Hi Jenny

You've booked my favourite hotel!

Have a look at my post HERE

Vaccinations are recommended but not compulsory (not having them may cause problems should you need to claim for an illness on your insurance though). See the vaccination thread

Pippy

HI there Jenny

The only questions i can answer is:

2 - I personally think the Museums and Pyramids can be done in one day. We did it in a day anyway. It depends what you are going to Cairo for - any more than the above, and you will need longer than a day.

3 - Here is a link for some info on vacinations - not sure how up to date it is though http://www.mdtravelhealth.com/destinations/africa/egypt.html

Hope that helps!

Many tour ops give a choice of either a one day trip to cairo or a two day trip. So it muct be able to be done in a day. Downside of a day trip is you probably have to get up at about 3am the up side is it's probably cheaper.

Visiting Cairo & the pyramids as part of a Red Sea holiday is certainly a long day trip. I think of it as being a bit like a foreigner coming to Devon but wanting to see the sights of London for a day while in England!!!

Hi, I haven't stayed at your hotel so can't help there. I have however done two day trips to Cairo. One from Sharm and one from Luxor. The flight takes 1 hour from Sharm.
I did the following landing at 9am departing at 9pm....
Met guide at Cairo airport..then toured....
Giza pyramids
Sphinx
Solar boat museum
Cairo museum + Mummy room
Khan El Khalili market
Back to Cairo airport for flight back to Sharm.

I actually book my own flights with egyptair (putting egypt as my home country) and it normally costs around £35 depending on times and dates. Friday is a good day to go as the traffic is less.
Then I book a guide online. I use a company whose price includes all entrance fees and lunch.
Total cost for guide, transport and flight is normally around £90 per adult for me. Bear in mind this is a PRIVATE tour with your own guide , air con transport and you can choose what YOU want to see.

You can of course book this with your rep. This is usually the dearest option. I would think it would be around £150 upwards per adult.

Or you could book with a local agent in resort. Prices are normally around the £110 per adult mark.

The rep and the local agent prices would probably NOT be for a private tour so you could possibly be with others.
You also of course could do a 2 day trip but I would say that you can see a lot in a day if needs be. Of course it is a long day BUT really worth it.

Thanks for all the info Kaz.....

So it sounds alot cheaper if you book the Cairo trip yourself then. We have booked our holiday through First Choice and their day trip via plane from Sharm costs £190 each!!

So I presume its safe to do what you have done? Could you possibly give me a contact/web site for the tour guide you have used in the past.

I'm gonna have a look at flights with Egyptair like you suggested!!!

Thanks again for your help!

Hi again, it mostly works out cheaper to do yourself...it just depends on if you can get a good priced flight. The rep tours are quite highly priced but some people prefer to travel with them. When booking your flights (I know i mentioned it before) make sure you put egypt as your home country as this will give you the best prices and do play around with dates. Try and arrive early and leave late. If you book the flight you will get an eticket via email (!) which you just print off and take with you along with your passport and the credit card you used for paying when you travel. It is perfectly safe to book this way. I did 6 internal flights booked the same way last year.

For guides I use a company called reallifeegypt...you can google them to find their site, I do have the phone number if you want it...there are lots of guides in Egypt though trust me!
Let me know how you get on

Hiya Kaz,

Update: I'm having no luck at all trying to book flights with Egypt Air. They are just so expensive I think, the best price I can find is approx £160 for two of us flying into Cairo on Thursday 1st May.

Any other ideas? We arrive in Sharm the evening of 28th April, we are there for a week.

I suppose we have left it too late to get a good deal?!

Thanks xxxx

Possibly all the cheap flights are gone. I did check and the cheapest one I can find is...
3rd may
depart sharm 0750 arr cairo 0850
depart cairo 2130 arr sharm 2230
cost was £138.42 for two returns

This flight would still make your trip cheaper than your reps even if you add on the guide costs. You would be able to possibly get this trip in Sharm for around £110 each , do haggle!.
My preference is booking individually as I prefer my own private tours rather than with a group of people and to see what I want to see not being rushed from sight to sight. Your budget and what suits you is important so maybe have a little think.