‘Egyptomania’ – 8 Days in Egypt (Cairo, Luxor, Hurghada and Aswan)

Why are we so fascinated with Egyptian history? We can’t tell what major events happened to this country in the last 30 years but we know who build what and whose ancient queen did what. They call it ‘Egytomania’ and it has infected all future world super powers after them – from Alexander the Great (Greeks), to Julius Caesar and Mark Antony (Romans – although for these two, it could be just Cleopatra!) to the French and then the British who carried most of their treasures which are now being kept at the British Museum.  Its the same one that infected me and many others of course and why we keep digging, exploring, and unwrapping the many (probably still) hidden mysteries and secrets of Egypt.

Now planning for this trip to include Cairo, Luxor, Hurghada and Aswan in just 8 days (well 7 1/2!) was very stressful. Mostly because there’s a lot I wanted to see and since it was the beginning of summer, I have limited hours of the day to walk around the ruins without dying of heat!

One of my good travel buddies, former roommate and lifetime (!) friend Jeannette joined me on this trip.  We flew in from different cities and obviously flying out the same way so it complicated our travel plans a bit but we managed!

From Cairo airport, we took an Uber to our Airbnb (cheaper! Thank God for this app!). The Airbnb I picked is close to the Cairo Museum, cheap, very comfortable and with a much appreciated, hospitable, kind host.  The key to a very relaxed Airbnb experience is a host that responds fast to queries, a place that you know offers amenities you need (such as an iron board and air conditioned room) and one with outstanding reviews OF THE HOST.  Because a good host will make an average place a better experience!

Our tour started at 8am the next morning and covered the Pyramids of Giza, Memphis and Saqqara and lasted the whole day.  It was 96 degrees on dry heat but with the wind blowing, it actually wasn’t so bad.  Since its the low season (peak season is December – March), there were very few tourists and a lot of places to take awesome pictures!

I have seen them in movies, documentaries, books and tons of social media photos but nothing prepared me still for the majesty of it.  Located on the west side of the Nile river on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo stood the Great Pyramids of Giza – three pyramids built for Khufu, Khafre and Khafre’s son Menkaure.  One of the new seven wonders of the ancient world and the only surviving structure out of the original seven wonders of the ancient world.

There is a fee to go inside the largest pyramid but our guide informed us that beyond its structure, nothing much remains due to the substantial looting of Egyptian mummies and artifacts in the past.  Afterwards, we took a short drive from the three pyramids to Khafre’s complex to see the famed Sphinx.

I am not going to talk about the history and its significance because I think everyone knows them already but can I just say I was so surprised to see how LLOOOOOOONNNGG the front legs of this sphinx is? Like… did the architect not realized it until much later and just said “eh, it is what is is!”.

Our next stop was to Saqqara. The most famous landmark of Saqqara is the Step Pyramid, the tomb of the third Dynasty ruler Djoser, built by Imhotep and the earliest major stone structure erected in Egypt. There is also the pyramid of Onnos, the last King of the 5th dynasty.   The walls of the chamber are covered with  the “Pyramid Texts,” the oldest known Egyptian religious texts.

The tour’s last stop is Memphis which was once the capital of ancient Egypt (Old Kingdom). Here, there is an open air museum where you can see the colossal statue of Ramesses II and an alabaster sphinx in its proper proportions!

Since it was Ramadan, a lot of the restaurants we wanted to check out were closed. We were limited to the places that cater to tourists which usually means its not authentic and generally sub-par in my opinion!

We only had one more full day in Cairo so the next day we took a cab to see Old Cairo.  A quick warning – while there is Uber, there is no guarantee you will get a driver that speaks english. At worst, you get one who cannot follow the map and insists he knows where you are going which means you get lost. Such was our fate this day so we exited out of the car ASAP and got a cab to take us to the right location.

