What to Visit In Egypt

When you visit Egypt, you'll want to visit so many sites that your trip will never seem long enough! We often meet people during our tours who have been to Egypt more than 15 times, and they keep returning to see something new! They ask about this newly discovered site, or some tomb that has been recently uncovered, or even places that they have heard other people talk about! Here in Egypt, you will always find new sites to visit and enjoy. Egyptian tourist places are really amazing to see with exciting sightseeing adventures at beautiful monuments.

The adventure that is Egypt never ends! That is why it is a shame if you come to Egypt, especially for the first time, and miss the grandiose sites, such as the Pyramids of Giza, Abu Simbel, or the west bank of Luxor, to name but a few. There are so many travelers who fly directly to Upper Egypt to see Luxor and Aswan, hoping that they will stumble across the Pyramids as well, and then they realize that they have to travel 720Km to Cairo, where the Pyramids are and end up paying $400 extra to travel and see one site, which is most probably about half of what they paid for their entire trip!

So, dear traveler, plan well for your trip before you come. It's the best way to save time, money, and effort, and of course to ensure that you get to see the sites that you have been dreaming about for some time.

Try, as much as possible, to visit as many of the places that your trip will allow! There is nothing worse than going home and wishing you had visited somewhere you didn't! We both know that you don't get the opportunity to visit Egypt every day!

 

Areas To be Avoided:  Areas Rarely Seen and Safety 

When traveling through Egypt, you should avoid certain areas, particularly sites located in the center of the Nile Valley! About 20 years ago there were rising tensions at these sites, Islamic fundamentalists had targeted tourists in order to destroy the tourist industry and the economy.  This was part of a larger plan to bring down the government, seize power themselves, and install the political ideas of their own vision, a vision which no more resembles the rules of the Qur’an than the Inquisition resembled the Christianity of Christ!

Some certain incidents occurred during the '80s and the ‘90s; a handful of events took place again targeting the tourist industry. Without for a moment trying to deny the reality of these events, the situation has been blown out of proportion by the world's press, while the situation in other countries with flourishing tourist industries, is far worse, their incidents rarely making headlines. But in Egypt, if anything happens, it becomes front-page news! In the mid-'90s, a widespread, and harsh, government crackdown campaign was implemented to try to stop any threats to tourism and visitors.

This can also be witnessed by the events of late January/early February 2011. Following Tunisia’s lead, the youth of Egypt started to protest, peacefully, for a radical change in the country. They were simply fed up with the government's corruption; the permanent implementation of the emergency laws; the evil manners in which the police could arrest people (often leading to disappearances and/or deaths); and the high unemployment rate, especially amongst university graduates.

These peaceful protests were invaded by paid thugs of the government, trying to suppress the protests whilst allowing the government to look good to the rest of the world, which the world’s press took great delight in covering. Once the protests achieved their aim, with President Mubarak resigning his position on 11/02/2011, life returned to “normal” in the country and the media stopped reporting. Nothing good was ever reported to the people of the world and if too much time had passed since something newsworthy occurred, the media would simply show reruns of earlier events. Obviously, this had a bad effect on Egypt’s tourism as potential visitors were scared away all the time when in reality Egypt was safe to visit. Yet in Bahrain, where protests were dealt with a lot more severely, the talks about reinstating a Formula One Grand Prix were underway even when the country was not at peace! 

A trip to Egypt still entails far less danger than a trip to anywhere else in the world. In the realm of violence in the mid-'90s, there were certain areas appointed as not good for tourists. These areas are located in the center of the Nile Valley, particularly Minya, Asyut, and Sohag. Unfortunately, these places happen to have some of the most beautiful monuments in Egypt, like the beautiful tombs at Beni Hassan in Minya, the marvelous monasteries of Asyut, and the Temple of Abydos in Sohag, not to forget Akhenaten’s ancient city of Akhetaten at El- Amarna, near Minya. In time, all of these sites will be fully re-opened for tourists.

If you still think that you would like to visit these places as an individual traveler, you can! However, be prepared for a police escort with you, as the local police will not let you travel alone in these areas! We suggest that the safest, cheapest, and most informative way to visit these sites is through a reputable travel agent