Have been asked [ordered!] to try & book a week-long holiday to Egypt in October, for my GF’s 30th birthday.

I’ve not got thousands to chuck at it to do everything, does anyone have any suggestions for areas to base ourselves/stuff to do/stuff to avoid?
If you know of any good deals, that’d help too… And yes, avoiding the sketchy bits please!

Well what do you want to do? Look at pyramids? Learn to dive?

We liked Dahab but we were there to dive. It is not far from Sharm but a lot smaller, less busy and a bit more hippyish – mostly. Good desert trips, snorkelling, diving lessons etc.

I liked Dahab too, good for trips – ie climb Sinai overnight and see the sun rise. The thing that sticks in my mind most about going to Egypt though was going to Siwa oasis and then doing a 3 day safari through the Sahara. We slept on the sand overnight with blankets/sleeping bags which was amazing. Worth considering doing something like that I would say but over by the Red Sea if poss cos Siwa is very close to Libya.

2nd TooTall. Dahab for some nice snorkelling/diving right off the beach and a few day trips into the mountains and desert. Sharm is much bigger and more like a European resort if that is your thing. Hurghada is Basingstoke by the sea. Luxor or a Nile cruise if you want antiquities. Cairo is quite a place. Not relaxing but still fun and pyramids are great if you get there early. Its a big place with lots nothing in between so its hard to see it all.

Dahab is a good shout actually TooTall, I went there a few years ago when there was barely anything there! Great diving, cheap as chips and not too many idiots or for that matter Egypian men either harrassing you or asking if you will sell your girlfriend / wife (was amusing at first until they started trying to touch her hair)!

Diving is probably the best I’ve seen especially “The Blue Hole”, “The Caves” (saw turtles here, which was awesome) and anywhere along Hilton Beach is easy and a quiet place to learn.

Sharm is good if you want something a bit livelier with bars and clubs, but I personally found it a bit irritating after a couple of days. Head for Pinkies Drop (really mental if you aren’t expecting it as you walk out across a beautiful coral reef to suddenly tip over the edge of a 300 metre drop into blackness below – scary stuff) and Jolanda (again I saw turtles and white-tipped reef sharks) but this gets mega busy!

Have a great time whatever you choose but I would definitely recommend diving in Egypt as one of those once in a lifetime experiences! You never know you might want to take it up properly, I did!

Good Luck

Depends what you’re after, as already said.For me the focus was more piles of old stones and dead old stuff.
I’ve stayed at the Marsam Hotel, Luxor ideally situated for some the Luxor anitquities – Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Hapshetsuts Funerary Temple and the Ramesseum, All on the west bank. Less well placed for Luxor itself and Karnak, but easy enough, what with regular ferries and all. I got to drive the Nile ferry, for a small consideration. Very Indiana Jones and a great favourite with archaeologists. And cheap.
In Cairo, I stayed at the Windsor Hotel (as did Michael Palin on his Round the World jaunt). Slightly run down and very colonial (and reasonably cheap). It’s Downtown, so nothing’s on your doorstep apart fom the shops but taxis were cheap enough. Must do’s are the Pyramids (obviously), the Egyptian Museum, the Citadel, the Necropolis and Old 9or Islamic) Cairo. And the famous sweetie shop about 2/3s of the way between the hotel and the museum if you take the direct route.

Girlfriend has booked a family cruise for late September and Egypt was on the itinerary but has recently been removed due to ‘civil unrest’ expected in the region at that time????

The wife treated me to the Nile cruise thing a couple of years ago, we spent a night here Mena House she wouldn’t tell me how much it was 😯
We also stayed here Winter Palace
The worse thing about Cairo and the Nile is the people trying to get money out of you everywhere you go.
We went to Sharm last xmas just to be somewhere warm away from the ice and snow, ideal for just slobbing out lying in the sun.

im in same boat as OP looking to go start of november. you say dahab is good for diving. i assume you mean scuba diving, and so would i need padi qualifications before i go, or is it all taken care of there? im thinking its a few day course to be qualified?
oh, and again, same as OP, not got loads of wedge to chuck at it, so how much would that likely cost?

thanks

We went on this very expensive Nile cruise a couple of years ago. Fantastic holiday with a very knowledgeable guide who got rid of all the hawkers
http://www.balesworldwide.com/HolidayItinerary2008.Tab-.HolidayID-3315.nor-0hd00c005001

sadexpunk – i know nothing about dahab, but a bit about padi.
if you want to learn diving, it’s in 2 parts – pool and open water (and theory, but that’s a bit of a doddle). You can do the pool stuff here, then complete the open water someplace else, like dahab – it’s called a referral and a padi dive centre could probably help you out. pool and theory sections are valid for 12 months from passing.

you can probably google the rest,

Hilton – Sharks Bay is good – I like the ‘old’ side better – feels like a vilage!

