Location: Giza
Day 1 - 20 Feb 2022
Giza
Content: It’s about 45 minutes to an hour drive between Cairo and the Great Pyramids of Giza, so we recommend you book accommodation separately at each of these spots to save on driving time unless you are only going to head out to Giza once. We touched down in Cairo’s international airport and took an Uber out to our Hotel In Giza called the Desert Moon (1.5 hour Uber)
Location: الهرم
Day 1 - 20 Feb 2022
Desert Moon Cairo
Content: Nice hotel with a large rooftop patio that overlooks the pyramid. Decent buffet in the morning but progressively had less options as the week went on, could use a little more maintenance but all in all decent value. We ordered food off of Talabat during our stay in Cairo as it made translating and finding authentic spots a lot easier.
Location: Giza
Day 2 - 21 Feb 2022
Great Pyramids of Giza (أهرامات الجيزة)
Content: We had a slow morning and enjoyed the breakfast buffet at the hotel. In the mornings it was quite hazy so we headed over the pyramids later in the afternoon, so that we’d get a clear view as well as less harsh sun for photos. We didn’t go inside any of the pyramids as we were on a tight budget, the general consensus I’ve heard is it’s not worth the money better to save your cash and spend the extra money to see Tutunkhamuns Tomb at the Valley of the Kings! Make sure to bring your student card because it will give you 50% off. Hi
Location: Al Giza Desert
Day 2 - 21 Feb 2022
The Great Pyramid of Giza
Content: We walked around the pyramids to the backside opposite from the main entrance to get to a lookout of all of the pyramids. Lots of people came by this spot via camel tours, we decided not to since the camel didn’t look they were being treated very well. It was also our first day and we weren’t accustomed to Egyptian prices yet and didn’t want to get overcharged. If you do really want to ride a camel often it’s recommended to book a tour that way you don’t have to deal with the hassle. We preferred putting on a Spotify Podcast on the pyramids and wandering around ourselves. A common scam is they’ll tell you a price for a camel ride, once you’ve finished the ride they will double the amount saying that there’s an additional charge to get off the camel! Personally, we went to a restaurant that overlooks the pyramids and ran into fake security guards that told us that the restaurant was full and tried to usher us towards some random guys at a booth. It was a very odd ploy and we were seated right away by the actually restaurant staff. So big tip for Egypt question everything and everyone especially at super touristy spots!
Great Sphinx of Giza
Content: So funny story we almost forgot to check out the Sphinx! We were wandering out of the complex when the 100th guy came up to us offering a camel ride to the Sphinx. We quickly walked over and snapped a couple shots before the gates closed at 4PM.
Location: Cairo
Day 3 - 22 Feb 2022
Cairo
Content: On day 3 we took an Uber back to the airport and took a quick flight over to the red sea to stay in the resort town of Hurghada.
Location: Hurghada
Day 3 - 22 Feb 2022
Hurghada
Content: We stayed in town at a cheap Air Bnb that I wouldn’t recommend. If you’re going for a budget trip staying in town will be a lot cheaper. That being said beaches in Hurghada are private so if you’re mainly looking to hangout in the sun the resorts to the south of town are your best bet.
Orange Bay
Content: This was by far our favourite activity in Hurghada was checking out the Giftun Island called Orange Bay. With crystal clear waters it often gets the nickname the ‘Maldives of Egypt’ We booked a full day tour with Viator for $25 which included visiting the beautiful island for two hours, lunch, snorkelling, and tubing.
Location: Hurghada
Day 4 - 23 Feb 2022
Al Mina Mosque
Content: Definitely recommend visiting this beautiful mosque in the centre of town. There’s only certain times where it’s available to the public - our truck was to look up tours which included this spot to get the times!
Location: Hurghada 1
Day 4 - 23 Feb 2022
Eric's Cafe
Content: We came back to this spot quite a bit, the burgers were really good, staff was very friendly, and there was solid wifi so that we could get some work done while sipping on lattes.
Location: Maadi
Day 4 - 23 Feb 2022
Bedouin Market
Content: We took an ATV tour out to the Red Sea Hills. It was definitely good value for the price, not super fast but fast enough to have a little fun! The hills around sunset were beautiful, the Bedouin Village part of the tour was inauthentic and the camel rides were really short but we mainly booked it for the ATV ride and the view so we had a fun time.
Location: Hurghada
Day 5 - 24 Feb 2022
Hurghada
Content: We took GoBus from Hurghada to Luxor for about $10 each. We had a super comfortable ride and liked it a lot more than the train since there was no one smoking, mostly tourists on board.