It is traditionally held that the Holy Family visited Old Cairo when they were seeking refuge from King Herod. Old Cairo is very fascinating to me because within it are churches from different religions – Ben Ezra Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Cairo, the famed Hanging Church, a catholic church (there are several of them in Coptic Cairo), and Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque, the first mosque built on the African continent among other islamic churches.

The alleys leading to the churches are full of souvenirs and the cool breeze and shade are a nice reprieve from the summer heat.

We took the metro (which was tight, segregated but was actually a cool experience) to Khan Al-Khalili, one of the oldest markets in Cairo. The problem was we underestimated its distance to the nearest metro stop. Take my word for it and next time, just grab a cab to get here. For the amount of money you save, the walk in sweltering heat is not worth it.

(Not my pic!)

Most of the shops were closed when we got there around 2pm (again due to Ramadan) but from the few stores that were open, there wasn’t much to see in truth. So if this is a low priority for you, I would suggest you skip it.

After that little stint, we headed to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. Now be warned, even here at the gates there are crooks. A guy heard us ask where to buy tickets and he told us the museum was closed for the hour because of prayers so we said we’ll just head to lunch. He recommended a lunch place and insisted to walk us there only to drop us off at ———– a souvenir shop. Ugh.. Thankfully, the guy manning the shop apologized in behalf of his friend, didn’t force us to buy anything and left us in peace.

We were hungry and annoyed and food always makes me happy so we grabbed a quick lunch right across the museum before going in.  The museum is actually open (of course it was!) during ramadan and no, they don’t break for prayers at 12 noon. After a quick security check, we got our tickets and enjoyed the air-conditioned museum.

Finally, we were back to our Airbnb to shower, finish packing and get ready for our overnight train to Luxor (formerly known as Thebes, the ‘City of a Hundred Gates’ and the former capital of ancient Egypt!)! We were supposed to check out at noon but our host graciously offered to let us stay in his place until our train trip at 7pm. He even recommended a good, local place for dinner! See what I mean about good hosts?!

This article really helped me understand the train schedule, stops and where to purchase our tickets.  The website says foreigners can only take the sleeper train and not the day trains that run the same route. I have read conflicting notes about this because apparently you can take the day trains, just have to purchase it in person or if you can’t, some daredevils actually board the train and then pay once they are seated.

I really don’t take unnecessary risks like these when I am in a foreign country and personally, the sleeper train makes sense to me to save time so I did not hesitate to book our tickets to the overnight train. Now this is pretty pricey ($80 pp for a bed in a double cabin) so make sure you budget accordingly. Alternatively, there are flights from Cairo to Luxor which might be around the same price so plan ahead!

I have never been to a sleeper train before and was excited to report that I liked it! Literally slept like a babe the whole trip. The dinner included in the price of the ticket is sub-par but honestly what do you really expect? I’d recommend buying snacks and drinks before you board the train if you are picky about food.

We were woken up to watch the sunrise in the morning (because we asked them to) and arrived promptly at Luxor around 6am. Our Luxor day tour (east and west bank) starts at 7am so our tour guide picked us up directly from the train station. The tour costs $64 each which could be higher if you go during peak season.

Because of how hot it was in Luxor (about 110 degrees!), we decided to explore the East bank first. This section of the tour includes a visit to the Temple of Luxor, built by two pharaos from two dynasties. You can definitely see the difference in construction and design from different era’s.

It was originally connected to the Karnak Temple, the largest religious building ever created dedicated to Amun, Mut, and Khonsu via the Avenue of Sphinxes.

The Avenue of Sphinxes

After Temple of Luxor, we visited the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the only woman who reigned as Pharaoh in ancient Egypt. Her temple is a loooonggg walk from where the trolley drops you off so I would suggest going here early in the morning or maybe close to sunset to avoid sweating like a pig!

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

What’s interesting in this temple are the relics, architecture and ruins around it. Inside when you go up, there’s only a tiny chamber currently in construction. But hey, it’s a good place to hide in the sun! You won’t need a lot of time here.

