Hello Sorry to jump in on someone elses post but I have been worrying about my holiday. We are booked to go to the holiday villiage in october with an 18 month old, my two oldest children are 12 and 10 also and really want to see the pyramids! I have never been before and I am worried about the heat with my youngest and also the troubles in Egypt! I have seen this morning that there is trouble there again and I really dont know what to do

Hi jokluz - If you're staying at the Holiday Village in Sharm, it's along trip down to the pyramids - around 7 to 8 hours by road. You can fly down to Cairo , (around an hour) but this would add a significant sum to your holiday total. Having just returned from Sharm, we saw no trouble at all there. Anyone who enters Sharm must have a visa and the security there is excellent.

Hi jokluz .... helen knows her stuff as do all the other people that helped me on this topic !!! so by the sounds of it your baby will be fine ..Helen!!! would we need visa's then ..ohhh thats ooops best look on that bit

Collet - don't panic, you're given landing cards on the plane, and your visa stamp on your passport at the airport. Have a read of the visa topic, as there's 2 different ones. A "Sinai only one", which you have if you don't intend going out of Sharm el Sheikh, and there's another that you need if you intend going on trips to Cairo e.t.c.

ahhhh ok !!! thanks again Helen i am going to gradually go through each topic

"Sinai only one", which you have if you don't intend going out of Sharm el Sheikh

Just to clarify this a bit, Sinai is not just Sharm it is the whole peninsula covering some 23,000 miles.

A 'Sinai Only' Visa is a 2 week tourist visa and is free of charge. It only allows you into the Eastern half of the Sinai which includes Taba, Nuweiba, Dahab, St.Catherines and Sharm el Sheikh, however if you intend to visit places such as Cairo or Luxor you will require a full Visa.

Here is a little know fact, when in the Sinai you are not actually in North Africa, you are in Asia

Thanks Kiltman !!! you sure know your stuff can tick that off the list of questions now

Thankyou We will be going by air if we go to the pyrimids, just didnt know if they were letting people travel there now or if it wasnt safe! Do you know if there are age restrictions as on the First choice excursion booking info the age starts from 2 and there isnt an option for you to add a child younger than this? Thankyou for all your help

Kiltman ~ Do you know how much a full visa is? Thankyou

I think it's around £13, but one of the others ho have purchased one this year will be able to tell you exactly. We had the Sinai only one. Sorry Graham - I mixed up there!

A lady at work has just had a week at Sharm over the Easter school holidays. She took her 7 year old and did the day trip to Cairo, her daughter coped really well and they had a great day. It's not something I would personally do, but they loved it. They had to get up at 3am to get the coach to go to Sharm airport to get the plane to Cairo and then do the 'sights' and then come back and they got back to their hotel at midnightish.

They must have loved it as they want to go back

I think one of the pluses of doing it in one day is you don't have to spend the night in an hotel in Cairo, so its cheaper than doing the two day trip, also you only 'lose' one day of your beach holiday rather than two.

Doe

Doe !! funny enough we have just been having a conversation about how we probably wont be able to see the pyramids as they are so far away !!! well hubby is having a hissy fit over it ..because he really wants to see them ..but like i said with a 18 month old baby that is going to be impossible ..will have to deal with his stroppy ness

We've never done the trip to cairo but we have not long come back from sharm and I spoke to people that had been so presumably it's all systems go again there. We did speak to a family a couple of years ago that had organised through the hotel reception rather than the T/O . It cost them around the same but they had a personal guide that collected them at the airport and showed them the sights . Their trip also included dinner on the nile and the evening light show over the pyramids that the T/O's dont seem to wait for or include .

Really couldnt say whether it would be do-able with a child so young . There is the heat factor to consider too as cairo will be hotter than sharm .

Certainly there is no indication of any problems in Sharm . It is all operating perfectly normal and those lovely people really need our business right now. It was quieter than normal and taxi drivers etc were very quick to tell you of all the wrong doing the president has done but it was good to hear the Egyptian perspective on things rather than the press.

The visa desks etc are all a bit different now at Sharm . We flew with EJ so none of that hounding to the visa queue that the T/O flights seem to do because they want you to have them so they can sell you the trips. The arrivals hall has had a revamp . As you go in there are new visa desks on your left . We needed three visa's for the divers in our family and I didnt . I just handed over our passports /landing cards and said 3 visa's and 1 sinai only. Helen is right £13 each.

Most people who didnt need visas seemed to be going straight to passport control so if you don't intend going to cairo ignore the pushy T/O's and head straight there and say sinai only if they ask .

lyn

Thankyou for all the information

Think its worth pointing out that Egyptians absolutely adore children so be prepared for hotel staff and locals to make a fuss of them. I've seen proud local parents happily pass newborns to complete strangers to be admired and I've been with an Egyptian who thought it perfectly acceptable to take a toddler out of its pushchair to play with it - under the watchful eye of its parents of course. Their culture is so completely different that they would find it difficult to comprehend our fear of 'stranger danger' and I've met several British parents who have expressed concern about the attention lavished on their children. But I have to stress it is all meant in the nicest possible way (many of the waiters etc have wives and young families in Cairo or Luxor) and if you realise its in their culture its not a shock if it happens.

Agree with other posts that trip to Cairo is not a good idea with young children - best wait until they are old enough to appreciate it themselves.
I've recently returned from Egypt and saw a child in a UV suit with matching hat with peak and neck cover - brilliant invention!

Regards, Caro

Forgot to say that I've been to Egypt twice since the start of the 'Arab Spring' and things are still much quieter in resort than usual with some closures although trade is picking up.The tourist industry and those who work in it are really struggling and need us to go and spend money there.

Hi Caro !!! ...thats good to know in advance !!!! we did it !!! we booked !!! soooo excited wahooo..sorry for over reacting lol
claire

so where did you eventually book Claire?

We booked the tropicana grand azure !!!! hope i've made the right choice going 22nd may next year plenty of time to save and hound for answers to questions
claire