Independent travel for one week in egypt
 

Hi everybody

I am spending a week in Egypt from Dec 6-13. I am arriving in and leaving from Luxor. I have planned the 7 days like this. Please tell me if it is feasible. This is my first trip to Egypt.

=>Dec 6th: Afternoon, arrive in Luxor. Spend the afternoon relaxing, watch the sound and light show in Karnak.
=>Dec 7th: Travel to Aswan, visiting Kom Ombo - Edfu on the way. Spend the night in Aswan.
=>Dec 8th: Travel to Abu simbel. Does anyone know if there are convoys leaving during day, not at 4AM? Visit temples. Stay in Abusimbel. Watch the sound and light show.
=>Dec 9th: Return to Aswan. Spend the day relaxing. Catch the night train to Cairo.
=>Dec 10th: Cairo pyramids. Stay in cairo.
=>Dec 11th: Museum, Khan Khalili bazaar. Catch night train to Luxor.
=>Dec 12th: Spend the day in Luxor.
=>Dec 13th: Leave from Luxor.

I am not sure how to buy train tickets in advance.What are my chances of getting them after landing in Luxor? Also , is it possible to go from Luxor to Aswan visiting the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu?

Thank you for your time.

Your itinerary looks good, but you left several of places.

In Luxor, you would be better off visiting the Luxor Temple during the evening instead of going to the Karnak Sound & Light Show. The Luxor Temple stays open late looks really good illuminated with lights. I personally thought that the Sound & Light Show was kinda cheezy. During your free day in Luxor, go to see Karnak Temples, Valley of the Kings & Queens, and Hatshepsut Temple.

While in Aswan, I would make a trip out to the Temple of Philae. If you have extra time the evening, you could go to the Nubian Musueum.

In Cairo, I would add the Step Pyramid of Saqqara.

As far as your transportation questions, go to ask-aladdin.com. He is an Eqyptologist has a lot of info on his website. If you can't find what your looking for, send him an email and he will be happy to help.

It sounds pretty good!

I returned from Egypt around 3 weeks ago and you have covered most of the major attractions.
The light show in Karnak is highly recommended. Gives you a different view from the busy days around the temples.

Cannot help re Abu Simbel as we flew but YOU HAVE TO GO. Absolute highlight.

Recommendation for accomodation in Cairo, the Mena House Oberoi, It overlooks the Giza Pyramids and is certainly worth every cent.

Also re the Museum, if you are a history buff then I would arrive early. I was at the museum around 4 hours and could of stayed another 4.

Hope this helps.
Have a great time!

You have limited time for your trip so I would rethink your decision to stay a night at Abu Simbel. I don't think you will find much else to do there between seeing Abu Simbel in the day and the S&L show at night.

I flew to Abu Simbel and if you can afford this I would highly recommend this way to go. You will leave early but be back in Aswan by lunchtime where there is much more to see.

Having said that, a couple of the guides I spoke to about it said the Abu Simbel S&L show is the most impressive. I only saw the Pyramids one and found it a let-down so I can't compare.

Ingenieur,

Thank you SO MUCH for mentioning ask-aladdin.com. I have been so overwhelmed with trying to figure out what to do, but not really finding any information. I only have about a week in Egypt (Mar 05), and want to see everything (yes, I know I can't).

Have you dealt with Aladdin or just know the website? I am very impressed with the information he provides. He sounds honest and legitimate, and wants only to help people wanting to visit his country.

Thanks again for the mention!

Deemike.....
Aladdin was one of our tour guides. He is a very knowledgeable and nice guy. He mentioned that he created his website because he felt that all of the other websites did not provide adequate info. He loves his country and wants to share it with the rest of the world.

I came across Aladdin's website while researching for my trip. I asked him several questions under the Ask Aladdin section and he wrote me back! For no reason other than his desire to help people looking for information. I ended up not doing a tour with him since I found him too late in my research to rearrange my trip and at no point did he try to push his services on me. I got the impression that he sincerely wanted to help people out and give people the best information out there. Great site and guy!

Thank you all for the valuable suggestions. After looking at offers from various tour operators in Egypt, I figured out that doing a private tour is the optimal way to spend 8 days in Egypt. It works out to be only a little more expensive than independent travel, plus you have a personal guide and no hassles.