Egypt -Itinerary, Guide & Photo Spots

Intro - My Experience

Egypt was one of my favorite trips ever, it really doesn't disappoint, everything is as big as you imagined and dream of! And it does feel like a dream because you've seen Egypt so many times, starting from a young age in school when you studied it, and in movies and so on, it feels amazing when you are there taking it all in. When I travel I prefer sighseeing to relaxation so our trip was very intense, waking up at crazy early times like 2am to reach Abu Simbel and 3am for our hot air baloon ride, which is really worth it, not only because it is much cheaper in Egypt than other places like Capadoccia (we paid 150 euros per person), but because it flies over sites like the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut temple, and it gives you an amazing contrast of the desert and the green around the Nile, more green than you imagine - this site is also beautifully seen if you take a Felucca on the nile to either the Philae Temple or Nubian Village. Egypt is wonderful to go as a family, I went with mine and we had the best time. We stayed in a Cruise ship from Luxor to Aswan which was incredible, at nights you would go up to the top floor and stare the moon, it's also very convenient the ship mostly travels at night and you wake up right where your next activity is, besides it is great fun - there is always an Egyptian night on board so make sure you have bought yourself nice souvenirs to dress up if not theres always one vendor in the boat who will chase people that night and make them feel bad for not dressing up.

The cities, Cairo and Alexandria, are caotic it's the true city that doesn´t sleep, even in our hotel rooms at night we would still hear them honking- the drivers never take their hand of the honk. It is very interesting though to just watch the roads you will see four people on a motobike, women sitting sidesaddle, young boys ridings donkeys extremely fast and small buses that are taxis, very common in North Africa, the locals hop on and off them or hire them. Another thing that gets very very frustrating are the vendors everywhere because they won't leave you alone even when you ignore them and it's the same products all the time, there are vendors at every temple and around the city selling you the same things! But I bought beautiful necklaces! Egypt is know for its service and the people are very friendly too, they smiled at us and little girls asked for selfies. It is not however a country very friendly to women travelling alone. The food is delicious we did not risk street food though, we only tried a one sip of sugar cane juice which is typical, the taste is very particular. Most locals do not speak English but in Egypt you should always have tour guides anyway,you will miss everything if you wander into the temples and pyramids without one, in my opinion it really enriched our experience.

I bought and took with me Lonely Planet's Egypt guide I recommend it, it also has a lot for example, on the egyption gods which I love.

When to visit? Depends on you, always better not to go in ramadan since it musn´t be easy to travel without being able to drink water in public and a lot of places could be closed until sundown, if you do be mindful and respect the traditions. We wanted a summer holiday and still tried to push it as late as possible due to the hot climate and went on the 23rd of September until the 2nd of October, yes it was very hot, it was about 35 celsius (95F) in Cairo and Alexandria which is tolerable for us (we are portugues after all), but Luxor and Aswan was insane, never below 40 at least during the day and usually around 45 (113F) degrees but in Valley of the Kings which is right in the middle of the desert and when you enter those tombs - it was about 50 (122F) degrees easy, I had never seen people sweat so much, as we were entering the tombs there poeple exiting drenched, there was a man who mande the joke "It´s raining inside", but of course in the end its all worth and these are all stories to tell.

*Hot Weather TIP- Take a spray bottle with water to keep refreashing your face (no, it doesnt ruin your makeup), take a fan (essential) those electric mini fans are great, and an umbrella helps too, and a hat/cap. For Valley of the kings take more water than you think you need- you will need it.

*Clothing, Women travels tend to feel more comfortable with modelt clothing, I took a shawl always because of the AC which is crazy! Women don't need to cover their hair at the mosque but men cannot wear shorts when visiting (probably women can't wear short clothing either I don't know I was in long pants)

*TIP- For internet buy a SIM card at the airport they are right next to the exit unmissable

*TIP- take cash to buy souvenirs, and bear in mind if you take a photo of someones camel or mokey there will charge you even if they start of saying it is free, it's not. If they let you or even insisit that you drive the charriot or the buggy- they will charge. But also, relax I paid 5 euros for a Camel ride and it was one of my favorite things and I gave a kid some change after taking his picture with the monkey on his shoulder, love that picture

*2022 - we went in September of 2022 so the New Cairo museum has not opened yet, but the Museum of Cairo includes the recent mummy discoveries from Saqqara and the completion of the Sphinx Walk.

My Top Three-ish: Very Hard to choose, and they are not in any order but I would say: Abu Simbel, the Pyramids and the Hot Air Ballon ride (it was my first time) and the Camel ride

Our Itinerary:

Day 1- Cairo - Arrive **buy a SIM card at the airport** and sleep.

