Egypt tours using local transport
| country: | Egypt |
| location: | Sinai Desert, Red Sea, Pyramids |
| trip type: | A small group adventure |
| departures: | Up to 5 departures a month on Sundays throughout the year |
| price: | From £325 - £355 (10 days) to £425 - £455 (14 days) excluding flights. |
| offers: | 24th August departure 14 day trip now £375 - save £50 |
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the amazing things you'll be doing
See Egypt's main attractions & get off the beaten track on this Egypt tour using local transport.
Using two and three star hotels and a variety of transport from trains, coaches, mini-buses to feluccas, this adventure tour will show you the main attractions of Egypt as well as places off the beaten track.
Highlights include the Pyramids, Egyptian History Museum, Luxor, Aswan, Valley Of Kings & Queens, Abu Simbel and Dahab on the Red Sea.
Price details: As part of the tour cost, an Egyptologist guide is included to the following sites and temples: Egyptian History Museum in Cairo and Mummy Room, Pyramids & Sphinx at Giza, Philae, Luxor and Abu Simbel Temples as well as The Valley of Kings, Queens and Workers. We do not charge a single supplement rate and you only pay for the activities you choose to do, direct to the local operator.
Please note, we are one of the very few companies operating tours in Egypt that uses the hydrofoil across the Red Sea, thus doing away with the very long and tedious 18hr bus journey and allowing an extra day in Dahab.
Using two and three star hotels and a variety of transport from trains, coaches, mini-buses to feluccas, this adventure tour will show you the main attractions of Egypt as well as places off the beaten track.
Highlights include the Pyramids, Egyptian History Museum, Luxor, Aswan, Valley Of Kings & Queens, Abu Simbel and Dahab on the Red Sea.
Price details: As part of the tour cost, an Egyptologist guide is included to the following sites and temples: Egyptian History Museum in Cairo and Mummy Room, Pyramids & Sphinx at Giza, Philae, Luxor and Abu Simbel Temples as well as The Valley of Kings, Queens and Workers. We do not charge a single supplement rate and you only pay for the activities you choose to do, direct to the local operator.
Please note, we are one of the very few companies operating tours in Egypt that uses the hydrofoil across the Red Sea, thus doing away with the very long and tedious 18hr bus journey and allowing an extra day in Dahab.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Cairo - Free Day. You will be met at Cairo airport and transferred to your hotel. Your tour leader will meet you for an informal get together. |
| Day 2: | Cairo - Famous for the pyramids and all things concerning Egyptology; trips to Cairo are educational and awe inspiring. The tour starts in the bustling metropolis that is Cairo, with our own Egyptologist guide for the day. We spend the morning at the Egyptian History Museum and after lunch we explore the world-famous Pyramids - inside and out - and the Sphinx at Giza. Trips to Cairo aren't complete without a camel ride which is also included and is guaranteed to be a good laugh. In the evening we catch an overnight train to Aswan. (2 meals) |
| Day 3-4: | Aswan - Our train arrives in the morning and we are transferred to our hotel. Tours to Egypt are not complete without a visit to Aswan and its beautiful setting on the Nile - feluccas, desert sand, sparkling water, palm trees, tropical plants, granite rock outcrops, islands and the Nile's first cataracts. The culture of Aswan's darker Nubian inhabitants is palpably African and more laid back than the rest of Egypt. Here you can walk along the Corniche with its riverside restaurants and attractive boulevards, or mix with locals in the narrow market alleys and stop in small cafes. We also include a visit to the great stone monuments of the Sun Temple built by Ramses II deep in the southern desert at Abu Simbel (included in the cost). We also organise a trip to the Temple at Philae and you can also go by felucca to visit Elephantine Island. Your tour leader will advise and inform you of the various things you can do and places to visit in and around Aswan, including an evening visit to a Nubian village. (3 Meals) |
| Day 5-6: | River Nile, Felucca - In the morning we transfer to our feluccas, the perfect relaxing antidote to a busy Egypt adventure trip. We spend the next two days and nights aboard watching Egypt glide by and sleeping under the stars. Originally introduced by the Romans, these traditional sailing boats use only wind power and occasionally oars. We will sleep on board over night as well as stop off at villages and sandy beaches. A canopy can be erected as protection from the sun during the day, and wind or dew at night. (6 meals) |
| Day 7: | Luxor - Our felucca trip will end this morning, but our Egypt adventure continues. After the felucca trip you will have the opportunity to visit Kom Ombo temple and the Temple of Horus at Edfu. We transfer by mini bus to our Luxor hotel from where you have the afternoon to explore Luxor's sights. The vast Karnak Temple complex beats every other monument in Egypt except perhaps the Pyramids of Giza and is a must on any Egypt tour. Built on an awesome scale (it does house the gods after all!) its Levithian size will astound you! We include a visit to Karnak Temple reached by our own horse-drawn carriages. There is also the option of the Sound and Light Show in the evening. Luxor Temple is in the centre of town within easy walking distance of our hotel. (2 Meals) |
