Hi everyone, thank you for your consideration of my trip. We will be there starting Sept 18. So much to see and do in Egypt, I have found insight from this board so helpful.. A little about us, late 40’s, well traveled, lived overseas, so happy to embrace a new culture. Love museums, history, culture, leaning about religions and the ocean. Love good wine and trying local delicacies. I have a tendency to overplan, so I am trying to balance this trip with being busy during the day, but still having time to enjoy the sights and lovely accommodations. This will be a private tour. This seems a little touristy, but maybe that is the way it is. We typically only visit a country once so this may be it for Egypt. I am sorry we will miss the desert. Here is a rough outline so far.

Day 1 Arrive Cairo 3:15 – Hotel Mena House
Day 2 Pyramids – all day – Hotel Mena House
Day 3 Day trip to Alexandria (check out of hotel) - various activities, when arrive back in Cairo check into Fairmont, Four Seasons or Marriott
Day 4 – Cairo
Day 5 – Cairo
Day 6 – Fly to Aswan – tour around
Day 7 – Abu Simbel - Afternoon board Sonesta, St. George for nile cruise night in Aswan
Day 8 - nile cruise on St. George
Day 9 - Nile cruise in Luxor sightsee Luxor
Day 10 – stay over night in Luxor at hotel for additional touring or fly to Dahab
Day 11 - beach or in transit from Luxor – Le Meridian
Day 12 – beach -Le Meridian
Day 13 – beach - Le Meridian
Day 14 – Travel by car to petra – movenpick or mariott
Day 15 – Petra - movenpick or mariott
Day 15– Travel to Amman – city tour – leave at 11:45 p.m.

Questions:

Alexandria: yes or no??
My city hotel in Cairo, I guess each one has benefits but anything you can tell me to help make a decision between Fairmont, Four Seasons, and Marriot? I read Marriot was having elevators closed.
Is this too much time in Cairo? I will split tour time between tour company and maybe try a Casual Cairo one day.
Any thoughts on the St. George nile cruise.
I an trying to decide how much time in Aswan and Luxor.
As for Petra, I am sorry we do not have more time for Jordan, maybe another time. But I think we want to say we have seen Petra.

Kind regards for your input.

I like your first question, because that's the one thing I'd skip. It's a very bumpy ride on a very bumpy road, and I doubt it is worth it.

Having stayed in the Marriot Hotel (Manalek) I can highly recommend it. We loved it. Beautiful pool opened till late, if not all night. Great restaurant right outside moored on the river (can't think of the name right now). Really GREAT breakfast buffet, and simply beautiful hotel overall.

The rest of it sounds great to me, and you obviously have done your homework.

Just make sure that you get real, professional, licensed Egyptologists to guide you, because otherwise you will miss out on all the really wonderful and amazing details.

LOL tinydancer - where is Manalek? Is that the island between Zamalek and Maniel? Just kidding. I love the way people forget what the names were after they were here and come up with all sorts of new ones. It's no wonder people get some crazy ideas about what they want to see or do while they are here. (Just teasing you TD)

I have someone now asking to eat at the "Old Palace Restaurant". I'm going to assume they want the Mena House, but I'm sure someone referred to the Mena House as the Old Palace once and all of a sudden it became the "Old Palace Restaurant".

On to answering questions and adding my 2 cents

I agree that the Marriott is the best choice. Yes, there was a time when the elevators were being replaced so for a few months people could expect "elevators closed", but that doesn't last forever. I think they are all replaced now. I know in the Gizera Tower they are all new and in the palace they are all new. I haven't inspected the Zamalek Tower recently and they may still be working on those, but there are something like 6 elevators per tower, so they will never ALL be closed.

I'm not sure how or where tinydancer was transported to Alexandria. I'm guessing it was on the desert road during some point where there was road construction going on - happening all too often so not too unusual. My suggestion would be to do Alex but not from the Mena House, but from one of the other hotels and do it on the train. Not by vehicle. The road trip is long and boring (3 hours+/-) with little to nothing to look at. The train ride is a bit shorter than that, and with LOTS to look at, plus food, drinks and bathrooms available (although the bathrooms leave a lot to be desired, so do the bathrooms along the desert road)

Yes, by all means hire an Egyptologist when you want historical details. Other sorts of guides may be useful for seeing more of the real Egypt, but they can't regurgitate details like an Egyptologist.