Because the tour skipped Karnak temple, our guide graciously offered to bring us to the Temple of Horus instead.  This temple is the best preserved ancient temple in Egypt – and perhaps in the entire world.  The gates are flanked by two statues of Horus as a falcon, one of the most prominent symbols of Egyptian mythology.  The details of this temple is astounding! I mean look at this ceiling!

Instead of heading to lunch right away, we decided to head to the West Bank and explore the Valley of the Kings.  There are about 63 tombs in this royal resting place, the ‘Gateway to the Afterlife’. However, only a few are open for viewing and of those, only a handful are worth exploring.

King Tutankhamun’s is the most popular one (and required an extra fee to enter!) because it was mostly intact when it was discovered.  He was a boy King and not entirely popular back in the day but the grandeur of his tomb impressed all of us. Can you imagine how magnificent the narcissistic Ramesses II’s tomb originally look like then? Too bad today, it’s just an empty shell now. The looting was so extensive because the guardians of these tombs were the same thieves and robbers who stripped the very tombs they guard with all its riches and glory.

On the way to have our lunch, we stopped by the Colossi of Memnon which are remains of the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III. I wish we could’ve taken better pictures but at this point, I just want to return to our Airbnb with our airconditioned room!

The next day, we took a boat to cross the Nile river (our Airbnb is in the west bank) and headed to Karnak Temple.  We visited Karnak temple separately and without a tour guide because during our tour the  previous day, the way to the temple was blocked by locals protesting the Government’s attempt to displace them in favor of reconstructing the Avenue of Sphinxes.

Now there is a public boat that crosses the Nile river for like $1 per person but it’s about a 15 minute walk from our place so we decided to just rent a private one for $10.

Karnak’, translated as “The Most Selected of Places” was the main Egyptian religious center during the eighteenth dynasty and dedicated to the god Amun, Mut and Khonsu.  Karnak is the second most visited place in Egypt along with Abu Simbel after the Pyramids of Giza and for good reason! If you only have a day to tour Luxor, I  highly recommend visiting this temple!

The ruins’ main attraction is the Great Hypostyle Hall along the main entrance way. Built by Pharaoh Seti, it apparently covers an area large enough to accommodate the whole of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral!

One of my most memorable experiences of this trip was rushing to get inside our Airbnb, quickly shedding all my clothes and turning on the fan and AC! The heat was unbearable 11am onwards that we don’t have the energy to go out for lunch and our Airbnb has a private chef and dining experience at the rooftop for just $15 each so why not?

Earlier, we went to a grocery store nearby to purchase coffee, water, egg and noodles and that was our dinner!  Nothing beats sharing hot noodles with egg, coffee and this view with a friend.

Airbnb’s front balcony faces the Nile River 

The next day, we took a private car to head to the bus station that will bring us to Hurghada.  You can book your bus tickets online at GoBus.com for 135EGP ($10) one way.  You have to go to the bus office in Luxor where they would print your tickets. Your printed reservation is NOT a ticket.  The  bus is comfortable but our seats had a dysfunctional AC. Not fun when you are stuck in that bus for 4 hours during summer.

Our Airbnb was a bit further from the bus stop. Thankfully, our Airbnb host has a car and offered to pick us up for free (we tipped him though!).  After checking in, we ventured out a bit to find a nice place for dinner. There’s not a lot of good restaurants near us and the one our host recommended was primarily serving american food.  When you are somewhere REALLY far from America and they offer american food, chances are they aren’t great and that is me being generous.

The only thing we planned for this town was scuba diving (YAY!). I debated whether to go to Sharm El-Sheikh or here and while I heard a lot of good things about Sharm El-Sheikh,  logistically, it made more sense to us to go to Hurghada.  We booked our scuba diving trip with Scuba Hurghada and cannot be more pleased! For daily dives plus lunch (2 dives) it costs 35 Euros plus 15 Euros for equipment rental. Not bad and certainly cheaper than diving in Asia!