Snorkling / boat and desert trips and theres a bit of a street / square for an evening stroll.

Wherever you go – you will get pestered to part with your cash.

sadexpunk, yep to go scuba diving below 7m you either need PADI or the other one I can’t remember, but you can learn to dive over an intensive 3 day course – highly recommended if you enjoy your basic dive lessons. To be honest though in the red sea you can see so much within the 7m you don’t really need to go lower down in the water.

When I went the three day course was about £250 to £300 but it has probably gone up now. Diving sessions were about £20 to £30 a go.

Snorkelling is well worth a try as well and only costs you the price of a mask, snorkel and flippers (to get a reasonable set over here would only be about £30) a must IMO.

I don’t know if they will still be there but when I went to Sharm there were a German couple who opened a dive school from a shop underneith the Grand Sharm Hotel. They are very good divers and will only give you equipment that has been safety tested, unlike a lot of the other schools. Also they are PADI qualified to teach!

Sadex – I’ve been to Dahab and you don’t need to go diving to see amazing underwater beasties. I saw turtles, squid, lionfish, reef fish, rays etc etc etc. I stayed in a small Egyptian hotel whilst there and it was great, good food, clean and great staff. Pretty easy on the wallet doing it that way.

OP – you can make a trip to Petra from Dahab if you plan it well. Organised trips from the hotels cost a bit but ask around and someone can usually recommend three taxi companies ( one in each country you need to travel in, Egypt then Israel then Jordan )but best done as an overnight trip from Dahab.

you don’t need to go diving to see amazing underwater beasties

but if you do it is more amazing by sick multiplied to the gnar!

We dived with Sinai Divers there – they have a school at the Hilton or they run out of the Backpackers there which may suit your budget more. When we went there were a few airlines going under, so the safer and cheaper way was a package deal for flight and hotel. Travel seems a bit more stable now.
If you did a referral open water course you’d get the most bang for your buck – classroom and pool work in the UK then the open water dives in the Red Sea. Diving somewhere like the Canyon and around to the Blue Hole is just superb – just have to experience something like that yourself. Then you’ll have the qualification if you ever fancy it on holiday again.

You can do various dives that don’t require any training such as Discover Scuba Diving where you basically go for a dive accompanied by an instructor. It tends to be a bit more expensive but if you only fancy a little go it might be worth while. You can do the whole course out there, in Dahab the conditions are so perfect you tend to do the pool dives in sea just off the beach. The snorkelling is fantastic right off the beach so you don’t need to dive but its a shame to miss out on some excellent dives.

Is it a diving holiday you’re after?

If you want ancient Egypt, i’d recommend flying straight to Luxor. That’s where all the good stuff is.

I can highly recommend taking some acid and visiting Karnak temple for the night-time sound and light show while there. Far **** out maaan!

Look at El Gouna near Hurghada as well as long as you don’t want antiquities. It’s a recently created resort town (with gates) built out in the desert. They’ve built lots of lagoons and stuff. There are quite a few hotels, a small town centre with a number of restaurants, a more up market marina area. Loads of diving on offer as well as waterpsorts, beaches (not great on the sand front). Not bad for a relaxing / amateur diving holiday.

The only thing we found disappointing were the trips out of the resort which were very lame and tacky. If you want to go snorkelling, book to go out on the dive boats rather than the tourist snorkelling trips. If nothing else the crew prepare loads of local food and are much nicer than on the more touristy trips.

Hullo all – thanks for the replies!

We have no diving experience & would probably only try it once or twice while there. Not sure we’d bother snorkelling – friends said don’t waste the time, just go diving instead.

As she’s into all the antiquities n’ stuff i expect we’ll be doing the pyramids/tombs/etc.
Not that keen on spending much/any time in Cairo, resorts mentioned are helpful thanks!

