TIP: Despite what you have heard, try to avoid long distance train journeys. The trains (even first class) are simply not as clean as in developed countries.Route and Schedule
Easter Holidays of 2000 had us planning a really long trip to the Middle East and Egypt. As usual, we relied on the suggestions posted in the
Fodors Forum to decide our travel agent. We finally decided to book our itinerary through the Internet, through Viking Travels. Viking Travels is one of the few travel agencies that is actually based in Egypt, but our bookings were made with Lucille Avakian, who is based at their office in Canada. We first selected the places we wanted to visit based on research from guidebooks and travel sites on the Internet, and then indicated our budget range for hotel stays. Based on this information, Viking Travels worked out all the details, including routing, scheduling, hotel stays, airport transfers, and guides. Everything comes as a customized package deal including the baksheesh that you may want to pay to various people who provide you a service.
To get to Egypt, we flew Hong Kong - Dubai - Cairo with
Emirates, with a brief stopover of 2 hours at Bangkok and a loner one of 5 days at Dubai. One smart move on our part was to check in early at Hong Kong and ask for the large legroom seats, so the 7.5 hour flight was not too inconvenient. Emirates is a pretty good airline, and service was mostly on par with other Asian airlines, except for the loud racket created by flight crew during changeover at Bangkok. The other notable feature of the personal video screens was the touch screen feature, which had still not been introduced in Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines at that time. We had an interesting take off and touchdown watching the movement of plane's wheels which was being filmed and displayed on the video screen ahead of us!Within Egypt, our routing was Cairo > Aswan > Luxor > Sharm-el-Sheikh > Cairo, by rail, air and water. Check out our
route map.|
Route |
Transport |
Nights spent |
Hotel |
Overall impression of the hotel |
|
Cairo - Aswan |
Train |
2 |
Hotel Oberoi |
Best in Aswan but not as good as other Oberois |
|
Aswan - Luxor |
Nile cruise |
3 |
Princess Eman boat/ Novotel Luxor |
Modest, but clean: good value for money |
|
Luxor - Sharm |
Flight |
3 |
Falcon Resorts |
Good value for money |
|
Sharm - Cairo |
Flight |
2 |
Cosmopolitan Cairo |
Avoidable. The moth eaten interiors just don't live up to the grand exterior facade |
TIP: Despite what you have heard, try to avoid long distance train journeys. The trains (even first class) are simply not as clean as in developed countries.
TIP: There are numerous possibilities of flight delays, so keep adequate cushion in your itinerary to accommodate late arrivals.
TIP: Travelling from Aswan (upper Egypt) to Cairo (lower Egypt) seems to be a better idea, because one goes from the "new" (i.e.2000 years ago) to the old (more than 4000 years ago), and the sights get even more awesome. Also, you get a good perspective of Egyptian history when you visit the sites in Luxor, which helps you better appreciate the value and wealth of history in the Cairo Museum displays.
TIP: It may be worth your while to hire a guide in advance. That way, there are lower chances you will get rooked. What's more, the well informed guides are able to bring the monuments back to life, and history becomes much more enjoyable, especially because the guides are well informed.
TIP: If taking public transport anywhere in Egypt, especially Cairo, fix the price in advance to avoid arguments later.
Check out Quintessential Egypt | Egypt webpages sitemap | Wanderlust
© Vixabs Vacations Unlimited
May 01 2003