Thanks again for a great report. Your comment that "you can sure taste the price point that these wines come from" made me laugh out loud. Like you, I've found that red is the way to go when it comes to the bottom end of the list; cheap whites can be just plain nasty.

Thanks for the report, is Egypt safe to travel around on your own now? has the goverment travel warning been lifted?

I'm sorry for that women stealing your bag at Cairo airport

Is it annoying having to go through a metal detector eveytime you enter/exit a hotel?

Thanks! Also, given the inconsistent temperature control in Y wines seem to usually be room temp or a bit cooler, regardless of what they are. Red is always a safer option, IMO.

In all fairness, she didn't steal my bag, just grabbed it off the xray belt before me and refused to stop "helping" me when I asked her to.

As far as the hotels go, you put up with it once or twice, but then once they recognize you as a hotel guest they don't bother you. At the Hilton, since I was there 3 nights when I'd walk up I'd prepare to take my phone out and they'd wave me through. Same at the Sheraton.

As to safety, I didn't felt unsafe at all. There are tourist police (armed with semi-automatic weapons) literally anywhere there would be tourists, and according to googling, assaulting a tourist is not a laughing matter in Egypt. Not to mention all of the Egyptians I met were friendly, locals just wanted to talk in English or take a picture. Exception: taxi drivers/horse drawn carriage guys. They were a pain, since seeing a white guy, they just see $$$.

Before I went, I looked at the Canadian and UK foreign office websites and they say to observe usual precautions when in the cities of Cairo and Luxor, and generally advise against wondering out into the desert.

This is from the UK Foreign Office; I stayed in the green areas.