Egypt has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. As a child, I would gaze in admiration at the pyramids and pharaohs in kids’ books. Once I started traveling the world as an adult, Egypt was on TOP of my dream destinations; which almost coincided with the 2011 revolution leading everyone to be afraid of traveling to Egypt and shattering my dreams. But 7 years later, tourism in Egypt is slowly standing back on its feet and I right away seized the opportunity to visit this magical destination. And it was much beyond what I had imagined about Egypt all these years – It has been the best trip of my life.

A few points/disclaimer before I start –

• My love for Egypt is beyond a traveler’s love for a country and so my views on the places we visited maybe biased, just because I am beyond just fascinated by the Ancient Egyptian Civilization. So much so, that I cried on seeing many of these wonders of art and architecture.
• The focus of our travel this time was different from our usual focus on culture, food and nature. We almost only concentrated on the Ancient Egypt part of what Egypt has to offer.
• All the scares of Egypt being dangerous were thrown out of the window once we were in the country. The people are very friendly and not for once did we feel unsafe.
• I will not go into much details about the historic aspect of the sites because I wouldn’t know where to stop. I could go on and on and you might just doze off 😛

Budget – Around INR 90,000 per person including flights, visa, stay, transportation, entry fees, food, shopping etc. for 10 days

Flights – We flew with Kuwait Airways from Bangalore to Cairo via Kuwait and flew back with Etihad Airways from Cairo to Bangalore via Abu Dhabi.

Inter-city transportation – There are sleeper trains but they are as expensive as flights. The better option is to take seats in AC1 class. They are very comfortable with large reclining seats. You can book the trains here. You need to create an account before booking. Also here is an amazing train guide to Egypt.

Stay, Intra-city transportation and guides – Mentioned in the individual posts. We never travel with guides because we like to do it at our own pace and style but Egypt was an exception. I’ve read scores of articles, read a few books (An amazing read is ‘The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt’ by Toby Wilkinson), done a lot of research, and watched many Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic and BBC documentaries and still there was so much more we learnt on the sites because of our guides. Also, we visited almost all the important sites and it would have been impossible to do that on our own using public transportation in such a limited time.

Egypt Tourist Visa for Indians

Indians require a visa before traveling to Egypt. We got ours done via HRM Visas in Marathahalli, Bangalore. The process was very smooth. There was a small delay because they had to resend our passports from Mumbai to Delhi because the Mumbai Egyptian Consulate was shut down for a few days. We got our visas within 10 working days.

A few tips

• Carry comfortable walking shoes, hat, sunscreen and loose comfortable clothes
• Try to avoid taking help of people especially in the tourist sites because they would end up asking for “baksheesh” or tips. In fact, it is considered a norm to give baksheesh even if you have already paid for an all inclusive tour.
• Before riding a taxi or horse or camel, fix the price and currency. They may later say “baksheesh for poor horse”.
• Carry loads of water with you at all times.
• Be prepared for lots of “India? Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan”, “India and Egypt brothers”, “Do you want a felucca? Do you want a horse ride? Do you know how much?”, and if you say no “maybe later? Maybe tomorrow?”. The hassling for tours and souvenirs got very irritating with each passing day. It’s ironic, because most shops have a printed caption of “No hassle” on their hoardings. I guess they are notorious for it with tourists. Some even got rude asking why we come to Egypt if we don’t want to do their tours. Because we have already done it maybe! The touts apart, the general Egyptian public is very friendly and courteous.

Itinerary – Cairo -> Aswan (for Abu Simbel) -> Luxor (with Abydos) -> Cairo

Let’s begin!

1) 7 Things to See in Cairo, Egypt

We had booked a shuttle before our travel through cairoshuttlebus. You can meet their representatives right outside the terminal. You can also take an Uber (which is what we did on our way back to the…..Continue Reading

2) 10 Things to See in Luxor, Egypt

Luxor; so many ancient attractions in this small city. I could have stayed here for some more days and still feel like I haven’t seen anything. The capital of the most powerful New kingdom – the time of the most powerful pharaohs. The living east bank with its…..Continue Reading

3) Visiting Abu Simbel, Abydos and Dendera in Egypt

The only reason we were in Aswan was to visit the Abu Simbel temples. There are other attractions in Aswan like the Philae temple, but I had twisted my ankle trying to climb on t…..Continue Reading