everyone,
i am currently struggling to make a decision on how to travel through egypt. my parents (in their 60's) and my girlfriend and i (in our late 20's) are all well travelled and typically travel independently. but, in planning our trips we obviously require different levels of comfort and secured reservations, etc.
we only will have one week in egypt and we would like to do the quintesential trip: cairo-aswan-luxor-cairo and i am just beginning my research. i am finding that set tours seem to be the way to go in egypt, but as i said before we usually travel more indepentently and i am having a hard time swallowing the idea of a 'guided set tour'.
the nile tour itself sounds like it has its moments of feeling incredibly touristy and i am wondering if it is better to just fly to aswan and take a day trip on a felucca and then have more flexibility by travelling by land to the rest of the sites. or is best to just bite the bullet and do the cruise?
also, in cairo it seems having a guide makes things simpler and many hire them once there anyway, but it just all sounds so touristy....but, maybe that is how it is done in egypt with so many sites - really a touristy setting.
so - tour or no tour, nile cruise or no nile cruise?
all thoughts greatly appreciated.
final note: i am sure as always anything and everything is possible, but we are looking for the best and most flexible trip that will not be backpacker travelling - as my parents are not backpackers. i think that if it were just me and my girlfriend that we would just show up with a moderate game plan and go with it....
thanks,
dan
My recommendation: Take a cruise on the Nile. Luxor to Aswan or the other way round. We booked a cruise beforehand - we actually booked the whole 2 week itinerary in advance and I was really worried about the cruise bit but it turned out that I loved it!!!! Would even do it again myself. And I would have thought that if you are travelling with your parents it is a good solution.
have a great trip,
M.
Go with a tour group. With the amount of time you have the varied expectations of the participants this is probably your best bet. One of the hardest things I faced when I traveled solo in Egypt was dealing with a wide variety of hassles both with merchants and simply trying to arrange transport etc. Luckily I had a little over 2 weeks so I was able to absorb "snags". With only a week you don't have that luxury and will need to cram a lot into one week.
It is perfectly possible to go independently...we did so ourselves few years ago, but we did book a nile cruise with an agency found via the internet beforehand. If you just show up locally, it seems you will be charged the double or te triple of the normal "bargain" fares. If you have only a week, i doubt it makes much sense to try to travel "independently", it will just cost you more and you will not be able to avoid the tourist groups as 99% of places of interest are extremely toured by travel agencies. This does however not mean that you need to go with a tour group (could be a horrible experience if you prefer to travel independently). There are enough travel agencies who will be happy enough to arrange your accomodation, transport and cruise in a "little more independent" way.
Nile cruise is highly recommended, though you cannot avoid to share your cruise ship with big organised groups of tourists that often are more interested in the all you can eat buffet and the luxury of the ship as in the views and places of interest. You mostly have the choice of doing the trip one direction or up to Aswan and back. Apart from a number of days extra relaxing on the deck, You will not miss much if you only take the one way trip...all stops will normally be frequented in both directions (it pays to check beforehand of course:-)). We took the train to Aswan, visited some places at Aswan, took a return flight to Abu Simbel from there and then boarded in Aswan to go back by boat to Luxor - a great experience.
have fun
Alec
Nile cruise is horrible. Only tourists travelling in group will tell you it is "higly recommended". Expatriates living in Cairo are horrified at the idea of setting a foot on one of these boats. The only cruise that can be recommended is the one on Lake Nasser, because it is far less touristy. The "floating factories", as some call Nile cruise boats, are made for mass tourism and I doubt you'll enjoy them. As it has just been said, these boats are more about "all you can eat" than enjoying the country. You can be sure you will see nothing of the real Egypt aboard one of them.
It's more enjoyeable to travel by land and book a felucca for one day or half a day in Assuan, where the Nile is extremely beautiful, to see the islands around. I did it several times and I can tell you nothing was more enjoyable than seeing the gorgeous landscape while sailing with the wind. It's up to you : do you want to take a picture of a felucca from a floating factory of be aboard that felucca yourself ?
One week is a bit short, but I guess you can visit fly between Cairo and Luxor.
Cairo is a great city, and you do not need a guide, it's extremely easy to take a taxi for the day and visit on your own. If you really want a guide ask your hotel, but be aware that guides can be very good and extremely bad as well, and that most of the time they are mainly interested in dragging you to shops. Do not forget to visit Islamic Cairo, it is a real marvel.
As you plan to be in Egypt for only one week I suggest you forget about a cruise and limit yourselves to Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan staying two or three nights in each. We went with a tour group last year but believe we would have done better on our own. For details and photos of our trip see the "Jordan & Egypt" section of Our Travel Journals: www.evcal.org</a> Best would be for you to fly from Cairo to Luxor, Luxor to Aswan, and Aswan basck to Cairo.
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