Day 2- Cairo - Woke up and jumping right into Egyptian history with the Egyptian Museum of Cairo-The main attraction of the museum are the treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun. After Lunch headed to the impressive view of the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, then the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan (madrasa=school, where the Quran is often taught and memorized) and Al-Rifa Mosque where there is the tomb of Reza Pahlavi, this side of cairo is Islamic Cairo, forget the pyramids for today - we saved the best for last.

Tourist bus to Alexandria (3h) arrived at night.

Day 3- Alexandria - Kom El Deka (roman ruins), Citadel of Qaitbay and the Library of Alexandria. Bus back to Cairo Airport and flight to Luxor.

Day 4- Luxor (cruise) - Incredible Steinbereger Resort Achti with a restaurant and pool facing the Nile that we barely got to enjoy because we headed early morning to Karnak Temple, then Luxor Temple during sunset time. Then slept on the cruise boat.

Day 5- Luxor - Esna - Edfu (cruise) - 3am head to the hot air balloon site round 4 so that we would be up in the air exactly at sunrise which was around 5:30am, like I said in the into- it was incredible and then we landed in someones farm. After breakfast - Valley of the Kings (see my tips above for the crazy heat) and Hatshepsut Temple. Afternoon on the cruise ship while it sales past Esna to Edfu.

Day 6- Luxor - Esna - Edfu - Kom Ombo (cruise) - Temple of Horus in Edfu, then continue the cruise down to Kom Ombo port to see the Temple of Kom Ombo of Sobek the crocodile God & Crocodile Museum with crocodile mummies. The cruise headed down to aswan.

Day 7- Aswan (cruise) - Woke up at 2am to get on the tourist bus with my pillow to sleep through the 4 hours it took us to get to Abu Simbel which is very close to the Sudan border ( explains why sudan is the only other country with piramides), it was relocated stone by stone to an artificial hill in '68 so that it wouldn't submerge into Lake Nasser with the help of many countries and cost at the time around 40M$ (the name comes from the nearby village Abu Simbel). In the afternoon we took a Felucca to Philae the Temple of Isis there is a room that has an energy stone you can place you hand on and absorb the good energy. Then to a Nubian Village the real one, although I must say the touristy version looked very beautiful too, they are on opposite sides of the river. We had the typical nubian welcoming of tea and strong arabic coffee (much like the turkish coffee), they also had a pet baby crocodile in the house. The nubians differ culturally ethnically from the egytitians you will see many of them have blue or green eyes, they speak arabic and nubian.

Day 8 - Aswan - Cairo - Flight to Cairo. Lunch at Sky Rim with a view of the piramides from (very) afar. Then the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization very interesting goes, apart from the Tutankhamon exhibiton i prefered this museum to the museum of cairo, and here are the new mummies discovered in Saqqara in an incredible exhibitions I was impressed one of them had amazing hair. Khan El Khalili (keep in mind "kh" in arabic sounds like the composer Bach) althought the bazaar/souq is incredible and of course worth a visit, I had higher expectations, I guess thats my fault, becuase I expected it to be very authentic when actually they sell them same things the vendors you see everywhere on all the temples sell and I subconsciously I could not help comparing it to the Souq in Dubai which it inevitably falls short off.

Day 9- Cairo/Giza - We started with the oldest Pyramide Saqqara, then had Lunch at Mamlouk Pyramids Hotel & Cafe- incredible view you can amazing photos its a rooftop. Then The Pyramides and Sphynx. Since Giz closes at 4pm or so, we filled our last hours by going to a perfume shop with typical arabic spiced perfumes and oud but also perfect imitations of Chanel, Tom Ford etc. And we went to a Papyrus Museum where our guide showed us breifly how to make papyrus, I had a flashback or learning that in 4th grade, and we got to look at the beautiful papyrus in the shop - it wasn't really a museum, they also make some that glow in the dark.

**Cairo some places I missed:

-Al-Azhar Park & mosque —> Before this was a park, it was a pile of rubbish accumulated for over 500 years. Aga Khan, a nobleman, businessman, and philanthropist gave $30 million dollars to have this mountain of rubbish transformed into the beautiful oasis that it is today

-The cemetery (its impressive but for me was enough to see it from the road, we would pass by it a lot)

-The hanging church

-Marriott mena house Hotel (incredible view)

(And if you wish to see more of Egypt: Moun Sinai, White Desert, Sharm el-Sheikh)