Egypt - Itinerary

Happy New Year! We're back from a fabulous trip to Egypt. Yes we had a few "moments" during the trip that I'll share but I wanted to list out the itinerary and other details of the hotels & travel agents so it's consolidated in one place.

Airline: EgyptAir from Mumbai to Cairo. EgyptAir has older planes, they didn't have individual movie screens which didn't thrill the kids. They served minimal amount of food and drinks. The service was slow and the flight attendants were polite but not too helpful. It was however convenient to fly directly from Mumbai to Cairo.

Dec 23rd - Arrived in Cairo and stayed at the Fairmont Hotel in Heliopolis. Heliopolis is near the airport and is also near the Pyramids and is an upscale, quiet and cleaner suburb of Cairo. I booked the Fairmont on Hotels.com. The Fairmont was decent but an older hotel, the Fairmont Towers, which is next to it, is newer but more expensive. Another good option in Heliopolis is the Radisson Blu, it's a new hotel so some many of their services are still not in place but they offered competitive rates. For close proximity to the Pyramids and the airport, Heliopolis is a good option. For sights closer to the city, it may better to stay in proper Cairo. Always ask for corporate rates in Cairo and you will likely get a good deal. In Cairo, breakfast is not included at most of the hotels when you book online or you call them directly, it seems to be included if you go with a tour package. Our tour guide in Cairo was Ashraf Mansour (+2010-5216925), he came recommended by Prasad's colleague at Intel. He is the tour guide that all the Intel employees use when they visit the Cairo office. His English is excellent, he's an Egyptologist, an archaeologist and has a wealth of information. His rates are higher but you're also getting a better guide.

Dec 25th - Flew to Aswan via EgyptAir. We stayed at Pyramisa Isis Island and Resorts. I also booked it on Hotels.com, breakfast was included. For the price we paid, the rooms were mediocre and I wouldn't stay there again. They are located on a island so the views of the Nile are lovely and the hotel is isolated from the crowds. The drawback is that once you're at the hotel it's not so easy to leave so we had very long days. Ashraf recommended a tour guide whom we used the first day we arrived but we found cheaper option for the Abu Simbel trip and the drive to Luxor through the agent at the hotel. Although I didn't really like the hotel travel agent, we were happy with the arrangements he made. Aswan tour guide - Sherri (very good female guide), Abu Simbel guide was not very memorable, Edfu/Kom Ombo tour guide - Ashraf and was very good.

Dec 27th - Took a car to Luxor. In Luxor, we stayed at the Iberotel (breakfast was included) and I booked it through hotels.com. The rooms were nicer than the hotel at Aswan but lacked certain services, no real internet access, no gym and limited channels on television (ok not such a big issue, but one good children's channel would have been nice) . They did have a great view of the Nile, a beautiful pool, lovely breakfast setup and a ping pong table. They were very well located, right across from the Luxor Temple, I would recommend staying there, good value for money. West Bank tour guide- Nana (female) and she was not very good likely because this was the first guided tour we did with a group and I would not recommend it at all. Private tours are far better. East Bank tour guide - Petra Travel recommended by the hotel and our guide Mohammad was good and well priced.

Dec 30th night - Flight back to Cairo via EgyptAir. We stayed at the Conrad hotel (part of the Hilton family) in downtown Cairo. Great hotel, fantastic location, great service, no complaints except that internet access was too expensive. I would recommend staying there but it's expensive, we happened to get a good rate.

Jan 2nd evening - Back to Mumbai on EgyptAir

We did not go on a cruise but that is another option for travelling between Aswan to Luxor or vice versa.

I did all the hotel bookings online or via the phone. I did try booking through a couple of travel agents which could book private tours but we decided to do it on our own, not sure if that was the right decision or not. I was told that hotel bookings are cheaper when you book a tour with a large group but just watching them being carted on buses from one location to another looked like an absolute nightmare so I think we made the right choice. You do get to meet interesting people on a tour bus but I think you miss out more if someone makes all the arrangements for you and it's more difficult with children as you're always on a rigid schedule.

Transportation. If you're taking a tour locally, it's actually cheaper to book a tour guide and then go by taxi if the locations are within the same vicinity. Always look for the white taxis, they have meters and insist on going with the meter, it will be less stressful and the taxis are in better condition. It was hard to find white taxis in Aswan and Luxor but the distances are shorter so it's not a big deal. In Cairo, the distances are longer so you'll feel the pinch if you go with the black taxis which will charge you 2-4 times depending on how well you can bargain and how well you know the city. Taxis are safe but we did find the drivers of the white taxis spoke less English which was a problem but still worth the effort.
Trains - They have separate train cars for foreigners in Egypt. Their sleeper trains are apparently decent and comfortable. We tried to get tickets but no seats were available. You can book online via sleepingtrains.com or through a travel agent. The hotel can book train tickets for you or you can go yourself to the train station but December is a busy time so we couldn't get any seats.

Tour guides - Most have a 4 year tourism college degree and call themselves Egyptologists. They are knowledgeable and hiring one is a must for many of the sights, otherwise, you will miss out on all the rich history. India does not have the same calibre of guides, it's very unfortunate.

I mention cost quite a bit but Egypt is expensive and you will constantly feel like someone is taking you for a ride. It's worse than India and you get hassled by store owners, restaurant owners, caleche drivers, travel agents, and taxi drivers it is very annoying.

I think the itinerary we had was pretty good. We could have spent one less day in Cairo but there is still plenty to do in Cairo, we relaxed the last couple of days as we were tired from all the sightseeing and travelling.