Egypt in 9 days

Budget fast track trip to Egypt.
Total cost for 2: INR 1,30,000 excluding flight charges.

Major activities included:

• Visit to Pyramids and Museums
• Visit to Egyptian temples / tombs
• Hot air Balloon trip
• Fluka ride in river Nile
• 4 Scuba dives
• 2 Snorkeling trips with Dolphins and sea cow (Dudong)
• Sea side resorts
• Walk in the desert

Itinerary :

Being an engineer, it is a little tough to block 2 week long holiday if you don’t have enough visibility of the project. And booking International flight tickets based on the plan you made 6 months in advance is no less than a gamble. I was sailing in the same boat. It was just two weeks before my first wedding anniversary, I could see that I can manage a leave for two weeks. That is when my husband and I sat scanning the skyscanner. We spent the whole night deciding where to go and zeroed upon Tokyo. Checked the weather, places to visit, possible itineraries, it looked great. So next day, the first thing I did was talked to my manager about the vacation. It got approved. It happened the same with my husband too. Happily I came back home but sadly by now, the tickets had gone up. So we had to think of Plan B. That is when we decided to go to Egypt. The flight tickets were nominal and the place looked amazing. We booked the flight tickets immediately. And this is how our Egypt trip started.

We always keep the itinerary open so that we can spend as much time at a place as much we want. And it is always easy to get a hostel if you travel in off season. The following next few days we spent posting queries on tripadvisor, reading itineraries, talking to people on couchsurfing. We were super excited for all the right reasons.

Day 1: Cairo

• We Reached Cairo at noon (2pm) and took a local bus to the main city. Beware of taxi drivers that will try to convince that there is no local transport.
• We straightway with our luggage went to the Egyptian museum and explored the museum with the help of a guide. The guide gave us the local currency in exchange of dollars at a reasonable rate. It took us 3 hours inside the museum. It is huge and mesmerizing. My favourite part of the museum was Tutan Khamun’s Mask. It is extremely shiny and is made of 11Kg gold!!!
• Checked in a budget hotel – Pension Roma.
• Explored the city around 26th July street.

Day 2: Cairo

• 8am: Started for Giza pyramids early in the morning.
• Visited Pyramids/sphinx till 12 noon. The Pyramids are huge and you can take the pass to enter the highest pyramid. Though there is nothing inside the pyramid, just a room, but it takes you back in time. We were Sitting inside the pyramid, gazing at the walls and thinking of where to go next when we met another tourist couple through which we got to know about the Marsa Alam dive spot and huge Dudongs. We immediately decided that we have to visit Marsa Alam in this trip.
• We climbed the Pyramids from outside half way till top. It was a nice feeling.
• We then took a camel ride for both of us. The trip to Giza is incomplete without the colourful camel ride.
• We had thought of visiting Coptic Cairo in the second half of the day, but then our tour guide invited us home and we spent the rest of the day with him and his family getting to know Egyptian culture better.
• Took a night train to Aswan at 8pm. There are 2 ways of reaching Aswan- by flight or by sleeper train. Though both of them are equally expensive, we chose the night train because:
  1. We wanted to experience the train travel in Egypt.
  2. It saved us from booking a hotel for that night and from buying the meals.
• The moment we entered the train, we realized it was the right decision. The train has got private compartments for 2 people with small table, washbasin and hooks for hanging clothes. The seats were foldable. Being vegetarian, we were mostly concerned about the food, but then the food turned out to be amazing too.

Day 3: Aswan

• Reached Aswan by 10am.
• Checked in in a budget hotel – Nuba Nile.
• Visited the Philae temple, High dam, Aswan Museum. (Avoid going to Philae temple in the noon, probably the best view would be there during dusk/dawn. If possible, go in a big group, the cost of the boat to the temple is fixed irrespective of the No. of people). High dam is famous for its history, but really nothing much to see.
• Crossed the Nile in a fluka. A lovely scene as the dusk proceeded towards  the night.
• Walked in the desert (Alternatively you can take a camel ride). There is a desert opposite to the main town of Aswan where you reach by renting a fluka. The walk in the desert is absolutely free and don’t be surprised if people call you for a shai (the local tea) or hukkah (smoke). The people are really nice and hospitable.