Ha, ha! Yes, I wasn't sure of the right name, and just guessed at it. I should have checked before 'submitting'. Oh well... I like Casual_Cairo's suggestion about the train as it does sound much better than by road.

P.S.: Here's a link to a report I did on that lovely restaurant near the Marriott:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...ant-Cairo.html

I would agree with skipping Alexandria, and a couple of nights you have in Cairo and adding them to Jordan. We spent 5 nights there in January 2008 (after 11 in Egypt) and loved it - blog link here

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/l..._adv/d_jordan/

We didn't go to Alexandria because most people suggested it wasn't worth taking the time from other spots. So I would also revise the itinerary to skip both the day trip to Alexandria and one of the two "added" days in Cairo. Instead, I would have Day 1 (arrival), Day 2 (pyramids), Day 3 (Cairo), then leave for Upper Egypt (Aswan, Luxor and Abu Simbel). If you do that, I would also suggest picking one hotel (Mena House or the Marriott in <i>Zamalek</i>, and stay there all three nights -- no point in moving hotels.

Doing this you gain 2 or 3 days, which, as Elizabeth said, might be added to Jordan.

As for how long to stay in the other places --- Abu Simbel is a day trip (the visit to the antiquities is generally only a few hours). You can visit the Aswan sights (Philae Temple, the High Dam -- which isn't much of anything -- in an afternoon. I would save two full days for Luxor -- lots to see -- Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Hatsepshut's Temple, Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, museum, market, etc. We also spent a day of rest at the pool in Luxor --- very nice!

I liked Alexandria. Sightseeing was interesting the one day and it was fabulous to stay in a very nice hotel right on the Med. The next morning was all about walking around the immediate area and taking pictures of the Med and a pretty little lighthouse. The road is long and boring as heck). I would not want to do that trip from Cairo as a single day trip though. You'd spend more time on the road than anything else.

Though I really liked Alexandria, I would have traded those two days for more time in Cairo and elsewhere if given the chance.

I really like sf7307's plan, but if you really want to see Alexandria then definitely go with Casual Cairo's train suggestion. The road isn't bad, but it's a long, boring drive.


Have fun, Egypt is absolutely amazing.

Thank you everyone, Great suggestions. This is exactly what I wanted. I just had this feeling that the calendar was not right. I am going to re-work it. I would rather more days in upper Egypt and Jordan. I just was having problems working around the cruise ship schedule. But I can pick another boat, I just liked the way the St. George sounded. I will make sure we have more time in Luxor, and Elizabeth, I love your Jordan trip, I would like to do the same. Maybe we will start in Jordan, stay tuned !

We are also in the planning stages and are also going in Sept. Our guide Ahmed has us at the Marriott at the beginning instead of Mena because of the driving/ When we pop in & out of Cairo he has us at the Fairmont-I researched on Trip Advisor & ther are 2 Fairmonts in one place-make sure it is the Towers-this is close to Airport for early AM flights. We are going 4 days to Jordan-loved Elizabeths reviews 7 picturs so it was a deciding factor. We are also going to alexandria for 2 days-partly because I love the Mediterran & I will have my birthday there. Have fun-this site is the best for info. Chris

Okay I did a little re-arranging....If I skip Alexandria, I need to fill those days...Is three days in Aswan too much?
Otherwise I could spend one night in Abu Simbel. It is the darn nile cruise date, wish it was one day earlier.

The only way I can spend more days in Jordan is to skip Dahab. So still thinking about that. We love to snorkel. I am pretty sure this would be our only trip to Egypt. But we probably will go to Israel one day and could take in the rest of Jordan then. Sigh...so many wonderful sights.


Day 1 Arrive Cairo 3:15 – Marriott
Day 2 Pyramids – all day – Marriott
Day 3 Cairo - Marriott
Day 4 – Cairo - Marriott
Day 5 – Fly to Abu Simbel - spend the night
Day 6 – Fly to Aswan – tour around
Day 7 – Aswan - Sonesta, St. George for nile cruise
Day 8 - nile cruise on St. George
Day 9 - Nile cruise Luxor
Day 10 – Luxor -
Day 11 - Fly to Sharm/Dahab – Le Meridian - arrive 3:00
Day 12 – beach -Le Meridian
Day 13 – beach - Le Meridian
Day 14 – Travel by car to petra – movenpick or mariott
Day 15 – Petra - movenpick or mariott
Day 15– Travel to Amman – city tour – leave for U.S. at 11:45 p.m.

