The Egypt Itinerary

I remember this moment very clearly. We were on a flight from Madrid to Abu Dhabi and luckily it was a day flight. I spent most of the time looking at the on-screen map and the landscape below – something I absolutely love to do. At one point, we were crossing over Egypt and I spotted the Nile river. It was quite a stunning sight – there was an endless desert except for a green portion that bordered the river. Indeed, the gift of the Nile!

That’s when the seed was planted – wouldn’t it be so awesome to visit the land of the pharaohs! Around 6 months after that moment, we found ourselves planning our trip to Egypt.

Egypt had fascinated me right from childhood. There were chapters in English and History about Howard Carter discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun, hieroglyphs and the ancient Egyptian monuments. It was truly amazing how these structures still stood tall after so many centuries – most of them very well preserved – including the human bodies! It is considered a cradle of civilization – a land that the most ancient humans inhabited before they spread across the rest of the world.

Contrast that against the Arab Spring and the volatile political landscape of the country. So, it’s quite tricky to confidently go ahead and pick Egypt as a holiday destination. Especially since we were traveling alone. But reading always helps. As usual, I pored over dozens of blogs and forum articles till I got the confidence to put together our itinerary.

This blog contains:

Some quick facts to get our bearings right

• Egypt stands at the crossroads between the Middle East and mainland Africa. There’s Libya to the west, Mediterranean Sea to the north, Israel and Palestine to the northeast, Gulf of Aqaba and Red Sea to the east and Sudan to the south. 
• The name Egypt comes from the Ancient Greek “Aigyptos”. The modern official name of the country is the Arabic “Misr”. 
• Egypt used to be part of the British Empire as a protectorate. The currency is still called the Egyptian “pound”.
• 99% of Egyptians live in less than 7% of the overall land. This is because most of the country is a desert and only the Nile delta is inhabitable.

Best time to visit

There is a very clear 6-month window to plan your visit to Egypt – October to March. Anything outside of these months, you run a risk of getting burnt to a crisp. It is a desert after all! We travelled in mid-March (coinciding with Nam’s birthday) and while it was really pleasant in the mornings and evening, the afternoons were already starting to get quite hot.

Getting to Egypt, Visa and Currency

There is a high chance you will fly into Cairo as that is the main transport hub. We took the Emirates flight from Bangalore which started at 10:20 am local time and, after a 2-hour layover in Dubai (and a transfer from terminal 3 to 1), landed in Cairo at 5:15 pm local time. It was quite convenient and Emirates is always a wonderful experience. We also flew Egypt Air later in our trip which was pretty good as well.

One tip for the airport – do not trust anyone who is “trying to help” inside the airport. It is fairly straightforward to find check-in gates and boarding gates. But there are people who stand INSIDE the airport, offering to show you to the right section – so you expect them to be airline staff. But as soon as you walk 100m, they will turn back and ask you for money because they “helped” you. We had this happen to us in the domestic terminal of the airport.

The visa is relatively easy to get as long as you do it through an agent. We went with Thomas Cook and had a smooth experience. They send your passport forward to the embassy and get the whole thing done.  No hassle of being ordered around by the VFS folks. The process becomes smooth if you have a letter of invitation/guarantee from a local there – which is where an Egyptian travel agency becomes really useful!

Egypt’s currency is called the Egyptian pound (EGP) – a remnant of the erstwhile British protectorate. At the time of our trip, 1 EGP was equal to 3.9 INR. For currency exchange, the standard advice holds – avoid converting a lot of currency at the airport – only take enough to get you into the city + a meal’s worth (in case you cannot find an exchange easily). Find an exchange within the city as you’ll get the best rates there.

Getting Around Egypt (and Agents)

There are airports in all major cities which facilitate easy travel. But how do you explore within the cities? That’s the tricky part. Egypt is somewhat like India in that sense – it is not exactly traveler friendly. Public transport options aren’t great within the towns and if you’re not careful, there are always people looking to make a quick buck. Our first impression of Cairo and Giza was that it was quite similar to Gurgaon/Noida – whether it was to do with the rash driving, dusty paths and potentially dangerous situation at night. You wouldn’t want to be stuck here on your own, especially after sunset.

