Budget Travel - Spring Break in Cairo?

All the posts about cheap ways to get to Cairo appear to be pretty old. Any particular charter companies from Europe that folks can recommend? Any other suggestions. I am travelling from the east coast of the USA and have some flexibility on both departure and return dates (though not a lot).

Well...Egyptair has a direct flight from JFK to CAI..heard that some people get pretty decent deals there.
There's a few budget carriers that fly from Europe (Germany, Belgium and UK I think) to Egypt (some to CAI, others to Sharm ElSheikh). Checkout:
http://www.whichbudget.com/budget-airlines-en.html#to37

Tell us what you ended up doing.

A couple of years ago, I spent about a month traveling around Egypt with a couple of friends. Pricing out flights direct from the US, it was going to cost about $1k at least. What we ended up doing was flying to FRA and taking either Easyjet or Condor(I can't quite remember right now) flight to Hurghada. I think the FRA flight was about $500 and the LCC flight was about 60 Euros.

Granted this doesn't get you to Cairo(we were headed to Aswan first anyway), but it might be an option worth looking into. I think Easyjet/Condor also flies to Sharm-el Sheikh too.

One tip though: if you do go this way, you might want to take the train instead of the bus. Waaaaaaaaaaay more comfortable

Just couldn't find a reasonably priced enough itinerary that would work for us so ended up using three frequent flier tickets and will end up buying one terribly overpriced one it looks like.

Any recommendations for good restaurants would be much appreciated however.

Restaurants..hmm..well..depends on what kind of food you like. And it also depends which part of Cairo you're staying in.
For things like Felafel (known as ta'ameya in Egypt) and Foul (fava beans), if you're in Downtown you could check out Felfela. If you're in Heliopolis, there's a place called Shabrawy in an area called El Korba.

For closest you'd get to the kind of food Egyptians eat at home (e.g.Molokheya), there's a restaurant called Abu Seid which has branches in Zamalek, Mohandeseen and City Stars (a shopping complex near Nasr City).

If you've had Egyptian food, you can go to Chilis or Johnny Carino's on a boat called Nile City in Zamalek.

There're other options, but it depends on what kind of food you're after.

Cheers.

This just what I wanted....real Egyptian food places. Will definitely check these out and let others know of other good ones if there's interest. Thanks!

I liked Felfela in downtown also. If you eat in, there is a 10% tax and 12% service fee. The decor in there is a little strange also; it's like a jungle theme. They have a take out counter around the corner with good shawarmas, ta'ameya/falafel and koshary (which no other tourists seems to like but me). It can be a little hectic trying to pick up your ta'ameya/falafel order in the back if there is a lot of people.

I liked the Abu El Sid restaurant in Zamalek also.