Jufrpereira

Ok, this is what I came up with:

25-Dec Leave London, arrive cairo at 11pm, check in hotel cairo
26-Dec Cairo
27-Dec Cairo
28-Dec Cairo/ Overnight train Cairo/Luxor
29-Dec Luxor
30-Dec Luxor
31-Dec Luxor-Hurghada
01-Dec Hurghada
02-Dec Hurghada
03-Dec Hurghada. Flight at 20:00 to Cairo/ Arrival Cairo at 21:00. Go to Hotel.
04-Dec Departure flight to London leaving at 8:45 am.

Can you please criticise it???? My questions now are:
1- train cairo - luxor: do i need to book this in advance?
2- Luxor to Hurghada: do buses run very often? should i book this in advance as well???

Thanks!!!!!

heymo

The only thing I could comment about is how long you're planning to be in Hurghada. If you're planning a lot of diving, or just can take laying on the beach for 4 days, that's great. I don't think there's a lot to do in Hurghada, personally I wish we were spending one less day than the 3 we're going to be there. Otherwise I think you could cut back on Hurghada a day and spend it maybe going to Abu Simbel or somewhere else....

Jufrpereira

Heymo, I totally agree w/ you - although, I guess technically I'll only spen 3 days there since the 31st will be spent travelling from Luxor (I'm guessing this will take a good part of my day) and I'm expecting the hotel to have some sort of new year celebration, so jan/1st will probably be a "slow" day. But I'm looking into options of day trips from Hurghada already!! Seems that you can do a "safari" on the desert (not a real safari, but you get to drive the cool motorbikes!).... Tks for your input anyways!!!! J.

huladolphin

Whoa, you cannot drive from Luxor to Hurghada. If you're going to go between these two places, you must fly. Cairo to Hurghada is 6 hours, Cairo to Luxor is much longer and not really possible by bus. If you wanted, you could take the train from Luxor to Cairo, and then the bus from Cairo to Hurghada, but that would be a large waste of time.

Laura

sunshine007

There's a bus from Luxor to Hurghadsleaving 7 times a day. I ran "bus schedule egypt" on the internet & got quite a few sites.

sunshine007

I still think you should look up some budget tours in Egypt. run "touregypt.net" which is an official Egypt Tourism website. There's a service where you can get info from tourist co's once you type in what you want, plus info on budget tours.

heymo

As far as the jeep excursions, I have heard mixed reactions to them. We were offered a "day with a bedouin group" which at first I thought sounded interesting. Someone on here let me know it was a complete tourist trap. Check into them thoroughly before you sign up for one.

Huladolphin said the hotel she stayed in had some great activities available right on sight (horseback riding and the like...)you may want to check into something like that!

Jufrpereira

Heymo/Sunshine and Laura - thank you SO MUCH for your inputs. I'm really excited since I paid for hotels and flights yesterda !!!!!! I just need to figure out now how I go from one city to the other..... I'll check touregypt.net straight away and I've been in touch w/ some tour agencies in egypt as well. I visited www.luxorguide.com and through there, I was directed to a huge number of travel agencies in Egypt (all related to the turism agency in Egypt, as per the site).
I've already made up my mind and will take the sleeping train from Cairo/Luxor (I have a confession to make that I always wanted to ride on a sleeping train...I'm a huge Agatha Christie fan and always loved her books that were staged on trains and Egypt!).
Now, I'll take your advice and see if I can get a flight or tour from Luxor to Hurghada.
I've already booked my flight from Hurghada - Cairo as well (my plane back to London leaves from Cairo).
So I'm getting there!
Sorry for the long post, but I'm over excited now that london-cairo-london tickets are settled and hotels for Cairo, Hurghada and Luxor are settled as well!!!!!

heymo

So happy you got your itinerary all set! I know how you feel, I was bouncing off the walls when I first booked our trip. We'll compare notes when you get back!