I am going to Ciaro, Egypt for 2 weeks in Feb, what places should I NOT miss out on?

Question

planning on going to Giza, Hurghada (red sea), Valley of the Kings... its alot to see in a short time.. any seasoned travelers out there with suggestions? Thanks & Happy Holidays :)

Answer 1

I spent two weeks in Egypt for school, and my favorite sites were built during the New Kingdom.

Upper Egypt:
*Go to the Valley of the Kings, but go as the sun is rising because it won't be crowded and it will be nice and cool still. You can only visit 3 tombs per visit, and you can't take your camera inside.
*Hatshepsut's temple, and make sure you go up on the second level and explore on the sides. You'll love the color paintings on the walls and the giant Het-Heru (Hathor) pillars on the side. You can take photos here.
*Karnak Temple, but make sure you go when the sun is setting or rising when you visit any temple so you can see all of the relief. It's just beautiful, and you'll get a lot of wonderful photos.

Cairo:
*Cairo Museum, but plan to spend almost the whole day there. You can't take your camera inside, but take some picture outside. There's a lot of stuff just in the courtyard. Don't buy anything in the museum because it's expensive, but go to the gift shop right outside across the street. You'll want to see the Tutankhamun exhibit as well as the jewelry room while you're there!
*The Red Pyramid, this is the pyramid you can go inside. It's a long climb up and long climb down. Wear good shoes. If you're doing anything outside, wear close-toed shoes because there are a lot of sharp rocks. (I cut my foot really bad at Giza because I was wearing open-toed shoes.) You can't take photos inside.
*Khan El-Khalili, this is the market. Go at night because it is cool, but go with a group. Hopefully you or someone you know speaks Arabic so you can haggle. Don't pay more than 50 Egyptian pounds for a hip scarf or 25 Egyptian pounds for a head scarf. You can get a galabaya or Nubian dress for about 100 Egyptian pounds, and even a nice drum for the same price. If you're buying mother of pearl anything, hold it up to the light and check for reflections. All the pieces should shine, otherwise that means some of the pieces are plastic. Silver is also very cheap in Egypt, so buy a lot of jewelry for gifts!
*Nile cruise dinner, the food is wonderful and there will be a Dervish and belly dancer. Get up and dance with the belly dancer; you will have a great time!

If you visit any mosques, make sure you wear pants or skirts below the knees and long sleeves. If you don't, you'll have to wear a green cape. You'll have to pay to use the toilets in a lot of places, and carry around a bottle of hand sanitizer so you can "wash" your hands before you eat! Wear light colors and cotton, and long sleeves will keep you cooler. Put on sun block every morning and wear a hat too.

Answer 2

We spent 10 days in Egypt which was way too short. There are so many places that we wanted to visit but missed...we will definitely go back one day. We heard Hurghada is beautiful, it's backpackers' town and getting diving lessons are cheap. Unfortunately this time around we didn't have enough time to squeeze it in.

Abu Simbel is the best of all the monuments...even better than the Giza Pyramids. The gateway to Abu is Aswan which also has its own hightlights..the Philae Temple, Aswan High Dam, the Elephantine Island and its minority group. It's our favourite aside from Ciaro.

These are the most impressive to us:

Cairo Museum
Islamic Cairo
Khan El-khalili
Giza Pyramids
Amun Temple
Hatshepsut Temple
Horus Temple
Luxor temple
Abu Simbel
Philae Temple
travelling on a flucca from Aswan to Luxor

The Egyptian's are friendly and accomodating people, the sites will take your breath away. Have a wonderful time!!!!

Answer 3

Everyone gave great answers. The things I'd add is
definitely go camel-riding thru the pyramids. It's awesome
experience to ride even if you don't like horseback riding.

And Khan el Kalili, a great place to get lost in and do all your
shopping. Get your shoes shine there. It's funny but interesting
experience. And buy yourself a belly dancing outfit there.
Great price and higher quality work than Turkish. Bargain, bargain, and bargain.

And ride the Egyptian subway. Hang with the local.

Go see belly dancing. Then most famous dancer last year was Tina? She performs at Semiramis Intercontinental Cairo. Don't go too early. Go on Egyptian time. Ask the locals they will tell you. The food was not bad there either.

And Cairo Marriott Hotel is a site to see. It used to be a Palace.
It's gorgeous inside not like any hotel.

Answer 4

Please whatever you do don't take a tour like everyone else. The whole thrill of traveling is the unknown personalized adventure. If in Cairo you have to go to the khan il kalili, it's a very old large market (suk). You can find anything there, and there's millions of alley ways to wander down. Of course visit the pyramids of giza, and the egyptian museum, as well as sakura, and memphis. If you get a chance to go to the red sea, you should see Dahab and snorkle in the blue hole, it's like being in a national geographic program. The main town there is a cool off beat, bohemian-hippi destination.

Answer 5

I was in Egypt on April. I think you should not miss the following:
1. Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
2. Pyramids of Giza in Cairo.
3. Coptic Cairo (christian area).
4. Nile River cruise (i took it from Aswan to Luxor, its an incredible and unforgetable experience).
5. Valley of the Kings (Luxor).
6. Luxor Temple
7. Temple of RA (Luxor)
8. Abu Simbel (off Aswan)
9. Aswan Dam
10. Hurghada
11. Sharm el Sheik

Usually in Cairo you can find tours that take you to all the interesting places. By booking a cruise, you can book tours in each of the stops you made along the nile river.

