***Caution: Long Post(much needed tips)***
So, the plan for this trip started way back in June 2017, when we decided to book a flight to Egypt(Always on top of our bucket list). As we are budget backpackers, we always want a cheap and convenient flight. For any trip plan, we decide the cities we wish to see and the number of days we have to take off from office. Finally we fixed the date Jan 26-31 ,2018 and the flight rate came to 26000 INR per head in July after Yatra Offers. So flight Ticket- Done!.
After few months, The next big thing for the travel plan came to Hotel Accommodation,Visa and Forex. In December, we used Hostelworld to book accommodation in Cairo(Reserved) and Luxor(Reserved) for Visa Purposes. Our Egypt tourist Visa were processed by musafir.com. The Visa fees along with processing fees and tax came to 4350 INR per per head.
Started our plan for itinerary in Jan first week, decided to stay 3 days in Cairo and 2 days in Luxor. Our Final plan looked like this:
Day-1
26Jan 250AM chennai - 550AM Kuwait
26Jan 10:00AM kuwait - 12:10Noon - cairo.. Take Metro to Rameses Station - Walk to New Palace Hostel - Check IN by 1pm..Take rest..Start at 3pm..visit Al-Azhar Mosque,Citadel of Salah El Din,Mosque of Md Ali and back to room by 8.
Day-2 - Jan27
Check Out - Leave Bags - Start by 7 and reach Pyramid Giza complex((khufu & Khafre) & Great Sphinx)..spend till 1pm. Reach Museum(Must visit rooms 3,4,9,35,46,56) by 2pm..spend till 5pm..back to hotel and take the bags..Get to Ramses Station by 8..get train ticket or board train 86 at 910PM
Day-3 - Jan28
Reach Luxor 610AM..Reach New Everest hotel at 8AM Check-In get settled and start at 9AM..Reach West Bank (All places 6AM-5PM). Ramesseum,Temples of NoblesValley of the Kings - KV62-tutakhamen,Temple of Medinat Habu,Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahari. Return back to Hotel by 8
Day-4 - Jan29
Check Our and Leave the bags. Start by 8..visit Temple of Karnak 6AM-5PM and 4PM-9PM in the morning and Luxor Temple - 6AM-9PM - 60LE by noon..Back to Hotel by 8 and take the bags..Reach Luxor station and board train to cairo at 940PM
Day-5 - Jan30
Reach Cairo Rameses Station..Check In New Palace Hotel. Visit hanging church,coptic museum and saqqara pyramid, Khan el khaili if time permits in evening and return back to hotel
Day-6 - Jan31
Start at 8AM..visit Baron Empain Palace(must-see) Reach airport by 11AM and then back to Chennai on Feb 1, 1:30 AM.
A week before our trip, we went to Maharaja Forex to get Egyptian pounds we needed. But due to limited stock and higher conversion rate(1LE=4INR) we exchanged 15000 INR to 250 USD, so that we can change it to EGP in Cairo Airport which eventually came to 4500 EGP. We also had our International credit cards covered.
Its the D-day,we got into our flight enjoyed 8 hours flight travel with additional 5 hours layover at Kuwait and reached Cairo at 2 PM local time. After immigration process, we exchanged 150 USD to get 2600 EGP at the Cairo airport.
We took the blue bus which is a free shuttle from Airport to the nearest Bus Depot.From there we took Bus 111 which gets to Ramsis Station, paid 5 LE for 2, and got down near Oraby Metro and walked down to Emad el-din street. Most of the people barely speak English,mostly Arabic; So they tried to help us by explaining through signs. Finally by 4PM, we reached New Palace Hotel, paid the remaining fees for the room. Got into the room, took rest and decided that we cant go Cairo Citadel as it gets closed by 4:30 pm.
So we decided to roam nearby places and had dinner . Even though our Hotel had WiFi we needed SIM to use maps. We got Orange SIM(1000 mins local, 3.5 GB, 30 days) for 80 LE in the market. You can also buy Vodafone SIM(1000 mins local, 1 GB, 30 days) for 60 from the shop at Ramsis Railway station. As it is Winter season in Egypt, the temperature was around 16 degree Celsius. We couldn't adapt to the climate change easily.We walked from Market till Tahrir Square - Sadat Metro.Bought a water bottle for 5 LE and came back to Room.
Next Morning, we woke at 8AM, refreshed and Checked out of the room and kept our bags at the Hotel. Took Coolers, Camera, Selfie Stick in small bag and reached Al Shohaada Metro and took a train to Giza station. It was not rush hour and cost 4 LE for 2.
On the way to the Pyramids, we were accompanied by a native Egyptian with his kids. He worked in Alexandria and came here to visit Pyramids as his kids were in Holiday. He spoke fluently in English. He guided us to the Pyramid complex. We reached Pyramids Road through Bus and from the Train Station for which we paid 10 LE for 2. By 11 AM, we reached a shop which provided Camel and Horse rides. We took camel and instead of getting ticket from Entrance office he offered 600 LE for ticket and camel ride for 4 hours. For getting some great views, we opted it even though the ticket cost was 120 LE. The Native Egyptian left us because he booked horse. We along with a guide took a longest route and started seeing the Pyramids one by one with a good view. Our guide took photos for us, we climbed Pyramids and enjoyed taking pics.
We didn't pay the additional 300 LE to enter inside the great Pyramid. There was a long queue. Most of them told that it is not worth as it has a small pathway and nothing can be seen clearly, so we skipped it.
Took few pics in front of Sphinx and reached the end of Pyramid road and took a bus to reach Giza Train station for 10 LE for 2 and again paid 4 LE for 2 and took the train to Sadat station. We had lunch and reached Egyptian Museum at 3 PM.
