Hello! Just to give you a background: my husband and I toured Egypt from December 16, 2018 to January 1, 2019. I am going to share with you the itinerary I prepared for us as well as the ideal itinerary I would have preferred in retrospect. Just to let you know, both of us are history and architecture buffs; so every opportunity to see a different structure or something which was of great historical / geographical significance was given a higher priority. We visited almost every museum we came across and were not the least bit disappointed. We visited the Suez Canal purely because of its geographical significance; else after seeing the Nile, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea there was no good reason to see another water body which we could not even photograph. Also, we did a lot of research for months in terms of history, food, culture in ancient Egypt etc.
So, this is what we did:-
Day 1 -
Cairo: We landed in Cairo on 16th December, Sunday, early morning. After a nice breakfast of ful and check-in; we visited the Egyptian Museum (3 hours minimum). Take a guide here as this place is gigantic and would take weeks to explore as it has most of the mummies, the sarcophagi and the statues and you need to know the main ones. My recommendation: take a guide for an hour; just listen and follow the guide. Later you can explore and take pics at your own time. Then we had some local food and headed off to Khan-el-Khalili bazaar to check out what Egypt has to offer - this was mainly to gauge the goods; we did two more trips to the bazaar coz we just liked being there. Overnight at our hotel in Cairo. More details on accommodation in a later post.
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| Egyptian Museum |
Day 2 - Cairo: Hired a cab for the day. Headed off to Memphis- an open museum and then to Saqqara which houses the first pyramid built- the Step Pyramid. Post that we headed off straight to Giza to see the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure along with the Great Sphinx. Spent the evening taking in the sights. We had an overnight sleeping train (Watania Sleeping Trains) to Aswan.
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| The Step Pyramid at Saqqara |
Day 3 - Aswan: Reached Aswan at around 8:30 in the morning. The train was bang on time! Took a cab and then a ferry to reach our guest house. We then toured West Banks of Aswan - Nobles Tomb, Botanical Garden and Nubian Village. The Botanical Garden was not too big but pretty; loved the Nubian Village- very colorful and bright. We then spent the rest of the day roaming the streets of east bank and sampling food at various cafe's. More on food in a later post. Overnight in Aswan.
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| Nubian Village, Aswan |
Day 4 - Abu Simbel: Woke up at 3 a.m. to take the 3:30 a.m. bus to Abu Simbel temple; returned back around lunch and spent the rest of the day lazing around and chit-chatting with other folks at our hostel in Aswan. Overnight in Aswan.
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| The statues of Ramses II carved onto a mountain at the Abu Simbel Temple |
Day 5 - Aswan: We toured Aswan: the Aswan High Dam (they charge a huge amount to just get a view of the dam; I would recommend you drive past and enjoy the view). We then visited Kalabsha: a very beautiful temple with incredible views and very few people as it is not very popular- so even better to quietly take in the sights. Post that we visited the popular Phillae temple. The we headed on to see the unfinished obelisk. Obelisks; which are in many major cities worldwide; were made from stone in Aswan. Here we saw the entire process of making and transporting the obelisk as well as an unfinished obelisk- not completely carved out of the rock. Was very informative. We then headed out for some lunch. In the evening we visited an orthodox Coptic Cathedral where there was a wedding taking place. Overnight in Aswan.
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| Kalabsha Temple |
Day 6 - Luxor: We took a cab heading towards Luxor and stopped at the Kom Ombo and Efdu temples- both beautiful temples worth visiting. After checking in to our hotel, we walked to Luxor temple at around sunset. The temple looks exquisite post sunset as the it is beautifully lit up. Then we took a horse carriage ride around Luxor. Overnight at our hotel in Luxor.
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| Luxor Temple, during twilight hours |
Day 7 - Luxor: We toured east bank starting off with Valley of Kings - where the pharaohs were buried. On our ticket- we could enter only 3 tombs- we read the description outside each one and choose the ones that appealed to us the most. We then headed off to the Temple of Hatsheput - a strong female pharaoh. Post that we visited Valley of Queens - where the queens were buried - I personally found the tombs here well kept and prettier than those in the Valley of Kings. Here again, we could only enter 3 tombs. There was a separate entry fee to Nefertari's Tomb of 1200 EGP- which in the currency exchange is a huge amount in INR and hence we did not opt for it. We then visited the Medinat Habu temple dedicated to Ramses III. We ended with the Colossi of Memnon - 2 gigantic statues of pharaoh Amenhotep III. We returned early evening and relaxed in the hotel for a while. We then went to the Karnak temple for the sound and light show. It was a good introduction to the temple. Overnight at our hotel in Luxor.
