Open Side Menu Go to the Top
Register
Egypt for 8 days. What to do? Safety? Egypt for 8 days. What to do? Safety?

04-21-2008 , 11:46 PM
I am going to be in Egypt for eight days in mid-July. So far my only plans are to check out the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and take a day trip out to the Giza Pyramids. I'm estimating 4 days for exploring Cairo and doing those activities. Alexandria is suppose to be only a short train ride away but I'm not sure what it has to offer. Also, I kind of wanted to check out the beach cities like Dahab in the Sinai area but according to various travel advisories (http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-c...w/Advice/Egypt) there is a high risk of terrorism in this area as well as the rest of Egypt. This information has me a but nervous. In addition to that I just read on CNN there have been protests due to rising food prices in Egypt as well. Should I be fearful of these alerts?
thanks
Eric
Egypt for 8 days. What to do? Safety? Quote
04-22-2008 , 01:14 AM
I'd like to know if anyone has anything to add as I'll be there in late May.
Egypt for 8 days. What to do? Safety? Quote
04-22-2008 , 02:02 AM
I was in Egypt for about 12 days just in Feb, so I can probably give a few cents worth of advice.

I've traveled a fair amount and seen some places but Cairo still totally overwhelmed me as a city. Its a step beyond anywhere I'd been before in terms of noise, pollution and total disorder. A good example is at the Pyramids, perhaps one of the most visited tourist sites in the world, the ticket booth is a little hut with a plain clothes dude sitting in it asking for money with no signs or anything. I though he was a little sketchy so I decided to keep walking to see if there was another place or something and just strolled right in without buying a ticket and didnt even realize I had crossed into the grounds. The Egyptian Museum is also totally mindblowing in its lack of signage, there are 4000 year old statues littered about the place and many arent labeled in any way. There are plans to renovate and basically I heard that they need to bring archaeologists back in to to essentially excavate everything again because so many records have been lost.

Another thing to know is that a lot of the people you 'meet' are trying to rip you off in someway, be it cab drivers, restaurants or people trying to physically drag you onto their camels while youre enjoying the Pyramids. One example of a classic scam: I'm in a cab on my way to the Pyramids when a random guy hails the cab and hops in with me, (sharing cabs actually isnt that unusual in cairo in general) and begins to tell me that he happens to work at the light show out there and how lucky I am to meet him since he can tell me all the secrets tourists dont know about. I am of course just kinda ignoring him and playing along, but he is also talking to the cabbie in arabic and soon I realize that we are no longer going where I had planned. Instead he takes me to some back neighborhood where some guy with a camel is waiting to take through what is literally a hole in the wall around the Pyramid grounds, cab driver doesnt really listen when I tell him to take me to the front (I have no idea how to get there on my own) and basically I'm stuck haggling for a camel ride and illegal tickets until they give up and I demand the cabbie take me to the front gate. For all this though I never really felt unsafe throughout the whole stay there and the worst that would happen is that you get taken for a few bucks here and there, but the constant hassle really started to wear on me pretty quickly.

I didn't go to Alexandria because the weather wasnt nice enough yet, but did go south to see the temples at Luxor and Aswan. These were very cool but also totally overrun with tourists, slightly ruined the experience for me.

Also spent a few days in Dahab, really liked it out there. Its a very very chill place with not much going on, pretty backpackery which was actually a nice break from the rest of Egypt if youre into that sort of thing. You can scuba/snorkel super cheap and take all sorts of other day trips (I did a 2am Mt Sinai climb for sunrise which was awesome). I cant comment too much on the safety, I happened to cross from Israel to Egypt the day after the Palestinians in Gaza broke through the security wall and had essentially no problems myself. The whole time I was there I felt very safe, but it obviously only takes one bomb for things to go all to hell.

Hope this helps, its a little rambly, I'm happy to answer any other more specific questions you might have.
Egypt for 8 days. What to do? Safety? Quote
04-22-2008 , 03:32 AM
Egypt is safe in terms of terrorism especially when comparing to neighboring countries.

I love cities. I love exploring them and I love the nonstop activity. In that reference, Cairo is awesome. It is smelly, dirty, mostly unattractive... but I loved it. Spent two or so weeks there. But, if you're mostly looking for touristy things, or things of specific interest, you won't find much.

Dahab - LOVED Dahab. If you can only go to one place besides Cairo, I would pick here. Beautiful waters, chilled out atmosphere. Just a great feel.

Luxor - The monuments around Luxor (Valley of the Kings, etc) are pretty amazing in their history. But, Luxor it self is a total **** hole. If you're going in the summer, its going to be 40+ everyday and people are going to follow you nonstop trying to sell you keychains, tours, and everything else that you could never want.

Alexandria - Pretty city on the water. Not a whole lot more. I liked it, but I liked Cairo more so I went back after a day or so.

Cliff Notes: Go to Cairo and Dahab.
Egypt for 8 days. What to do? Safety? Quote

      
m