During our OAT tour of Egypt, we appear to have some free time in Cairo. A half day and another almost full day before our flight to Jordan. We'll have seen Saqqara, the pyramids, have taken a "Spiritual Cairo" tour, including churches, a synagogue, the Islamic Quartr, the Citadel, spent some time in the bazaar and visited the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.

So--what would you recommend for our free time?

Take a stroll around Garden City or Zamalek and savour the remains of the grand houses that gave Cairo the nickname of Paris on the Nile. Have lunch or a refresnments in the garden of the Marriott hotel, where the Empress Eugenie of France stayed when she came to Egypt to inaugurate the Suez Canel,in the early 1870s.

I recommend that you spend the half day going back to the museum. I went with GCT which is the parent company of OAT and we spent only a few hours at the museum and saw very little.I regret not using my free time going back to the museum.

I think this depends on your priorities. I also went with GCT and initially planned on going back to the museum on my last day. I didn't because the timimg didn't work out right. Instead we walked along the Nile in Zamelek and had dinner in a restaurant in one of the stationary riverboats.

How you spend your time might depend on a few things. Did you see enough of the bazaar? You might want to return, or shop more elsewhere. Is there a restaurant you still want to try? Maybe you want to go to a cafe and people watch.

I don't know if my thoughts will help you but I hope so.

You can go to Alexandria for the day. Beautiful.

Thanks, everyone, for your replies. I was just looking for a few ideas we might not have thought of.

You might want to rent a felucca for a sunset ride on the Nile. We had a wonderful time doing that.