The beautiful desert in the evening

Philea temple

 Day 4: Abu Simbel & Luxor temple

• Started early morning at 4am with the tour bus. The breakfast was packed by the hotel and we kept our luggage with the hotel only. The tour can be booked through the hotel also but we chose to find out an agent ourself. So it was cheaper for us.
• Visited Abu Simbel temple. Explored its beauty. The entry fee includes the guide fee as well , so dont forget to ask for your guide. You will be mesmerized by certain codes and scriptings on the wall which you might not even notice much otherwise.
• Spent time around the side facing ocean. Out of the 2 hours given to us to visit the temple , we spent most of the time within the temple and watching it from outside, unaware of the fact that there was an amazing ocean side view on the left of the temple. We could manage to spend some 10-15mins there in the end, but wish we had more time.
• Reached Aswan by 1pm. We did our lunch at a place called Makka Restaurant. It was extremely yummy and the portion size was too big. They had some complementary dishes too which made it even more beautiful.
• Took a train till luxor. The train was an average train with AC and sleeper car.
• Arrived in Luxor by 7pm.
• Check in in a budget hotel- bob marley. There are many other better places, but it is easy to locate Bob Marley hotel because the owner has put signboards everywhere. Also, it is very close to luxor temple.
• In the night, after checking in the hotel, we explored the Luxor temple with a guide. The temple looked amazing in the night with all the lights on. This was the first temple in Egypt that we visited in the night.
• Post visiting the temple we took a horse cart and took a trip around that area. The cart also (though forcibly) took us to an “Egyptian Bazaar”, which was a shop which sold papyrus painting and we ending up buying few. No regrets though 🙂

The beautiful writings inside Abu Simbel temple

 Day 5: Luxor

• This was our wedding anniversary day. Early morning at around 4am we started for a balloon ride for watching sunrise with a  tour guide. It was still dark when we left from our hotel. They took us  in a boat where they served the breakfast. With lovely breeze blowing, it was a perfectly romantic trip. At The other end of the boat  there was a minibus waiting for us to take us to the hot air balloon launch area. Contrary to my imagination, this place was a launch area for multiple balloons. We saw them filling air in the balloon. The sun was about the rise. We all boarded the balloon and saw the sunrise. The balloon took us around the Luxor showing many monuments from the top. But what i was mesmerized about the most was seeing the other colourful balloons in the air.
• We returned to hotel by 7am.
• At 8:30am we left to visit Valley of kings, Valley of Queens with the tour bus which we booked at the hotel the previous night.
• In the valley of kings, using the ticket you can visit any 3 tombs. Our guide helped us in with the selection of the tombs. It was pleasantly surprising to see such old tombs that are so beautifully painted with bright colours from the old times.Note that a special ticket is needed for visiting the Tutan Khaman’s tomb.  As we had visited too many temples already, we skipped visiting the Queen’s temple and instead roamed about outside the temple in the ongoing exploration sites till the group returned. Post that we just left the bus and hitchhiked to the Nile river.
• We crossed the river Nile to reach Karnak temple. Explored its beauty with the help of a guide. You can take a horse cart to ride around the city if you want. We preferred walking.
• At 5pm, we took a bus till Qift. Reached Qift by 5:30pm. From there we took a bus till Marsa Alam at 6:00pm and reached Marsa Alam by 11pm.
• We checked in at an average hotel Red sea hotel but then moved in to a better resort the very next day- Elphistone resort.

The hot air balloon ride-1

The hot air balloon ride-2

Valley of the Kings

Valley of Queens (Queen Hatshepsut temple)

The Pillar made of a single rock #karnaktemple

The Karnak temple (the largest religious building ever constructed in Egypt)

Day 6: Marsa Alam

• Woke up early morning to admire the beautiful sunrise from the beach of our resort.
• Left at around 7:30am with the dive center of Elphistone resort to dive with Dudong , the sea cow. We had never heard of the sea cow before but it was amazing. It was atleast twice of my size and I am 5’2”
• Enjoyed the yatch ride, dive at 2 spots, one near the corals and one where the sea cow is there.
• Snorkelled with the huge turtles and amazing aqua life.
• In the evening, enjoyed the resort, took a spa (off season can help you in getting huge discount in all such services), saw the sunset and then took a bus till Hurghada.
• Arrived in Hurghada late in the night and checked in in a budget hotel (royal hotel) on the Sheraton street.
• Walked around the Sheraton street.

Day 7: Hurghada

• At 8am, we left for a dolphin excursion to the dolphin house.
• The excursion included snorkeling/swimming with dolphins, snorkeling at one more place and banana/sofa ride along with delicious lunch.
• We traveled with Alibaba tours and our boat’s name was hero. We found the excursion really nice. They had many activities on the boat which kept all of us engaged. Initially when he asked us to jump with the snorkels first we all jumped in the sea but couldn’t see anything. After some time he asked us to go back to the ship. We thought that it was just a hype and there is no dolphin in the water. But then next time when he asked, we could find the dophin and we spent like half an hour swimming with it.
• Explored the Hughada city in the evening. Alternatively you can go for shows like Arabian nights.

