Help with Egypt itinerary
 

Hi,
My boyfriend and I are planning a trip to Egypt for the first week of December, and trying to decide between Cairo/Aswan/Abu Simbel and Cairo/Luxor. We’re traveling independently. Can anyone please offer an opinion on which destination (in addition to Cairo) we should choose? Thanks for the help!

Abu Simbel is an absolute must. It is even more dramatic than the pyramids and sphinx. If you go to Egypt and don't go to Abu Simbel you will have missed the chance of a lifetime.

You will love Egypt. I have been twice now. Both Abu Simbel and Luxor are wonderful destinations. On my last trip, I opted out of a nile cruise which allowed me to add time to Luxor and stay overnight at Abu Simbel, the latter I highly recommend.

Bonnie

After visiting Egypt for the first time last October, I cannot imagine choosing between Abu Simbel and Luxor. Is there no way to fit both into your itinerary? The richness and depth of sights in Luxor area is overwhelming, but Abu Simbel and its setting are unmissable.

How helpful is that? Ha!

What do you want from a vacation in Egypt?

Luxor has a lot of fabulous tombs and a great temple, but not much else going for it. It's totally Pharonic.

Aswan is a little more mixed. It's a smaller town & I prefer it as a town. You can sail on the Nile in a felucca, Elephantine Island has a Nubian Museum, the Aga Khan's mausoleum and house and a small souk are there. I spent three weeks traveling around Egypt a few years ago & it's a great place to chill out.

Now that I put it in print, I think, of the two, that Cairo/Luxor is the better trip if it's only 7 days long. You won't need to chill out in that short length of time.

We have 15 days, not counting a day of travel on either end, and we’re headed to Egypt and Rome -- an odd combination, I know, but they were the next two spots on our list! Traveling by overnight trains, etc., we probably have enough time for Cairo, Aswan, Abu Simbel and Luxor, before heading to Rome for 4 or 5 days, but we’d rather not be that rushed. From what I’ve read (combined with what you said, Sunshine), we’d probably enjoy wandering around Aswan more than touring tombs at Luxor. But Luxor seems like one of those places a tourist would be silly to skip….

Bonnie, why stay overnight at Abu Simbel? It’s an easy day trip from Aswan, no?