've been sticking with the metal one, but I may bite the bullet and get the the wooden one sometime soon.

Hope all is going well with you. I check in over here from time to time, but I've mostly been over on the Asia board planning a trip to India!

To add to the comments above: You really have to relax into the experience and take it for what it is - a very firm La shukran when being harrassed works well - the minute you buy one thing from a tout - the rest of them are on you like a swarm! I saw one poor woman at one of the pyramids - who couldn't say no so very distressed as a result.
I found it very worthwhile having your own guide throughout Egypt (we were not on a tour) - made the expereince very interesting as well as providing all that useful inside information about the culture, history and how to deal with people. Provided this great context and understanding of people and place. (we had Aamer Ibrahim - great guide)
A good guide will do all the things noted above like buying water for you etc
In regards to where - I really like Luxor, Aswan is also great. Cairo is one HUGE adventure and can be very overwhelming for some people. (The noise, people etc I liked it!)
I won't recomend a hotel as the ones I used was not overly impressed with!

<<Cairo is filthy, the traffic is horrendous, and everyone wearing a suit coat is packing a huge gun. >>
The same thing could be said of NYC I suspect.>>

Uh, not really. lol

Egypt can be done independently (my first visit there was with a female travel buddy hiring taxis just like you did, and luckily we had no problems) but Cairo can be overwhelming. It is a huge city and though Egypt is full of wonderful people, there are many who will try to intimidate you. I'm sorry you had a horrible time. The first thing any visitor should remember is that no one can make you do something you don't want to. Westerners are polite to a fault and sometimes Egyptians do things they wouldn't try with a fellow Egyptian because they know we won't cause a scene. If you have been specific about not wanting to do shopping trips, refuse to leave the car! Would a camel jockey really leave you sitting on a camel for hours if you refuse to give them more money? Of course not. It can be intimidating in the moment but stand your ground. If you'd rather not deal with any of it, then hire a guide.

I always say Cairo isn't really a place you love or hate, it's somewhere you need time to appreciate and understand. There is beauty in its chaos. It grows on you, it really does.

<<Cairo is filthy, the traffic is horrendous, and everyone wearing a suit coat is packing a huge gun. >>
The same thing could be said of NYC I suspect.>>

Uh, not really. lol>>

Which part did you think was over the top? The filth? The traffic? or the guns? ;) Certainly can't be all 3.

Ha ha! Definitely all 3 lol. Nowhere near the same level. Not even close.

I think the only difference is you don't see the guns in NYC until you are in an alley with it in your side and you are spilling the contents of your bag on the street. The biggest difference is in who has the guns. Here the police have the guns (as I suppose and hope they do in NYC too), but here the general public isn't carrying them. :)