Day 8: Hurghada desert safari / El Gouna

• There is a very nice desert safari with quad drive, camel , horse and donkey ride and the most amazing galaxy trip in the desert       (check out http://www.t-online.de/reisen/aegypten/id_68641812/-desert-breath-in-el-gouna.html). Alternatively you can keep the day relaxed and spend time in a resort. We preferred the later one 🙂
• We moved to El Gouna the prev night and stayed there at Sheraton, the room also got upgraded to a suite, so we really enjoyed it.
• We left in the evening for Cairo by gobus.
• Reached Cairo in the night. Checked in in a budget hotel and left for exploring Khan el Khalil Market for some local music, hukka or shisha as they call it and beautiful souvenirs to take back home.

 Sheraton El-Gouna

Day 9: Cairo

• Strolled in the streets in the morning.
• Took the flight back home.

This was our fast track trip to Egpyt. We loved it lot more than what we expected. Made some awesome friends and brought back memories for lifetime. Hope this helped you in deciding your itinerary or atleast motivated you to take a trip to Egypt.

Optional activities:

1. Trip to mount senai for a midnight trek.
2. scuba dive in the big blue hole in Dahab.
3. Alexandria trip for more temple visits.
4. White desert trip.

Local vegeterian food to be tried:

1. falafel (different types of falafel like fool falafel (falafel with beans), egg falafel, eggplant falafel, mixed veg falafel).
2. Koshari (rice and macaroni with crispy onion rings)
3. baba ghonous
4. hummus with peta bread
5. Molokhia
6. Tabouleh
7. Fattoush
8. Fatayer
9. fried vegetable with rice
10. Lentil soup with crispy crackers
11. sugarcane juice 🙂

Yummy Koshari with crispy onion

For a break up of our expenses, click on continue

Break up of expenses:

Description	Currency	cost
Visa fees for two	INR	7000
Cairo airport to tahrir square	EGP	5
Egyptian museum+guide	EGP	550
Magnets	EGP	30
Food at gad restaurant	EGP	45
Hotel Pension Roma	EGP	170
Sleeper train ticket to Aswan	USD	200
Pyramids visit + guide	EGP	500
Pyramids entry	EGP	560
Camel ride	EGP	200
Souvenir	EGP	10
Sim card+ juice	EGP	69
Falafal dinner	EGP	12
Tea/water/tip in train	EGP	25
Supermarket expenses	EGP	78
Aswan cab+ Abu Simbel jeep	EGP	300
Hotel Nuba Nile acco	EGP	160
Sugarcane juice+ water	EGP	12
Higher dam	EGP	60
Philae temple+ entrance+ boat	EGP	235
Nile faluka	EGP	50
Souvenir	EGP	20
Koshari	EGP	18
Falafal + Lokma	EGP	18
Aswan to luxor train ticket	EGP	60
Water + sugarcane juice	EGP	10
Abu simbel ticket + guide	EGP	125
Lunch at makka restaurant+ tip	EGP	125
Bob marley hotel luxor	EGP	134
Hot air balloon+ luxor trip	EGP	560
Dinner at new om restaurant+ horse ride	EGP	40
Papyrus	EGP	150
Luxor temple+ guide + juice	EGP	141.5
Valley of Kings entrance	EGP	104
Ferry to luxor from valley of Kings	EGP	2
Karnark temple entrance+guide	EGP	180
Lunch + juice at Luxor	EGP	51
Snacks +water at luxor	EGP	16
Bus to kift	EGP	20
Bus to mersa alam	EGP	100
Red sea hotel at mersa alam	EGP	240
Scuba dive day 1	USD	115
Scuba dive day2	USD	180
Elpstone hotel rates	EGP	400
Spa	USD	25
Bus to Hurghada	EGP	100
Taxi	USD	10
Royal hotel Hurghada	EGP	120
Food+juice+water	EGP	20
Dolphin excursion	EGP	240
Photo CD at dolphin	USD	20
Tip at excursion	EGP	10
Lunch at Hurghada + juice + dates	EGP	69
Bus to dahar	EGP	5
Bus to el gouna	EGP	16
Tip in spa at mersa alam	EGP	20
Vodafone recharge	EGP	10
Bus to cairo from El Gouna	EGP	180
Souvenir cash	EGP	182
Hotel at Cairo	EGP	200
Dinner at Cairo	EGP	75
Souvenir+ cab to Khan el Khalil	EGP	100
Total balance	EGP	6932.5
Total balance	USD	550
Total balance	INR	7000