Egypt

[Diamonddog]

We're looking to send my mum on a holiday to Egypt later on this year. She'll be 68 and has had a hip and knee replacement, so isn't the most mobile person.
A few obvious questions - is there a 'cooler' time in Egypt - I really don't think she'd enjoy really hot weather. Also, where does she need to go - Cairo, The Pyramids. Where else? Is is possible to do it in four/five days, as opposed to a week or more? She'd be travelling with her younger sister (63) by the way. What's transportation like?

All help greatly appreciated.

[truesdpr]

Hi,

I've been to Egypt twice - once on honeymoon. We went in October /November which is a bit cooler than the summer months. Not sure about early in the year but you could check that on one of the weather sites or a travel brochure. The general trend in Egypt is that it tends to be a holiday visiting temples and historic sites like the valley of the kings etc and a popular way to do this is on a Nile Cruise. These generally last about a week and it's a good way of seeing lots of places and things in a short time. Two ladies travelling together may also prefer this as you tend to be moved around by coach as part of a larger group. The only thing I would say against this is that there does tend to be a lot of walking and sometimes a bit of climbing i.e. in and out of tombs etc. You don't have to go into and up to everything but there tends to be few places to sit and wait for people to come back and it does get very hot! The other option would be to book into a hotel in Luxor or Aswan and take some excursions for a day or half day and spend the rest of the time around the pool. This is what we did on our first trip which was for a week and it worked well. You can do a day cruise down the Nile and that was a good way to see some of the sites a bit further away. A package would be good for this as the tour operators all operate the excursions and again you are with other people for security. We loved Luxor – the hotel and the food was good and the people very friendly. You can go out in the evenings and have a walk around – everyone does try to sell you something though and that can become a bit tiresome but they are not aggressive. We went to Cairo at the end of our trip and although it was lovely to see the pyramids and sphinx, we found the city too busy and quite difficult to get around. The taxis are terrifying and the traffic horrendous. However, lots of colour and character. I think by then we had been there almost 3 weeks and were ready to come home so perhaps didn’t give Cairo much of a chance – we were suffering severe temple fatigue by that point and had all the gold, papyrus leather and perfume we could carry!

[Diamonddog]

Thanks for that. It's probably not going to be anymore than a week - what could she (realistically) do in that time? I know she'd want to visit the historical sites - Valley Of Kings, Luxor, Pyramids etc. How do you get between one and the other and do you book hotels for each individual place, or are they 'day trippable'? Or is a cruise the only answer?

[truesdpr]

We stayed in a hotel in Luxor for a week and went on a number of organised excursions to temples & valley of the kings etc. There are a number of sites in and around Luxor with the valley just across the river. We took a short flight down ot Aswan on one of the days to see the dam and another couple of temples - that was a really nice trip and perfectly do-able in a day. On another day we took a river cruise which was for a full day and included lunch and the obligatory temple visits. Also did an evening excursion. Most day trips start early in the morning and are often back early pm so they could relax by the pool later in the day. It's all perfectly do-able in a week in Luxor but would probably leave out Cairo. A cruise is the other option which has the advantage of being quite leisurely on the water but up early most days to visit the temple of the day - evening entertainment is provided and usually includes dinner & breakfast. Cruise boats vary in quality of cabins and meals but most are of a good standard.

If I was doing it again I'd base in Luxor and do the excursions but you will need to factor these into the overall cost.

Hope this is of some help.

Pam.

[Raymond]

No question, its got to be a cruise with the excursion package added on. Much better for people over a certain age.