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| Inside the tomb of King Merenptah Siptah |
Day 8 - Luxor: We decided to walk around today and not use any transport means as far as possible. We first walked to the Mummification Museum. No photography allowed here.The most informative museum- it described the reason for mummification, all steps involved as well as the various rituals. After spending a good 2 hours here, then we walked to the Luxor Museum. A well curated museum - brief, well informative and very well maintained. We then walked to the Karnak temple to visit the glorious temple in day light. We took a guide here and spent a good 3 hours in this huge place. We then returned to our hotel and spent the rest of the evening just watching the sunset and the day go by. Overnight at our hotel in Luxor.
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| Sunset at the Nile from the pool deck of our hotel |
Day 9 - Hurghada: We took an early morning bus (Go Bus- we had booked it online) to Hurghada. We reached our resort at around 2 p.m. We had taken an all inclusive package for 3 days which includes literally everything. This is what our package looked like - early morning breakfast, breakfast, lunch, afternoon snacks, dinner, post-dinner snacks; with drinks except wine served throughout. We checked in and headed out to the beach. Hurghada has a huge coastline on the Red Sea. We watched the sunset and then got dressed for the grand Christmas eve party. After a rocking party, we headed back to our room to discover stockings and goodies; which was a wonderful surprise :). Overnight at our resort in Hurghada.
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| Sunbathing loungers with view of the Red Sea |
Day 10 - Hurghada: We spent the entire day sun bathing. We went for a Turkish bath followed by a wonderful massage in the evening. Overnight at our resort in Hurghada.
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| Sunbathing |
Day 11 - Hurghada: We sun-bathed till lunch. Post that we headed out to the Marina area and walked around. We had an overnight bus to Alexandria (Go bus again)
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| Hurghada Marina |
Day 12 - Alexandria: Reached Alexandria early morning at 6:30 a.m. Dumped our luggage at our hotel and headed out. We had some tea and bread and then took a shared cab to the Citadel of Qaitbay - a defense fortress on the Mediterranean Sea. Upon return, we relaxed for a bit at the hotel and headed out for lunch. Post lunch we walked to the Pompey's pillar and the catacombs. We then went to the bus station to book tickets to Suez as were keen to see the Suez Canal. We then took a cab to the Biblotheca and spent the rest of our day exploring this huge library as well as reading a few snippets here and there. We ended the day with a nice sea food dinner at Samakmak - owned by Zizi Salem; the retired queen of the Alexandrian belly dancing scene. Overnight at our hotel in Alexandria.
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| Citadel of Qaitbay |
Day 13 - Suez: We had an early morning bus to Suez. One thing we did not realize was the route to Suez is via Cairo and it is just a 2 hour drive from Cairo vis-a-vis a 4.5 hour drive from Alexandria. Hence I would recommend you to do a half day trip from Cairo in case you would like to see the Suez Canal. We spent a couple of hours at Suez; mainly at the promenade as there is no photography allowed of the Suez Canal and there is heavy military presence. We then headed back to Alexandria. We had coffee at the 100-year old Greek place- Sofianoupolou. We then walked to Fish Market; a wonderful seafood place for a hearty dinner. Overnight at our hotel in Alexandria.
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| Suez Promenade |
Day 14 - Cairo: We took a morning bus to Cairo and were there by noon. We relaxed at our hostel after a hearty koshary. In the evening we walked to Khan-el-Khalili bazaar- our second trip here. We now purchased souvenirs, tarboosh and silver jewelry. We had dinner at the famous Egyptian pies. Overnight at our hostel in Cairo.
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| Khan-el-Khalili Bazaar |
Day 15 - Cairo: We visited Dahshur- which has the red pyramid, the bent pyramid and the black pyramid. Here we entered into one of the pyramids and got really claustrophobic. The thing is once you enter; you have no option but to go through the entire drill. From here, we could view the Saqqara step pyramid. Hence my recommendation would be to do Giza and the citadel in one day and Memphis, Saqqara and Dahshur on another day. Post this we visited the Cairo Citadel and were there till closing time. At night we went to Khan-el-Khalili for the third time; this time not to shop; but for a meal at the hyped Naguib Mahfouz Cafe and Khan-el-Khalili restaurant; more on this later. Overnight at our hostel in Cairo.
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| Red Pyramid |
Day 16 - Cairo: We chilled at the hostel and at noon drove to the airport for a flight home.
What I would do differently if I had to:-
Day 2: Giza and Cairo Citadel
Day 13: Half day trip to Suez from Cairo
Day 15: Memphis, Saqqara and Dahshur
Day 16: Egyptian Museum Cairo- the museum will make a lot more sense if you do it at the end of your trip; my take.
More details coming soon...
P.S.:- All the pics are clicked on my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
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