I still think there are too many nights in Cairo - we arrived at 4pm the first day and had 4 nights there which gave us one day in Alexandria - if you cut that day out you could add it later?

It seems the nile cruise departure date is inhibiting your planning - is your arrival date fixed (i.e. booked?) Have you considered other boats? Or looked at the Sonesta Departure date from Luxor (they travel back and forth and the trips are identical).

3 days in Aswan is a lot - although one night at Abu Simbel could be interesting - we would have been happy to stay there one night.

Re snorkeling - what if you moved your Dahab trip to before the cruise? Or what is your snorkeling beach time was in Jordan/Aqaba instead?

Thanks Elizabeth,

I am looking at different boats. Seems they all have similar sailing dates. I have to do more research. I just liked the St. George boat because it is new, and looked lovely. I would consider other in same quality range. We were going to drive from Dahab to Jordan to avoid backtracking back to Cairo. It is possible we may decide to skip the beach. So you would recommend a night in Abu Simbel vs a day trip to Alexandria?

I saw that you stayed at the Kempenski at the dead sea, it looks beautiful. I read a couple of people said they searched their bags and removed any alcohol ie duty free in one case and a bottle of champagne in another. That seemed overboard to me.
Regards

dana123 - we were on the Oberoi Philae (similar class of boat) and loved it - I think if you expand your boat options you might open up your itinerary.

As we drove through the little town near Abu Simbel we thought we would have enjoyed staying there - it just appealed to us for some reason. And the sound and light show at Abu Simbel is reputed to be the best. Don't get me wrong - we really enjoyed our day in Alexandria but sometimes something has to give.

I find the comment about liquor at the Kempinski odd - was it the fact the alcohol was duty free, or the fact of alcohol at all? If the latter that is odd considering we had a mini bar in our room! (and the beer was free in the room for reasons I never figured out). It remains one of my favourite hotels.

Best

Liz

Yes, I am looking at the Oberoi Philae, Sun IV and a couple of others. I am glad I am going to a place with so many options, but putting it together is tricky. I loved your description in your trip reports about obsessing about certain details, that is me as well! Plus I really have a tendency to over plan, and being exhausted at the end of the trip. I am trying not to do that this time. But I get the feeling the nile cruise is not very strenuous. So we probably do not need the beach to unwind.

I believe the Kempinski is a gorgeous hotel. I was surprised as well, these comments were on the trip advisor site. I got the feeling it was because the hotel did not want them to bring in their own liquor. One man said he had a bottle of champagne for his anniversary, and they took it.

If I heard something like that about a hotel I was going to book, I would write to the hotel and ask them what their policy is. If they didn't want them drinking anything but liquor they bought at the hotel, I guess that is their right, but it is your right to know that before going. And in that case, it seems they should just hold the stuff they confiscate and give it back to you at the end of the trip. Quite unfair if they don't do that.

Can I jump in again? I don't think 4 nts in Cairo are too many. You could easily spend an entire day in the Egyptian museum, or go twice over 2 days for a few hours each. The market in Cairo (Khan el Kalili) is definitely worth a few hours, plus there is Sakkara, which is not on your list and is just amazing! http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...tml#UR28320655

There is also the Gayer-Anderson Museum (Bayt al-Kiritliya) which is gorgeous, and next door to a very beautiful and interesting mosque http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...iya-Cairo.html Both of these are free from the madding crowds and well worth a visit. Walk up to the top of the minaret at the mosque for an eye opening birds eye view of life in Cairo.

Since you have a full day at the Pyramids, which I think is great, you can tour the site, go into one (or two...not sure about this) of the pyramids, and DON'T MISS the Solar Boat museum. It's amazing! I loved the sound and light show, which others say is a bit kitch, but it gave me a deeper understanding of the ancient Egyptians.

Al-Azhar Park is gorgeous, and there is a restaurant up there with a sweeping view of the city and an outdoor terrace. I can't remember the name, but maybe someone else will jump in here and provide that. You can take a taxi there, and ask him to wait for you to take you back. We did that and it wasn't expensive.

Personally, I could have skipped the Citadel and Coptic Cairo, but that's just me.