All scuba divers I know have a bucket list of places to dive and the Red Sea is most definitely in their list (and mine too!). The dive was spectacular, the boat huge, the food was good and the equipment brand new. They were also very friendly and made sure my friend (who was diving for the first time) felt comfortable diving at her own pace.

Me and the fishies!

Finally, we were ready for our last stop – Aswan!

We rented a car for our day-long drive to Aswan for $170. The drive from Hurghada to Aswan is approximately 7 hours (+ lunch break).  Renting a private car allowed us to sleep on the car, have tons of snacks and water and relax before we explore the city.

There was a huge issue with our lodging because originally we booked a highly-rated place called The Mango Guesthouse. The place is located in Elephantine Island which means we had to take a boat there first. The host was unresponsive so by the time we head to the marina, we don’t know where we are going! For those of you planning to stay there too, here’s the instruction I found online (which I wished we had access to at that time!):

How to get there:

Take the public ferry to get there. Opposite the Office of Egypt Air (shortly before Ferrial Garden) at the Corniche you will see a small shop selling water and cigarettes. Go there, pass the shop (which has also stairs), pass one more stairs and go down the next.

I believe there is also one right beside KFC.

The ferry costs 1LE but usually you get charged for the return trip too for a total of 3LE.

At this point we were tired and annoyed at the host (who cannot be reached by our Egyptian drivers too) so our driver’s friend drove us to the nearest, cheapest hotel since it was too hot and dangerous to linger on the streets. Eventually we realized we cannot stay at a place that doesn’t even have towels and a barely functioning airconditioning unit so Airbnb to the rescue!

We found this great place that just literally posted their place in Airbnb (they were in Booking.com!). The location of the place is good if you do not like the hustle and bustle of Aswan city and just relax at night. If you wanna visit Elephantine island or any other island, you can always take a boat from his place.  There is also a floating restaurant close to this lodging via boat and I wish we had time to check it out! And the view from our balcony…

Taken at sunset with no filters

Our tour to Abu Simbel started early and our guides picked us up from Ahmed’s place.

Abu Simbel temple is comprised of The Great Temple (for the new deity Ramesses II) and Small Temple for his favorite wife Queen Nefertari.  What is impressive about the Abu Simbel temples is that they were completely dismantled when the Egyptian government built the Aswan High Dam and then moved 65 meters up onto the cliffs they once originally sat and re-built 210 meters to the north west of their original location! You wouldn’t notice that though with the quality of this work!

Our guide said Ramesses chose this place deliberately far from Luxor and from Ra’s (the Sun God) temple so as not to anger Ra (lol he wished). You can tell from these temples how obsessed Ramesses was to becoming a god. He can’t be just a famous Pharaoh, nooooo… He had to be greater.

The temples are also aligned with the east so that, twice a year, on 21 February and 21 October, the sun shines directly into the sanctuary of The Great Temple to illuminate the statues of Ramesses and Amun. The dates are thought to correspond to Ramesses’ birthday and coronation.

After a long and tiring day, our almost-host (The Mango Guesthouse) offered a free sunset feluca tour along the Nile the next day to compensate for our botched stay since they cannot offer a refund. I really would like to go except when I checked the weather, it was 135 degrees around 4pm. I NOPED out of that so fast.

Jeannette’s flight left early morning on our last day and mine wasn’t leaving until the afternoon. Technically, I could’ve visited one more museum in town but I was so exhausted from all the driving we did the day before and the heat that I was more than happy to stay at the lodge, order food to be delivered and lounged at the balcony until it was time to go.

With my trip to Egypt done, I finally finished all seven new wonders of the ancient world! It took me three years because I traveled to other countries in between but I feel so accomplished and very happy to visit them all! Now on to my next list – all seven continents!