Egypt?

stickyfiddle

Anyone been lately?  Is it good?

boogieman

A couple of friends have just moved to Cairo to work: they love it. Another friend is married to an Egyptian guy and they go out to Alexandria every now and then to visit his family and they say it's nice. The package tourist industry is still screwed though, not many flights going into Sharm El Sheikh (and still no sign of the ban on flights from the U.K. being lifted) because of the Russian flight being bombed last year.

I'd love to visit at some stage, I'm fascinated by ancient Egypt and want to visit the pyramids, Aswan, Thebes etc. What puts me off slightly is every single person I know who has been out there has suffered stomach problems. 

Emp_Fab

Take Pot Noodles.  Oh, and an armoured personnel carrier.

ICBM

boogieman said:

I'd love to visit at some stage, I'm fascinated by ancient Egypt and want to visit the pyramids, Aswan, Thebes etc. What puts me off slightly is every single person I know who has been out there has suffered stomach problems. 

I didn't, and nor did my wife. But we did get very bad colds, probably from the air conditioning… typically, we had taken every kind of stomach upset remedy we had since that's what were were expecting, and nothing for colds because Egypt is a hot country so why would that occur to us? Doh.

boogieman

ICBM said:

boogieman said:

I'd love to visit at some stage, I'm fascinated by ancient Egypt and want to visit the pyramids, Aswan, Thebes etc. What puts me off slightly is every single person I know who has been out there has suffered stomach problems. 

I didn't, and nor did my wife. But we did get very bad colds, probably from the air conditioning… typically, we had taken every kind of stomach upset remedy we had since that's what were were expecting, and nothing for colds because Egypt is a hot country so why would that occur to us? Doh.

@ICBM that's reassuring on the stomach thing. What sort of trip did you do? I fancy one of the Nile cruises. 

Deijavoo

Went to Hurghada. Well, El Gouna to be accurate
 

Other than quad biking in the desert it was totally shit. Complete waste of money and a very depressing country. 

ICBM

boogieman said:

@ICBM that's reassuring on the stomach thing. What sort of trip did you do? I fancy one of the Nile cruises. 

That's what we did, with extra bits at the end. Two days in Cairo, fly to Aswan to see the lake and Abu Simbel, a week on a Nile cruise boat going to Luxor stopping at all the small temples and sites on the way, and then four days in Luxor and the Valley Of The Kings.

That was twenty years ago but I assume nothing much has changed and you can still do that sort of thing.

boogieman

ICBM said:

boogieman said:

@ICBM that's reassuring on the stomach thing. What sort of trip did you do? I fancy one of the Nile cruises. 

That's what we did, with extra bits at the end. Two days in Cairo, fly to Aswan to see the lake and Abu Simbel, a week on a Nile cruise boat going to Luxor stopping at all the small temples and sites on the way, and then four days in Luxor and the Valley Of The Kings.

That was twenty years ago but I assume nothing much has changed and you can still do that sort of thing.

Sounds perfect,  I'll have to investigate. Ta. 

stickyfiddle

Cheers all. We'd be going with a proper tour; Cairo and Luxor the priority I think. Flights are fairly cheap and all the governmnt guidance is saying the main areas are pretty safe at the moment, but tourism is down 90% or so which would make it a great time to go for photography in particular.

We've done a fair bit of the middle east so well used to the usual cons and grumpy salesmen. Always good fun...

boogieman

stickyfiddle said:

Cheers all. We'd be going with a proper tour; Cairo and Luxor the priority I think. Flights are fairly cheap and all the governmnt guidance is saying the main areas are pretty safe at the moment, but tourism is down 90% or so which would make it a great time to go for photography in particular.
 

Tourism is definitely screwed over there, big time. The friend I mentioned in an earlier post, her husband was a restaurant owner in Dahab and his business went bust a couple of years back. Just no trade to keep it going. His mates out there are saying it'll be years till tourism recovers to anything like previous levels. 

EricTheWeary

Someone I know went a few years ago for a wedding anniversary and booked a package trip around the pyramids followed by a luxury restaurant meal. He said the crowds around the pyramids meant it was unpleasant going around and the luxury restaurant was TGI Fridays. Still, if tourism is screwed at least now will be a better time to see the pyramids.

ICBM

EricTheWeary said:

Someone I know went a few years ago for a wedding anniversary and booked a package trip around the pyramids followed by a luxury restaurant meal. He said the crowds around the pyramids meant it was unpleasant going around and the luxury restaurant was TGI Fridays. Still, if tourism is screwed at least now will be a better time to see the pyramids.

We went to the Pyramids in our two days in Cairo, and we were warned not to go in the middle of the day because it would be far too hot. But we figured out that it would be best then, because everyone else would pay attention to the warnings, so we found a minibus driver willing to take us and a Dutch woman who'd had the same idea there at 1pm.

We were right - it was blindingly hot, but bearable… and there were just the three of us there. Even the souvenir touts were away for lunch.

RandallFlagg

We went on family holiday to Hurgharda in 2013, full of Russians and the local town was a shit hole. Never again.