Abrie

We are a late 40's couple arriving in Cairo evening of 6 October and departing afternoon 14 October. We want to do a budget tour experiencing as much of Egypt as possible...on a small budget. Seems like we have to choose between one of following packages. Please help...or alternatives ?

8 Days / 7 Nights
2 Nights in Cairo
2 Nights in Seat Train
3 Nights in Nile Cruise (Aswan & Luxor)

8 Days / 7 Nights
2 Nights Cairo
1 Night Alexandria
1 Night Aswan
1 Nights Luxor
2 Nights Seat Train

8 Days / 7 Nights
2 Nights Cairo
1 Night Seat Train
1 Night Aswan
1 Night Luxor
2 Nights in Hurghada

8 Days / 7 Nights
2 Nights Cairo
1 Night Seat Train
1 Night Luxor
3 Nights Sharm El- Sheikh

8 Days / 7 Nights
2 Nights Cairo
2 Nights Seat Train
2 Nights Aswan
1 Night Luxor

8 Days / 7 Nights
3 Nights Cairo
4 Nights (Bahariya/Farafra Oasis/White Desert)
Program code: 8/7/7
8 Days / 7 Nights
3 Nights in Cairo
4 Nights in Hurghad

8 Days / 7 Nights
3 Nights Cairo
4 Nights Sharm El Sheikh

P_M

Do you have any flexibility or are you limited to these tours? If you have flexibility I will recommend option #3 with the following alterations:

Avoid an overnight ride on the seat train, it's positively miserable even in First Class. If you must take the seat train bring a blanket to avoid hypothermia because they will crank up the a/c to the max. Also bring eyemasks because the lights are never turned off, making it very hard to sleep. Be prepared to be awoken by the conductor several times during the night to show your ticket. Personally I would either fly or take a sleeper train.

I also suggest spending 2 nights in Dahab instead of Hurghada. Dahab is a wonderful and exotic looking town on the Red Sea. Hurghada is glittery and modern like Cancun or Miami Beach and it feels nothing like being in Egypt. Hurghada was my least favorite part of Egypt. You can fly into Sharm and travel by car to Dahab.

Abrie

Thanks P_M,
No we are not bound by the options. We don't have much time to plan and don't know the circumstances in Egypt at all. I had my concern about the seat train. Thanks for the advice. Any travel agent you can recommend ? Or can we arrive and plan as we go along ?

P_M

I used Lady Egypt. They are great for budget travelers and very good about tailoring a trip to suit your needs.

http://www.ladyegypt.com/

dmlove

We just returned from Egypt. We also used Lady Egypt (although I wouldn't call ours a budget trip). They were excellent.

Two comments I'd like to make: 1) take the sleeper train - it's $60.00 USD per person from Cairo to Aswan, and the 2 of you get a private cabin. All the other trains that passed by at Giza station looked positively dreadful; the sleeper train was actually quite decent (except the food). Second, plan for big-time jet lag. We flew from the west coast, and missed our connection in Frankfurt, so had to hang out there for 7 extra hours. So, our day flying to Cairo started at 6 a.m. in San Francisco on a Friday, and we got to Cairo at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday (which would be 11:30 a.m. San Francisco time). That's close to 30 hours of travel time. Let me just say we left ourselves a day to catch up on sleep, and we made full use of it!

P_M

Thank you for bringing up the food issue on the train, dmlove. We were advised to bring our own food.

Although Lady Egypt was a budget tour for me, they do offer slightly more upscale tours as well. That type of flexibility is another great plus about Lady Egypt.