| Day 8: | Luxor - Today we have a sturdy donkey each to visit the Valley of the Kings, where our guide shows us around a number of tombs. (In the summer months we may use an air-conditioned mini-bus instead.) Intended by the Pharaohs who built them to be the ultimate insurance policy on eternal life, the tombs are very well hidden and we have to scramble down long dark underground shafts to discover their dramatic and quite amazing funerary glory. We will also visit the Colossi of Memnon as well as the Valley of the Queens and the Valley of Workers. (2 meals) |
| Day 9: | Luxor to Hurghada. We have a free morning in Luxor, where it is possible to visit a local orphanage which we sponsor. In the afternoon we travel for four hours by road to the Red Sea resort of Hurghada where we overnight in a local hotel. (2 meals) Those on the 10 day trip will board the overnight train from Luxor to Cairo on the evening of Day 9 and be transferred to our Cairo hotel on the morning of Day 10 where the trip ends. |
| Day 10: | Hurghada to Dahab - We catch the morning hydrofoil ferry for the short hop across the Red Sea to the Sinai Peninsula. We now transfer you to the most relaxed and, for many, the most enjoyable place in Egypt, Dahab, in time for a seafood lunch and a cold beer on the beach! (1 Meal) |
| Day 11-12: | Dahab - With year-round sunshine, warm sea temperatures and a laid-back atmosphere, it is no wonder Dahab has become so popular with travellers. Here almost 'anything goes' and our stay in Dahab can become quite hedonistic! Here also there are no big tourist hotels nearby and we stay in a small air-conditioned hotel 5 minutes walk from the beach. This part of the Red Sea is also known as one of the world's top diving locations, with spectacular coral gardens and marine life you can snorkel to within metres of the beach. There is the opportunity to scuba dive, desert trek by camel or quad bike, visit St Catherine's Monastery and climb Mt Sinai (where Moses received the Ten Commandments) or simply relax on the beach. (No meals) |
| Day 13: | Dahab - After our final day relaxing in Dahab, we begin overnight trips back to Cairo where our tour of Egypt draws to a close. (No meals) |
| Day 14: | Cairo - Our trip ends in the morning on arrival in Cairo at our hotel in the city centre. Additional accommodation can be arranged if you wish. If you are planning to fly from Cairo today please do so after midday. (No meals) |
Optional extension. At the end of trips to Egypt there is the option to extend your stay in Dahab. We will still arrange trips to Cairo, once complete, and include your return airport transfer. |
travellers' tales
The pyramids are a great way to start off the holiday with their grandeur, the feluccas for their tranquillity, the temples and the amazing guides with their vast knowledge of Egyptology but for me possibly the most memorable was climbing Mount Sinai at 1am to watch the sun rise! Awesome!
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small group adventure holiday
Typically you will be sharing your experiences with between 4-20 like minded travellers (depending on the trip, operator and how many others are booked on the trip) and you'll have a group leader with you. Whether you are travelling alone or with friends its good value, and a great way to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of privacy. This trip will appeal to travellers of all ages who enjoy meeting new people as well as seeing new places.how this holiday makes a difference
 Our aim on this trip is to put as much of the trip costs directly back into the local Egyptian community and economy as possible. All the hotels and restaurants we use are small, two or three star, locally run Egyptian establishments. We use local guides, reps. and operators at all the places of interest we visit-for example, in Luxor, Tayeb, his family and neighbours provide the donkeys for the trip to the Valley of the Kings. Khaled is our representative in Aswan and he organises all our activities there. We have been working with both Tayeb and Khaled for about five years now providing them and their families with a regular, direct source of income. This trip uses a variety of local transport including train, bus, ferry and felucca-supporting local transport providers. Use of the train and felucca, in particular, prevent the carbon emissions of another vehicle on the road. The feluccas are owned and run by Ahmed and his extended family. Our maximum group size on this trip is 20 thereby reducing the environmental and cultural impact of our tours. Upon booking this trip (as with all our trips) clients receive detailed pre-departure information which includes advice on responsible travel. This information is re-emphasised by the Tour Leader at the start of the trip-clients, for example, are advised about respecting local customs particularly in terms of dress and behaviour, water conservation and animal welfare - a salient feature of this trip as we use carefully selected donkey and horse transport on our trip - again supporting local communities. We support two charities in Egypt. In Cairo we have donated computers, teaching materials and provide regular financial assistance to the Sudanese Community Development Program - a school for Sudanese refugee children. We have also helped the school set up a Sponsor-a Child scheme and arranged a letter exchange scheme between the children there and a school local to our UK office-promoting opportunities for inter-cultural understanding. We can arrange pre or post-tour visits to the school. In Luxor we sponsor the Sunshine Project International, a home for abandoned and orphaned children. Apart from a regular financial commitment we have also donated bedding and play equipment to the school and even delivered a sandpit from the UK. Luckily there was no need to deliver any sand! Clients on this trip are given the opportunity to visit the home. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |