We survived! After nearly a year of looking at the various options in Egypt, then booking a tour six months out, we finally had our trip of a lifetime in February. The best part of the trip? Our friends Barb, Cutis and Beth joined us for the adventure and everything is always better with friends, especially camel rides!
Believe me, Egypt was everything we dreamed of and more. We spent a total of 10 nights traveling throughout the country -click to see the exact trip we took. Three of those nights were spent in an amazing resort, the historic Marriott Mena House in Giza, with a view of the pyramids. The other seven nights were spent aboard a small barge like sailboat called a Dahabiya. With five cabins and 2 suites the total number of passengers on board would have at most been 14, but we were lucky and there were only a total of 11 passengers. It was lovely.
The first three days we concentrated on Cairo, where we visited the Giza Pyramids, the Step Pyramids in Saqqara, the Egyptian Museum and the Citadel of Cairo where the Mohammad Ali Mosque is located. Then we caught a flight to Aswan, located in the southern part of Egypt, which is strangely enough referred to as Upper Egypt. Aswan is a town located on the Nile and, a little bit of trivia, is where some of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile was set.
In Aswan we boarded our Dahabiya, the Sonesta Amirat, and spent the next five days on the Nile traveling north to Luxor, stopping at temples, tombs, towns, and islands along the way. There will be more pictures and posts to come regarding the specific places we stopped, but for now I just have to say that they were all amazing. Before we knew it, we were in Luxor. We spent two days there exploring the Temples of Luxor and Karnak and the Valleys of the Kings and Queens.
No holiday to an exotic location is complete without shopping and we got to shop with abandon in some interesting places. We saw how beautiful carpets are made by hand, tested essential oils, and were able to get cartouches made with our names in hieroglyphics.
Probably the most interesting shopping we did though was while our boat crew was navigating a lock on the Nile. A row boat with two men in it and filled with table clothes, shawls, and other assorted Egyptian clothing, pulled along our Dahabiya. They held up pieces, and we haggled back and forth from our boat deck about the prices. When a deal was struck they would throw the item up to us along with a small plastic bag. We would put the money for the item in the bag and throw it back to them. If we seemed to be losing interest in their merchandise they would just start launching items at us. Believe me, they had great arms and aim. Barb is an expert haggler, so we would let her strike a deal with them and then we would all yell “I want one too!” Everyone on the boat bought more than we intended to, but it was just so entertaining.
I can’t say enough about how much we enjoyed Egypt and this trip. We met lovely people, we saw first hand, history that we learned about in grade school, and, most importantly I think, we came back with a better understanding of a different culture. We felt safe the entire time (well, occasionally the aggressive sales people got a little scary) and the people we met were so friendly. We had numerous people approach us and ask us to please tell everyone we know that Egypt is safe and to please come visit. They have been hit extremely hard by the unrest their country experienced several years ago and tourism is a big part of their economy.
I also want to say thank you to the tour company we booked through – Discover Egypt. They were amazingly patient with all my questions and worked tirelessly to make sure we were able to squeeze in every last thing we wanted to see and do on this trip. They are a UK based company but worked hard to accommodate the Americans who traveled on this tour.
Finally, please don’t hesitate to visit Egypt. It is amazing, the people are welcoming, and there is just so much to see and do. If you are considering a trip to Egypt, plan it now. The tourists are returning and it will soon be crowded again.
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