7 Days in Egypt
 

I have the international flights booked to/from Egypt in February. We are scheduled to arrive in the night at CAI on Turkish Airlines on a Friday. As I research, I always get tempted to pack more in. In this case, it's Aswan, a Nile cruise btwn Luxor and Aswan, and Abu Simbel. I don't think it will be practical to add all of those things, but I think I have too much slack in the schedule right now. Also, I'm traveling with my wife and 2 kids (ages 11 and 8). Here is the itinerary I have sketched out so far

Day 1: Arrive CAI in the night at 8:30pm; (probably 50% chance we miss the tight 1hr connection in IST and take the next connection arriving in CAI at 2:30am)
Day 2: Egyptian Museum, Old City, Coptic Cairo
Day 3: Giza
Day 4: Saqqara; fly CAI-LXR in the afternoon/evening
Day 5: Karnak, Luxor Museum, Luxor Temple
Day 6: Valley of Kings, Howard Carter's House, Temple of Hatshepsut, Tombs of the Nobles, Medinat Habu
Day 7: ?
Day 8: ? in the morning; return flight home leaves CAI at 9:25pm

I'm somewhat of a cheapskate (I prefer thinking of myself as "value oriented"), so I'm planning on booking the hotels and internal flights myself rather than turn this over to a tour operator, but it seems best to have guides at least for the sightseeing. Of course, if a tour operator can give me a better deal I'd go with the tour company.

I welcome suggestions on itinerary changes, tour companies as well as any other advice.

Giza won't take the whole day, though with two kids, having an afternoon off might be a good idea.

Bear in mind that it can take a couple of hours to get to the airport, so depending on your flight, Saqqara before your flight may be rushed. Traffic is terrible in Cairo.

Khan al khalili might be interesting for shopping, if you're interested in that. The Saladin Citadel of Cairo is worth a stop.

Guides are definitely worthwhile - if for no other reason than the logistics of getting you from place to place with a dedicated driver and watching out for people trying to sell you stuff or scam you.

I used Conde Nast's iconic itineraries to help inspire my trip:

https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2...luxor-and-more

too much slack in the schedule? I'd say you deserve the activity-free day 7 :)

I hope you have a relaxed attitude to schedules, particular ones involving potential perturbations from kids and from Egypt.

Have you considered flying to Aswan rather than Luxor and taking a three night ASW LXR cruise? These normally include a significant amount of guided touring Kom Ombo/Edfu and Luxor West Bank.

What cruise are you taking? .

Where did you find your guides and did you like them?

We only hired guides for two places -- Abu Simbel and Philae Temple. Both were arranged through an agency named Aswan Individual. The guide for Philae Temple (Mohammed) was excellent.

Did you think Abu Simbel was worth the long drive? We took that as an optional excursion on our October tour/trip. It feels like it takes forever to get there, you walk around for an hour, then start the grueling drive back.

Also - did all the tombs start to look alike after awhile? :D

Why not fly?

It's not an option with our tour company/package. I asked it we could pay extra to fly but was told it was not an option. I know you *can* fly and they have an airport but it seems that our tour company does not provide that service.

Gotcha. It wasn't clear if you knew flying was an option. Just brainstorming, but if the long drive is an optional add-on you'd be paying extra for anyway, can you just ditch the tour company that day and fly down yourself on your own dime? It's really easy / convenient to fly back and forth as a day trip. I did think Abu Simbel really cool to see in person and was worth it.

Thanks for sharing this. I think Egypt could be one of my visit list in next few years.

I've visited Egypt before, but for only a week and it was rush rush rush. Considering, only a handful of countries are open now, I put Egypt back on my list for travel early next year. Since most sites are outside, that would help with social distancing and the virus. The virus is in every country, so I might as well go visit a place I want to see than staying home. It's not going away for a long time, if even then.

Not sure if your question was directed at me but we did the trip in February 2019. We did not take the Nile cruise and I’m glad we did not because the cruise itineraries don’t spend as much time visiting the Luxor sites as we wanted.

We stayed at the Hilton Luxor and liked it overall. The food and service were excellent but it’s a bit out of the way, but that just adds some travel time to the sites.

Overall Egypt is in my #1 travel destination given my travel interest in historical sightseeing. Nowhere else in the world is close for historical sites. If you are not into that, then you may not find it as compelling. But if you are, then literally every day of your trip would be an amazing highlight of a trip of its own.

It’s “doable” in 7 days or whatever time you have (going is better than not going IMO) but if you have 9 or 10 days that is better.

Abu Simbel was worth the trip BTW.