Location: Luxor
Day 5 - 24 Feb 2022
Luxor
Content: When you hop off the bus be ready to be swarmed by locals trying to sell you stuff. We booked it out of there and made our way to the public ferry since we were staying on the West Bank of the Nile in Luxor.
Location: القرنة
Day 5 - 24 Feb 2022
Luxor Guest House
Content: We dropped off our bags and headed over to Valley if the Kings for the afternoon.
Location: Luxor
Day 5 - 24 Feb 2022
Valley of the Kings
Content: The valley of the kings was super fun experience you get to see 3 of the basic or included tombs! We saw Rameses III, Tausert and Setnakht, and Merenptah. Rameses III was definitely our favourite, we were in a tight budget but have heard that it’s worth it to spend 100EGP to see Ramese V or V1, or 300EGP to see Tutankhamuns tomb and mummy.
Location: Hiقسم الواحات الخارجة
Day 5 - 24 Feb 2022
Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut
Content: Can’t miss this stunning temple built by the legendary Queen Hatshepsut!
Location: Luxor
Day 6 - 25 Feb 2022
Luxor Temple
Content: My favourite temple that we visited. We went early to have the temple to ourselves in the beautiful sunrise light. Definitely recommend going early it was such an otherworldly place.
Location: Aswan
Day 6 - 25 Feb 2022
Aswan
Content: We too the train down to Aswan, it took about 3 hours and cost about $5. Very dirty and smokey.
Location: اول اسوان
Day 7 - 26 Feb 2022
Nubian Village
Content: Nubian Village was one of my favourite spots in Egypt! Very laid back vibes, super welcoming and the vibrantly painted buildings were so unique. We haggled with a private ferry boat to take us down to the Nubian Village from Aswan for about 175 EGP I believe, the ride took about 20 minutes.
Location: Aswan 1
Day 7 - 26 Feb 2022
Nubian Palace
Content: We stayed at and ate a lot of our dinner meals at the Nubian Palace, it was an amazing spot!
Philae Temple
Content: We took a 50 EGP tuktuk from the Nubian Village down to Philae Temple. You have to take a ferry boat to get over to the temple so watch out for overcharging. The set price is 175EGP for four people. We had to wait around for another duo and ended up still paying 200EGP for one hour.
Location: Abu Simbel
Day 8 - 27 Feb 2022
Abu Simbel Temples
Content: We booked a private driver to the Abu Simbel Temples since we were staying down in the Nubian Village and the cheaper bigger buses all left from Aswan. We left later in the morning so that we would go up after the tour bus crowds as well, it’s recommended to go Monday through Wednesday if you want the place to yourself. It was a full day since it’s a 3 hour drive one way but we really enjoyed these temples and being so far south so close to Sudan. Lake Nasser was also very impressive to see, apparently no one swims or boats on the lake because there are too many crocodiles since the Aswan dams were built.
Location: Aswan
Day 9 - 28 Feb 2022
Aswan
Content: We decided to fly from Aswan back to Cairo over take a 13+ hour train.
Location: Islamic Cairo
Day 9 - 28 Feb 2022
Khan Al-Khalili (خان الخليلي)
Content: If your looking for a sensory overload head to Cairo’s famous market Khan-el-Khalili! We found this area super fun but most of the shops unfortunately were selling the same Chinese imports. Still a great day and make sure to check out the lantern section.
Location: El Gamaliya
Day 9 - 28 Feb 2022
Saheb El Sa'ada
Content: Stopped by this rooftop restaurant that had a view of the beautiful mosque next door. We had the kofta meat platter with stuffed vine leaves and sambousek.
Location: Cairo
Day 9 - 28 Feb 2022
The Egyptian Museum (المتحف المصري)
Content: We enjoyed wandering around this museum full of mummies and Egyptian artifacts. Tutankhamuns display was by far the most fascinating with very intricate designs and so much gold. By the fall I believe the new museum will be opening and it looks spectacularly designed and massive when we drove by. Keep an eye on the closing times again because this spot closed at 4pm the day we were there.
Location: Abdeen
Day 9 - 28 Feb 2022
Midtown Hostel
Content: This spot was a great stay, excellent value, clean and breakfast included. Was a bit difficult to find as the entrance is down a weird half street-parking lot but we were very comfortable!
Location: Cairo
Day 10 - 1 Mar 2022
Cairo
Content: Time to fly home or to your next destination !