What are you looking for specifically? Tour around whole Egypt? Some tour companies do a tour around major cities, with hotel stay etc for a week or more. I have been to Egypt for the 4th time now, I got ripped off by the tour company the first time but since then I have had pleasant experience as I made friends. Egypt is very nice country but sadly there are a lot of bad apples in the tourism business. My main aim joining this site is to help others and give recommendation for good service I have received, so tell me what you are after, and I will try to help as much as I can.

Best of luck

Trips and tours are offered by everyone from touring specialists like on-the-go tours, Voyage Jules Verne etc, to multi-centre breaks with mainstream charter operators (eg Thomsons). You can also arrange a package to somewhere like Luxor and use a local agent to help you cover the sites there (eg Jolleys)

Please bear in mind how BIG Egypt is. 8 or 9 days in my view is nowhere near long enough to cover even the most major sites (Luxor,Cairo,Alexandria, Nile Valley) unless you have flights between cities - and possibly not even then. Heat for sightseeing trips is a major factor too (we have been exhausted by the heat in Luxor in February - mid thirties- & August doesn't bear thinking about!!)

Would suggest that Cairo needs at least 2 overnights (flights from UK tend to arrive late afternoon/evening) , Luxor 3 - and if you want to go on down to Abu Simnel another night there. Some folk do the overnight train from Luxor to Cairo to save travel time but unless this is last leg before your flight home from Cairo it doesn't necessarily leave you raring to go for another day's sightseeing on arrival

A reasonable compromise in my view is something like a Nile Cruise or possibly a custom-tour of either Cairo or (in my opinion, better-still) Luxor with a short stay for 2-3 nights on the red sea coast to relax. Bear in mind that Luxor to Hurghada on the coast is a good four hours on a not very interesting road and frequently becomes a two-way trip as the less specialist packages usually have you flying in and out of the same airport. Hurghada to Cairo by road is six hours ish, have never tried Sharm to Cairo (if you were planning Sinai, St Catherines etc) but have been told it's about 12 hrs on the road!! Cairo to Luxor needs to be a domestic flight (Egyptair) or possibly overnight train.

I would suggest you make a list of your "must sees", work from there and then be prepared to compromise

I would suggest taking an onward flight straight out of Cairo and onwards to Aswan. Book a Nile cruise for 3 nights ending in Luxor, which will give you excursions in Aswan without having to try to do them yourself. You can take the overnight sleeper carriage from Luxor to Cairo and end your holiday by having a couple of nights in a hotel in Cairo to see the Pyramids, Sphinx, Solar Boat, Cairo Museum, Sound & Light Show, Mohammed Ali's Mosque and the famous Khan el Khalili bazaar.

We used an agent in Cairo to plan our cruise and overnight train tickets in May 2007 and he was excellent. Try MemphisTours.com (Mr Sherif). We paid 60 USD per person per night for the cruise on Presidential Nile cruise ships, which included all meals and excursions.

You can book the overnight train yourself but Mr Sherif charged no more than the actual seat ticket (at the time it was 55 USD) and to do it yourself with Abela's own website incurs an extra cost to issue the ticket overseas.

You are never going to get to see all of Egypt in such a short time but at least taking the cruise will allow you sometime to relax and take in the sights along the way.

Enjoy! Egypt is my favourite holiday destination now I live in Cyprus!

CwB

I agree with cyprus100 Used memphis tours last year. Booked through the internet before I went to egypt and I must say they were absolutely excellent.

http://www.memphistours.net/index.php