I am back again with more questions

welcome back michelholi. i've answered 2 of your earlier posts about egypt (for cairo and luxor), 2 places i really like. assuan is also a wonderful place, abu simbel is amazing, and edfu and kom ombo temples between luxor and assuan are definitely worth a visit. i start to feel like a free travel agent however :-). i dont mean this in mean way. its just that you are listing plenty of places you might want to visit (like you copy a list from a guide-book or something like that),

@NATHALIE2
I wish to thank you for replying to my first 2 post,you did so remarkably well.The responses were insightful and very helpful.
Still I now feel a little self conscious and would like to explain why those questions were so precise.
I will be traveling with a friend who is letting me organize it all. And as it is a lenghty and expensive trip for a regular Canadian worker I felt like I was in the obligation to be extremely thorough.I am trying to remove some of the minor,less interesting temples and get a reasonably accurate time frame.I have done my foot work and I did read a reasonable amount on each sites.But since there is so many temples and sites I felt compelled to ask "peoples" in the know.No travel agent even expensive ones could had helped as much as you did.
I am really well traveled and if it would be only of me,I wouldn't mind wasting a day here and there for sites less impressive.But in this case I feel like I have to do more,it will be my friend lifetime trip and costly so I am trying to deliver the best I can.
I still have more reading to do and I want to focus on the answers I don't have.
In any case your contribution was extremely appreciated and useful.

thanks a lot OP for your answer, that makes sense. and i do like egypt a lot and like to share what i know about it. so here we go for assuan and surroundings:
- the horus temple in edfu is worth visiting, as its in a very good condition. it is a bit tacky, but still very nice to take a caleche to the temple. and if you are in edfu on a market day, its nice to stroll around the lively market for an hour or so
- the kom ombo temple is special for its location, as its right on the banks of the nile and has some interesting carvings (but i dont think i would have found them or realised the meaning without a guide pointing in out to me and explaining it). i wouldnt go out of my way to see kom ombo, but as its on the way between luxour and assuan, i would definitely stop by
- i'm extremely into old egyptian history, and cant get enough of temples. other people might have enough after a while. whatever you decide to visit or not, and even if you get "templed out" after a while, DONT MISS abu simbel!! thats an absolute must and is an amazing place. its about 3-3.5 hours thrue the desert from assuan to abu simbel, and all cars and buses have to travel at the same time (leaving assuan at 4am). the sunrise in the desert is beautiful. so everybody gets to abu simbel at the same time. if you have the time, do spend a night in abu simbel. by 11am, all the day visitors will be gone, and you will have the temple to yourself
- in assuan, if you still want to see a temple, my choice would be philae. as mentionned before, i cant get enough of temples :-) and it is a beautiful temple. and the location is nice, as its on a small island and you cruise over with a small boat. so even if you have enough of temples, you might still go for the boat journey
- speaking of boats: unless you hate being on a boat, do take a felucca (a small sailing boat) trip on the nile in assuan, a very nice and relaxed way to enjoy the nile river, and the beautiful surroundings
- assuan has a nice bazaar for spices, tea, herbs etc., a great place to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. maybe stop in a coffeehouse for a cup of tea or coffee, and if you are feeling hungry, have a koshari in one of the cheap restaurants

Once again great info,I now have a lot of research left to put a realistic itinerary together and a timeline.
Also with all that is happening in Egypt at the moment I have to reconsider visiting Sinai.
Got to see what I can organize in the Nile valley from Beni Suef to Abydos,and Alexandria and the North.
Some 2-3 days in the desert somewhere western and maybe Eastern, looking into accommodations along the way
, looking into Cruising the Nile or Lake Nasser for pricing that is affordable but comfortable without being on a huge cruiser (my friend really wants to do that).
So now on to more reading and searching.
You helped greatly and I appreciate it.
Thanks once more.

your most welcome
and i really recommend taking a nile cruise or a cruise on lake nasser.

nile cruise: its a great way to travel from luxor to assuan (and visit edfu and kom ombo on the way). if possible, do a 8 day cruise luxor-assuan-luxor (or vice versa), so that you have 2-3 days cruising (besides the days you live on the cruise ship and visit places in luxor or assuan). there is so much beautiful scenery between the 2 cities and its a very relaxed way to travel. the cruise ships are all about the same size - up to 150 passangers if they are full, so not small and cozy, but not huge either. and at the moment you can get really good deals (we did in february). when i did the cruise in february, there were about 50 boats cruising btw luxor and assuan. apparently, in "normal" times, in high season (which is the case for february), its up to 450 boats ! so its relatively unbusy (but as all the boats have pretty much the same schedule, it still seems busy).

on nasser lake, at the moment only 2 or 3 boats, so its totally unbusy (and even in good years, there a max. of 6 or 7 boats there). apart from abu simbel, the temples visited are probably not as interesting as other places in egypt. so you want to go there mainly because of the natural beauty, and to enjoy a very relaxed and peaceful cruise without plenty of other visitors. also a big plus: you get to spend the night in abu simbel.

have fun researching and then a great trip to egypt !

Once again thank you.
I am looking mainly into Lake Nasser as the cost are substantially lower then Nile cruises.Also I will probably have a rental car so lake Nasser cruise makes a lot of sense as I wouldn't have to back track,just park the car go and comeback to Aswan and back thruward the North and west of Egypt.
Still I think that I will wait to be in Egypt to make a final decision as tourism is low and I might be able to find a great deal.
Merci

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