I didn't see the S&L show at Abu Simbel, but the one to NOT MISS is the S&L show at Karnak Temple because it's the only one I know of where you actually enter and walk through the site for the show. Absolutely a don't miss! http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...er_Valley.html I'm not sure if staying overnight in Abu Simbel is worth it. Although I do not know anyone who has stayed overnight there, I believe there is a good reason that the busses drive down in armed convoys.

To be honest, I don't know if I'd cut Dahab short to take that long drive to Petra. Especially if you are going to return to Israel one day. I haven't been to Dahab in years, but the snorkeling in the Gulf of Aqaba is amazing.

I actually wrote a long suggestion on this one yesterday, but must have shut down before submitting it. I don't think 4 nights in Cairo are too many. There is so much to see. We went to the Egyptian Museum twice because once just wasn't enough. There are other things which are not usually on many tours which are fantastic. I can't do the same link search as I did yesterday, but here is a list of what there is to also see:
Sakkara is fantastic, and a definite don't miss! http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...ids-Cairo.html

Gayer-Anderson Museum (Bayt al-Kiritilya) and the mosque which is right next to it. Beautiful and no crowds! http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...o.html#REVIEWS

Since you have all day at the pyramids, which I think is a great idea, be sure to not only enter the pyramids, but don't miss the Solar Boat Museum as it is remarkable. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...-Cairo.htmlAnd be sure to enjoy the S&L show too.

I can't speak to staying overnight at Abu Simbel, as we flew in and out, but the S&L show not to miss is the one at Karnak Temple. It's different, as you actually walk through the site during the show. Really amazing.http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...er_Valley.html
And also, there is a good reason why the buses drive down to Abu Simbel in an armed convoy.

The two things in Cairo I could have given a miss to were the Citadel and Coptic Cairo.

In Luxor, the one thing I wish we could have seen but have to do on another trip is Medinat Habu, because it's supposed to have the most original colours: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...y.html#REVIEWS

Finally, don't miss out on a trip to the Khan el Kalili bazaar in Cairo. Go down the small side alleys to avoid the crowds and have a peaceful time. Also, Al Ahzar Park is beautiful, and there is a lovely restaurant at the top with a wonderful view down over the park and the city. Can't remember the name, but maybe someone else can jump in with it.

Just one more thought. After seeing Luxor, when you might think you've seen enough temples, Abu Simbel will have your jaw dropping down in awe! And then, Sakkara gives you an experience of a totally different period in Egyptian history which is also very original and amazing.

Have a ball in Egypt. I think it's one of the most amazing places to visit in the entire world.

I agree that 4 nights in Cairo isn't enough, but it really depends on what you want to see and do in Cairo though. For me 4 nights were not enough. As maddening & frustrating as negotiating the cab fares were for me (I dreaded this question from the cabbie: "How much do you want to pay?"), there were still sights I wanted to see/revisit in Cairo and wouldn't have minded staying an extra day or two.

The S & L show at Abu Simbel was stunning. Gosh, I wish I could see it again. Yes, at Karnak and Philae you do get to walk through parts of the sight during the show, but the light shows themselves don't compare to the images that were projected onto the two temples at AS, imo (I saw the show for all 3 sites). As for seeing AS in the best light, it's stunning when lit up at night (although you won't have very much time to enjoy it after the light show is over since the staffs will want to get you out quickly so they can go home), and is gorgeously golden when lit up by the rising sun. I was the only person there at around 5:15 am and had the site to myself for about 15 minutes. Do stay overnight if you can.

I enjoyed the day trip to Abydos from Luxor, but it was a long, long drive: 3 hours there and 3 hours back. Yikes. I saw Medinat Habu and the colorations were interesting, but I'm not sure if I liked it though. In full colorations the temple might look somewhat gaudy, but it was still neat to see it. The one thing I will say that can make visiting temple less enjoyable, especially if you're not obviously with a guide or a group, is that the workers there will constantly try to get your attention to "go here", "see that", "look at this", etc. inorder to get some tips from you later. Even when I repeatedly say "No thanks" or "La Shrunka" with a smile, some of them were very persistent. It wasn't even so much that I minded giving out 3L.E here and there, it was simply that I didn't always have low denomination bills or coins on me, so I simply had to ignore the majority of the workers that tried for my attention.

All I can say is "know thyself" An entire day at the Pyramids -- half a day too long. Sound and Light shows - boring as all get out. That's us, but it's obviously not tinydancer or Axel. You have to know what you will appreciate and want to see, but for MOST tourists, I'd say two days in Cairo is plenty.