That’s why we decided to pick a travel agency to facilitate our trip. We had a guide and driver assigned to us – different people for different cities – but always someone to accompany us. We did the math – the cost wasn’t very different from what it would have been if we traveled on our own. And of course, no tension about commuting or safety. 

We, being we, prepared the entire itinerary on our own and sent that across to a few agencies and asked them if they could meet our requirements. None of the standard itineraries had all the places that we wanted to visit – they were either too less or too much. We got their responses, compared quotes and picked one.

We went with Cleopatra Tours and had a great experience. As soon as we landed, we had a person waiting near the luggage belt at arrivals. It took us almost 2 hours to get to Giza because of the traffic – aargh! It was getting dark and we didn’t want to be stuck in our hotel without dinner. So, we asked our guide to stop somewhere and he took us to a really nice local shawarma place. We picked up shawarma and had some fresh mango juice (didn’t know that Egypt had such good mangoes!). The vendor threw in some free chips and cheesy sauce for us along with that!

Another perk of traveling with agencies is that they throw in some freebies to delight their guests. We checked into our hotel in Giza and inside our room was a welcome basket full of fresh fruits and sweets! Now, we weren’t worried about getting hungry for the next day either!

How many days to spend in Egypt?

My favourite question when it comes to planning any trip. This is where the itinerary really begins and the research needs to kick in. You can relax, because the research has been done. And what we recommend is a minimum of 7-8 days. If you are going all the way to Egypt, it is worth exploring everything that Egypt has to offer. It is a large enough country and most of the sights are spread out along the Nile and a couple of cities on the Red Sea coast. To do justice to them (and yourself), please take time and travel 🙂

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Our Itinerary

Day 1: Arrive in Cairo. Spend the night and recover from the journey.

Day 2: Morning flight to Aswan. Explore the Aswan High Dam and Philae temple. Transfer to Nile cruise. Spend the night on the cruise.

Day 3: Early morning drive to Abu Simbel to see the amazing temples there. Head back and get started with the cruise. Visit the crocodile temples in Kom Ombo in the evening. Overnight in the cruise.

Day 4: Morning visit to the temple of Horus in Edfu. Continue the cruise. Arrive at Luxor. Visit the Luxor temple and later visit the night market. Overnight in the cruise.

Day 5: Visit the Valley of Kings, Temple of Queen Hatshepsut on the West Bank. If it is a clear day, you can go hot air ballooning. See the Colossi of Memnon. Head to the gigantic Karnak temple – the original home of the obelisks we keep seeing around the world. Check out of the cruise and on to the railway station. Overnight train to Giza to get all the “Orient Express” feels.

Day 6: Visit the most awaited sight – the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx. Visit the Egyptian museum at Tahrir Square. Eat Koshary at Abou Tarek. Visit the Al Azhar mosque and then Khan El Khalili market. Back to the hotel.

Day 7: Check out and fly out to the next country (in our case, Jordan)

We were definitely not completely satisfied with this, so here are some suggested edits.

The history buffs: Definitely visit Memphis, the old capital during Pharaonic times. See Djoser’s pyramid – the first ever pyramid! Also visit Alexandria up north on the Mediterranean Sea – while there is nothing left of its legendary lighthouse or library, it is worth a short visit. Cairo also has a new museum coming up called the Grand Egyptian Museum (much larger than the old one) – it is slated to open in 2024.

The “Time-is-not-a-constraint” adventurer (The people I always envy): In addition to the above, you can visit Hurghada and do a beach holiday as well! 

Okay then! That kicks off our Egyptian adventure. The detailed travelogue will be captured in subsequent blogs – do check them out. 

• The Southern Tip of Egypt – Abu Simbel – our “Woah” moment of the trip
• Going on a Nile Cruise like a Pharaoh – Experiencing the longest river in the world
• Meeting Tut in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor – Exploring the temples and tombs of the ancient capital city
• The Pyramids of Giza and Cutting a Cake in Cairo – Celebrating Nam’s birthday at the Pyramids

If you have any questions on how to plan your trip, leave a comment below and we’ll be happy to help. Do subscribe to the blog if you like the content. You can also share it with fellow travel enthusiasts.