Egypt for the 1st and last time: Trip report

We have been wanting to see Egypt for quite a while but the stream of negative reviews, and occasional regional conflicts, kept us away. We are independent travelers who avoid organized tours but concluded that it was the best way to travel Egypt. So we booked a high-end, small group fully guided tour that we lucked out on as we were the only participants. A private tour for 2!

The Good: We appreciated being guided through arrival and departure at chaotic Cairo airport, driven around in air conditioned vans everywhere without any need to be concerned with how to get anywhere, booking tickets for sights/museums, or being ripped off by restaurants, taxis, etc as everything was included. Last February’s weather was pretty ideal with cool mornings, sunny days and zero sandstorms.

The Great: Most of the famous sights are magnificent, notably Abu Simbel, Luxor, the Pyramids and Sphinx, the Grand Egyptian Museum. The 3 day Nile cruise from Aswan to Luxor was an infinitely more relaxing and scenic way to get around the country.

The Bad: Unreliable domestic flights: our 10pm flight was rescheduled after checking in to 3am. Eating lunch in otherwise empty restaurants during Ramadan. The famous sights were often packed, for example we arrived at Edfu Temple at 4:50am only to join a queue of several hundred tourists. Hotels were not so good. Our “upgraded” room at a Hilton in Cairo must have been built around the time that they started building the Sphinx!

The Ugly: Egypt gets well deserved flak for many reasons. Chaotic, honking traffic on dusty roads and driving at dangerously high speed. Animal cruelty. Litter. Questionable hygiene. Filthy toilets that you must pay to use but locals use for free. Cairo airport was always packed and locals cut lines whenever they can get away with it. Both my wife and I got sick for a day or two of fever and diarrhea. We were infuriated by religious intolerance on display at most of the ancient monuments we saw. So many carvings have been defaced by opposing theists. But all of that would have been nothing if we left a week later and got stuck in the Iranian war like so many others did as we had tickets to return home on Qatar Airlines via Doha. We were simply lucky.

We are glad we went, especially since we made it home in time, but we certainly won’t be going back. While we met some lovely locals the overall vibes of the country are not positive or welcoming. It’s one and done for us.