With 2 hours left for closing, we didn't pay for the Mummy rooms. We took the base ticket of 120 LE which covered everything except mummy rooms. By 5 PM security guards started closing the sections one by one. We came out and took the train from Sadat to Al Shohadaa and reached the room by 7 PM. We rushed to Ramsis station to get the tickets to Luxor. They told all the tickets were sold out for next 2 days. We planned to get the ticket on-board from the checker by paying the fine. We took the 9 PM train to Aswan unreserved. We paid 115 LE including the fine to the checker and got the ticket which is a bad idea. We should have taken the Bus. We didn't get a proper seat to take rest as all of them were reserved. We needed to switch often. We reached Luxor at 7:30 AM.
From the Luxor station we walked to our Hotel Accommodation - New Everst Hotel using maps.
We kept our bag in the Hotel, took camera and started walking towards the East Bank ferry point. We were approached by many taxi drivers(Scams) coming up with different rates to visit all the places in west bank ranging from 300 LE to 500 LE only for the Taxi ride. We avoided the scammers. We paid 2 LE for each and took the ferry to west bank.
We started walking towards the ticket office skipping all taxi drivers.
After walking 3km, we reached Colossi of Memnon. Took some pics and started walking towards ticket office.
What an apt saying..We covered almost our entire west bank by walking. We reached ticket office and bought ticket for Habu Temple.
Had breakfast at nearby Pharoh Hotel. Reached Habu Temple and discussed its history with fellow travelers, took pics and returned to ticket office and bought ticket for Ramesseum.
Walked 2 km to Ramesseum. There weren't much people there. Took pics and discussed some details with amiable security guards.
Finally walked 3.5 km to reach Hatsheput Temple at Dier el-Bahari and paid 160 LE for 2 for the tickets. Helped the fellow tourist to take some photos. We were tired after walking 8 km. For our last spot, we bargained with a cab driver and finally agreed to a good deal to pay 100 LE to take us to Valley of the Kings and back to west bank ferry point.
We came here only to visit the world famous Tomb of Tutankhamun KV62. But here came the twist, we needed to pay additional 200 LE to visit it. The normal Entrance ticket covers 3 Tombs for 160 LE. We paid 720 LE for 2 and went to our First Tomb, Ramses III. We didn't pay the additional 300 LE for taking photos inside the 3 tombs. Then we reached KV62. We were awestruck after seeing the original mummy and cascade of Tutankhamun. Felt worth the money.
After seeing other 2 tombs (Merenptah and Seti II) we took our Taxi and returned to Ferry point. Then checked into Hotel and took some rest.
At Al Haref, we had dinner at 8 PM. Then went to a nearby private bus agency and enquired about Bus to Cairo. They had services at 8,9&11 PM to Cairo for 100 LE the next day.We decided to reserve ticket the next day morning.
Next day, we refreshed and started at 10 AM. Checked out of the Hotel. Our plan for the day was to visit Karnak Temple in the Morning and Luxor Temple in the evening. We reserved our bus tickets as mentioned earlier and walked along the banks of Nile River to reach Karnak Temple.
We reached Karnak Ticket Office at 11 AM and paid 120 LE for each and spent the entire day exploring and taking photos in the temple.
By 4 PM we came out and had some snack and went to banks of Nile. We started to Luxor Temple at 5:30 PM to see the beautiful light effects.
Had some street food and reached Luxor temple at 5:45 PM and paid 100 LE each for the ticket.Had chat with fellow travelers and took pics and left the temple at 6:40 PM.
Reached the Hotel at 7 PM and had some casual conversation with the Hotel staff and had dinner. Also bought some sweets and pastries at 8 PM and reached the bus agency and waited till 9 PM for the bus. We arrived at the Ramsis station around 9 AM.
We checked into New Palace Hostel at 10 AM. Instead of Saqqara Necropolis we decided to visit Al-Azhar Mosque,Mosque of Md Ali and Citadel of Saladin which we missed on our Day-1 plan. And also covered Khan Al-khilili Market to buy souvenirs. We visited Al-Alzhar Mosque first and then went to Market. After bargaining, we got 3 papyrus for 30 LE and 2 Alabaster Statues for 30 LE. Took a sharing ride to Cairo Citadel for 10 LE.
Paid 100 LE for Cairo Citadel and explored the grandeur of the citadel .We can get a clear view of Islamic Cairo from here and can even see the Pyramids with naked eyes. We took a bus nearby and reached our Hotel.
Spent rest of the day taking rest. At 7 PM, we went to Tahrir Square to have some sweets. Had Zelabiya dipped in Nutella and returned to hotel.
Next Morning, we refreshed and checked out of our Hotel at 10 AM to reach our final destination, Indian inspired mansion - Baron Empain Palace. We took Metro from Attaba and reached Koleyet El Banat and walked to the destination. Unfortunately, the site was under renovation. We managed to take some good snaps and had breakfast in a nearby shop.
Took the Metro to Al-Ahram (nearest station to the Airport) from Koleyet el-Banat which was a bad idea. THE METRO DOES NOT CONNECT AIRPORT. We paid 70 LE to reach Airport. With 10 minutes left to gate closing, we did immigration check and rushed to the Gate at 1:30 PM. We came back to Chennai to 1:30 AM(local time) on Feb 1, 2018.
This is one of our awesome trips filled with great memories. Even though we missed Saqqara Necropolis, Valley of Queens and Mummification Museum, we enjoyed a lot.
This is my first write -up, Feel free to post your queries,suggestions and feedback in the comments.
