Nile Cruise

daveyboy_1ie

Hi all. My Fiancé and I are going on honeymoon next May and we are coming up with a few ideas which we both would like to do. The one plan that seems to be winning is the thoughts of a Nile Cruise, and then taking in a day or two in Cairo which will involve a day trip to El Giza (Pyramids, Sphinx). I have always been of the opinion that cutting out the middle man saves money if you know what you are doing and I have saved a considerable amount over the years doing this (mostly to Thailand as I know what I am doing to save money there). However I know nothing about Egypt and was wondering if anyone knows some good sites, tips etc. Any advice is appreciated.

The trip to Egypt will be the first leg of our honeymoon as we have definite plans afterterwards , so the cruise/ stay in Cairo will be about a week or so.

Pythia

Word of advice. Spend as little time in Cairo as possible.

ardmacha

Cairo is polluted and chaotic and pretty much the opposite of a relaxing Nile cruise. Not everyone's cup of tea at all, like Bangkok only more so, and it will be hot in May. But if it interests you the mosques and musuem are worth seeing and get to some of the less well known pyramid groups like Saqqara as well as the famous ones at Giza (which is a suburb of Cairo nowadays). You can get one day cruises, three day cruises or longer and combinations of these while saying in Luxor or Aswan in between might do the trick. You can fly or take a day or night train between these places if not on a boat. Egypt is linear, along the river and there is a tourist trail between these places.

In Eygpt if you want nice restaurant Lebanese food seems to have the same role as a French restaurant here and the grub is lovely.

Myyra

Completely agree with previous post about Cairo, it's pretty chaotic! You'd be better off staying down south, heading down the Nile from Luxor. Luxor itself is brill, chaotic yes, but plenty to see there!

If you're heading down to Aswan I'd defo fly all the way to Abu Simbel close to the Sudanese border, well worth the dodgy plane ride They have loads of those organized day tours from Aswan to Abu simbel, you might want to shop around to get a good deal:)

daveyboy_1ie

Cheers for the responses, appreciate it.

manc

I'm not sure about tour operators in Cairo, but we stayed in Luxor and mainly used Karnak Travel, they were right outside our hotel the Winter Palace. They are owned by Egyptair so all is secure and the tours were all private and cheap i.e. not a van with 10 others, which tends to be used to get the price down.
look here http://karnak.egyptair.com/en/packages-packages/package_cat/13

These were also good for price and tours, they were next door to Karnak Travel www.jolleys.com

Send them an email with what you want to do and they will give you prices and the more you book the more you can haggle off the price.

Don't book trough your travel agent or you will be charged at least double what you will out there.