Answer 6

"Mozza with Ferrik" egyptian meat dish with rice like or corn at Abu El Sid restaurant in Zamalek off 26 July St. Cairo. An expensive restaurant that serves tasty egyptian food.
You can eat at Felfela egyptian beans and falafel there very cheap and tasty at Hoda Sharawy St. Down Town Cairo. Sorry I'm hungry and I can only think of food right now.
Also check out Sarray El Guezira st. Zamalek cairo Le Pasha group of restaurants, it's a boat with 5 or 6 restaurants (expensive) exquisite food there try the Asiatique (sushi bar) Le Steak (french cuisine) and the Italian I don't remember what is it called. There are also a bunch of other boats at the same street where you can dine and have lots of fun. Try the one with Chilies in it it is also good but expensive

Answer 7

Well, two weeks are short time but, the must See's are:

Cairo:
Nile (This you will see in Cairo, Aswan, Luxor,,,)
Giza Pyramids,
Egyptian Museum (Tahrir Square),
The Citadel (El Kal'aa),
The old Islamic Cairo (Azhar, Husein, Cairo old Mosques, Khan El-Khalili)
The old Qubtic Cairo (around the area of Mari Girgis)

Other than Cairo:
Pheraonic: Luxur, Aswan, AbuSimble
Hurgada, and Sharm El-sheikh

Answer 8

Why not have a cabbie or other "working class" contact you make serve as an escort to a restaurant in a "poor" neighborhood? You'll not only sample some very inexpensive, tasty local food, but get a bit of a feel for what contemporary Cairo is really all about for the millions living there. By and large, based on about a year there, I found the Egyptians to be a wonderful hospitable, but complex lot.

Answer 9

In Cairo you of course have to see the Pyramids at Giza (only 2 will be open because they roate one being closed). If you have a phone with a camera you may be able to sneak pictures since they don't confiscate those at the pyramids entrance. Otherwise pictures will not be possible inside. If you do that though, make sure you know where the guards are and be very discrete. (I didn't feel bad about it since the main purpose is to avoid exposing pigments to flash lights which will fade them. But since they gutted out all the reliefs (at least in the great pyramid) it's just a stone tunnel. If you go later in the day you can stay for the nightime panorama show which is fun to see. Also check out the Museum which houses all the best egyptian treasures. (Although I think the King Tut exhibit is still out on tour so you probably can't see it). You can't take pictures but if you like to draw you could bring a sketch book (you will see lots of people sitting around and sketching). You can also purchase books and prints in the gift store. It costs extra to visit the Mummy room but it's worth it. There's over a dozen Ancient Egyptian mummies there. I thought it was fun to visit the Pharonic Villiage wich kind of lets you see how ancient egyptians lived their daily lives. I you do that visit it early because by the end of the day the workers all want to go home and will be a bit crabby. You can get your picture taken at the photo studio there in costume. I thought that was pretty fun. Old Cairo is fantastic! You can see some the old architecture and art which is just breathtaking. I would also reccomend visiting the castle (don't recall the name but it's a castle up ontop of a cliff I think). Al-Azhar is worth a visit, it is the oldest college in the entire world! If you like shopping you can visit the city stars mall which is huge!!! Another must is Khan Al-Khallili Bazaar which is just street after street of shopping in the street bazaar. This is a pretty good place for souvenier shopping but you have to bargain, bargain, bargain! I love Cairo so I could go on forever but you only have 2 weeks so I'll limit myself here. Personally, I would just skip Hurghada. In Feb. it's likely to be just a little too chilly for swimming and lying on the beach and everything else there is kind of boring, I think. You can go on a sub ride and see under the red sea. You can also take a trip out into the desert to see the bedouins (beware the jeep ride out through the desert as you rear will be quite sore afterwards). The one thing I really liked there was the 1001 Nights hotel (sorry my brain is experiencing a major malfunction but I think thats Alf Layla wi Layl in Arabic? as I said brain no worky now). The hotel is so interesting it's like walking though an old baghdad city during that time frame (or at least a romantasized story version of it). They also put on a rather corny show at night (complete with dancing mummies) that is worth seeing if your there. They also have bellydancing there at night in a different area or at least they did the night I was there. Whatever you do do not buy souveniers in Hurgada as they are way too expesive there! In Luxor I would also avoid purchasing souveniers as they also try to ask way to much and don't like to barter since it's a tourist area. But, Luxor is the absolute best place to go to see multiple ruin sites. There's the valley of the kings and the valley of the queens. You can only go into 3 tombs per visit and it costs extra to go into the tomb of King Tut (which, isn't worth it since everything has been removed including reliefs). Hetsheut's Temple is awsome as well. There's also the Ramsy's Temple on that side of the river. As well as a biblical site (some grainery storage thing sorry don't know it's importance just that it's a biblical site). On the other side of the river where Luxor is you should visit Luxor Temple which has an early mosque built on top of it. Also be sure to See Karnak Temple. I thing it's best to see Karnak later in the day because you can walk around yourself during the later part of the day and then stay for the night tour and panorama (be early and get a front spot). Be wary of what hotels you stay at becuse they will say it 5 stars just because it's really old but theres a difference in old and poorly maintained and old and well maintained. Also argue the price a lot with taki drivers in Luxor they want way too much! The only thing I would recommend buying here are sugar cane and carcaday (hibiscus tea).
Also in general make sure you try the following Egyptian foods/drinks:
Koshary
Moulokhia
Basboosa
Mahalabiya
Sahalab
Carcaday
Kofta
Taamiya
Dynamite Sandwich
Bamia Stew
and anything else that smells or looks good!
Feel free to e-mail me if you want any other advice

Answer 10

I leave this Saturday to spend 2 weeks in Egypt. I am going with the tour group - Grand Circle Travel. I return on Jan 13. Feel free to email me at [e-mail] with questions once I return.