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Egypt is a mysterious country with a lot of history. You have these mysterious pyramids, the gods of Egypt that you see in all those movies, mummification, the hieroglyphs, the tombs, all those breathtaking temples, the Nile, the Red Sea, etc.
In this blog the following things will be discussed:
Each place in Egypt definitely needs at least a full day to explore, two days or more would be even better. There is just so much history in Egypt. Besides history there is a lot of stunning landscape and a vivid underwater world where there is much to discover.
The North of Egypt
In the North of Egypt you need to visited Cairo. A lot of flights are to Hurghada, which is a bit far from Cairo. If you want to visit Cairo from Hurghada you need to know it is around a 5h30 drive. You should stay at least two nights in Cairo to visit everything.
Cairo is known for the amazing, outstanding Pyramids. The Marriott Mena House Hotel is an expensive hotel near the pyramids but it’s worth every penny. You only live once and this is a once in a lifetime experience. There are cheaper options and hostels near the pyramids which are also quite good.
If you would stay here then you enter through a side entrance to visit the pyramids. So it’s less crowded than going through the main entrance and you are immediately close to the pyramids. You still need to go to the main entrance if you want to see the Sphinx.
When you visit the center of Cairo you can eat some really good Koshary at El Tahrir. It is really cheap there and delicious. Most locals go to this place to eat Koshary. The menu is in Arabic, so you need to ask for some translation or try to translate it yourself with Google.
If you visit the pyramids you should go early in the morning when it opens (the time differs from month to month). Definitely go early in the morning because it gets really crowded. The domain is so big that you can always find spots for yourself, away from the tourists and the people that try to get money out of you. Just walk far enough.
The best thing is to go by yourself, you can spend hours at his place but watch out for the scams!!
There are a lot of people that try to get money out of you, just say that you’ve already done it (for example a camel ride, etc.) and be nice because some of them can get aggressive. For souvenirs just say you already have it and that you don’t have any money.
They’ll also try to guide you but just say that you already had a guided tour and that you just want to walk around now. They can even try to take your ticket out of your hand so watch out because you need the ticket to get inside the pyramids. Stay friendly and just try to find an excuse so they leave you alone. They also say the domain is too big and you can’t walk it but believe me, you can walk it. It’s just big and sometimes hot but be prepared.
Tip: bring enough water, snacks and sun protection.
Also please don’t do a camel ride or don’t take a picture with a camel or donkey or horse because they are treated bad. We saw them hurt those animals so please don’t support this. Just don’t give money to those people!
You can stay here more than three hours so try to keep this in mind that you go prepared!
Tips: bring a scarf or a hat because it can become hot and it burns on your head. Also, there is a Pizza Hut near the pyramids. From there you have an amazing view on the pyramids.
The Center of Egypt
In the center of Egypt there is a lot to do. Hurghada and Luxor are two well known places where tourists go.
Hurghada
In Hurghada you have a lot of resorts. You can go snorkeling or diving in the Red Sea. You should visit the city of Hurghada and walk around. In a half a day you have seen the city center, so afterwards you can go easily to the Red Sea and enjoy the underwater world.
Luxor
From Hurghada to Luxor it takes around a four hours drive. For Luxor you will need a full day because there is a lot to see here.
The Luxor temple (Karnak temple) is a beautiful piece of history. It’s a temple in Luxor and it’s one of the most important temples in Ancient Egypt. It was dedicated to the triad of Thebes: Amon, Moet and Chonseo. The temple is about 242 meters long and is one of the largest in Egypt.
They started building this temple around 1392 BC and multiple pharaohs played a role in building this temple over the years. How crazy is that, how did they do it? If these walls could talk, what would they say?
Another place you should visit is Valley of the Kings, which is on the other side of the Nile. The Luxor temple was on the side where the sun comes up. That means the side of the living. The Valley of the Kings is in the West where the sun goes down and so the side of the dead. In this place they now found 63 tombs.
Also the Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut and Colossi of Memnon are worth a visit in Luxor.
Tip: you should go to the Luxor temple really early in the morning (when it is just opening) then you have the place all for yourself.
The South of Egypt
Marsa Alam is the perfect place to enjoy the peaceful Egypt and the Red Sea. It is three hours and a half drive from Hurghada to Marsa Alam by car. We stayed at Marsa Shagra Village because we really wanted to dive in the Red Sea and Marsa Shagra Village is from Red Sea Diving Safari.
Diving and Snorkeling in Egypt
Staying in the Marsa Shagra Village is perfect to relax! It’s a diving center of Red Sea Diving Safari. You can sleep in a royal tent, which is so awesome. You wake up with the sound of the Red Sea. We did four dives with Red Sea Diving Safari, you can read about our experience at Marsa Shagra Village and diving in the Red Sea in my blog Diving in Egypt.
The Red Sea Diving Safari is an amazing organisation because they care about the environment. You can read about all their eco efforts on their website. They do a lot of initiatives like raising awareness, funding/supporting environmental projects, applying responsible business practices and they collaborate on scientific studies and research.
This was just a selection of this mysterious country. There is much more to visit in Egypt. We were only here for 10 days and try to do as much as possible. We hope to go back so we can discover some more!
An adventurous thing you should do is snorkeling or diving in the Red Sea because the underwater world there is insane. You can read about our diving experience on this blog.