This is turning into a ‘mare already – can’t go that far & not spend time/money checking all the sights.

same here, thanks for the replies. as far as diving goes, mrs expunk doesnt do water, so cant see meself sorting anything like that as its just us two. so the odd bit of snorkelling might be a good compromise.
taken on board the dahab recommendations, and been looking at hotels. after a bit of ‘tripadvisor’ surfing, we’ve found the ‘iberotel dahabeya’. pretty much all decent reviews, altho it seems to be quite apparent that the foods still a bit canteeny and boring on the all-inclusive, but we havent found a place yet where that isnt the case.

but…..the main concern is, theres a few reviews that say the sun pretty much disappears by 3pm in november!!! i cant see them lying about that, so is that the same in your experience?

if so then canaries is maybe back as favourite for more sun.

cheers

As she’s into all the antiquities n’ stuff i expect we’ll be doing the pyramids/tombs/etc.

You’ll probably be limited to staying inland unless you go for a couple of weeks. Maybe fly into Cairo do the museum and pyramids then head down to Luxor for the tombs and temples with a trip up the Nile. If you have a second week head to Sinai for some relaxing. Totally disagree about not bothering with snorkelling, from Dahab its amazing right off the beach.

the sun pretty much disappears by 3pm in november

Sounds about right. Its east facing with mountains to the west so the sun goes early. You get lovely morning sun and there’s more than enough of it during the day. Just get up/go to bed early 🙂 I prefer the hotels in town then dine at one of the beach front restaurants rather than the all inclusive hotels. Seems a shame to go all that way then stay in a resort that could be anywhere.

nick – it depends on where you look at snorkelling from. After diving, snorkelling really is a poor cousin.

hmmm thats put us off dahab now then mate. so thanks for the heads up. money dictates that we need to go all inclusive really, unless egypts a cheap place itself, which i doubt.
yep, we’d prefer to see more of a resort and eat in different places each day, but just cant afford it. so your points a valid one. if we go all-in then we may just as well be anywhere as we’d have to virtually live in the hotel.
did that last year at lanzarote and enjoyed it, as we just went for the winter sun after a hectic year and we’re no better off financially this year so mebbes have to look at doing the same.

shame in a way that we’re probably missing out on sights/trips/nice eateries, but you can only afford what you can afford i spose, so its a compromise.

thanks 🙂

just been looking at a map of egypts resorts to see if any are on ‘the other side’ so would get late sun, but they all seem to be on the west bank of the water so facing east. so are they all getting early sun which disappears mid afternoon? or are some away from the mountains and get it a bit later?

ta

nick – it depends on where you look at snorkelling from. After diving, snorkelling really is a poor cousin.

I’ve got around 80 dives logged in the Red Sea so i know its excellent especially once you get away from the crowds 🙂 I’d still rather go snorkelling with the mrs than herded round with a bunch of numpties, though. We’ve just got back from Australia and the snorkelling/freediving was better than the scuba diving we did. I find it more relaxing. To me they are different activities like XC and downhill

thats put us off dahab now then mate. so thanks for the heads up. money dictates that we need to go all inclusive really, unless egypts a cheap place itself, which i doubt… or are some away from the mountains and get it a bit later

Egypt is very cheap once you get away from the bigger tourist resorts like Sharm. You should get dinner for a few quid each, a little more for posher dishes. There is at least one west facing resort but I’ve never been, its geraed up for windsurfing rather than diving/snorkelling so its not for me. Its properly dark by 6ish anyway IIRC so you wont get much extra.

For the op really, since there’s no diving :-)-
It might be an idea to base yourself in Luxor- iirc, and it’s been about 15 years since I went, and was staying in really cheap places, there’s quite a lot of hotel resorts built there, probably not quite as cheap to stay in as the Red Sea ones, but still affordable. From there you could do a (long) day trip to Hurghad for some snorkelling, and of course head down the Nile to Aswan/Nasser, catch a felucca part way back, visit Edfu, Philae etc etc, as well as all the obvious stuff in Luxor.
It’s possible to catch the train to Aswan, or up to Cairo from Luxor- you can do them overnight.

Also worth having a look at a wee trip out into the Western Desert to one of the oases- I only went to Siwa, which is probably a bit far away (and close to Libya), but I think at least one are reachable in a day from Luxor.