We have a friend who regularly travels to Egypt on her own and has been holidaying there for about 15 years. Like me, she is in her 50's now but she always goes for Luxor.

Usually, she takes a one week cruise followed by a week in the Jolie Ville hotel but this last year she decided against the hotel aspect. She loves the hotel but says its' grown so big now that it's like being in a resort all on its' own and has lost that "personal" touch that she used to love.

So this last time, she did a 2 week cruise instead. Basically, the same cruise but back to back which meant she didn't have to do all the excursions in one direction. Some days she did them and others, relaxed on board while the others went off to see the ancient sites.

She really enjoyed it and plans to do the same again next year. Going alone on the cruise means although you are travelling alone, you're not totally on your own when taking trips out, you don't have to go and eat on your own in a restaurant, you get to see the same faces and lots of others are in a similar position. The added plus is you get to see the "real" life as it happens while you're gliding along the Nile.

I subscribe to a blog and just last night read the latest update from a lady from UK who recently finished working in the "real" Egypt for the season and has now moved on to Sharm El Sheik. This blog post gives her "first impressions" of it after spending 6+ months around Luxor and Aswan: http://themissadventurejournals.com/2011/12/02/sharm-first-impressions/#comment-1511

Shell
Limassol, Cyprus

Although Shell's advice was a bit late for ..me and me.. as she wanted to go to Eygpt in November it's pretty much valid for anyone wanting to go to Eygpt as a solo traveller.

Doing two Nile Cruises one after another may not suit everyone, many of the seven day ones start and finish at Luxor, they sail to Aswan then back to Luxor, so you will possibily cover the same ground 4 times if you do the cruise twice, though it's worth thinking about. I have just returned from a one week Nile Cruise then a 4 day Lake Nasser Cruise ending up with a flight from Abu Simbel to Cairo where we spent our last 3 nights. Some of my fellow passengers chose to spend their last three nights in Luxor, some at a Red Sea resort.
Although we had some early morning starts on the Nile Cruise we also had lots of free time during the day, and many people had sun tans from the hours spent sunbathing on deck just watching the people and countryside go by. The Lake Nasser cruise was something different as you are often the only people in the area for hundreds of miles as there are very few settlements. Just one visit to a site each day and the rest of the time cruising the Lake. The overwater approach to Abu Simbel was something special especially for the passengers who had never visited these temples before . We went on land after the majority of day tourists had departed and had the temples all to ourselves with as much time to wander round as we wanted. Because there were no settlements when we were out in the middle of the lake the night sky was awesome with a myriad of stars twinkling.

We did have one single person on our cruises, she said this was her first trip as a solo traveller, she was never on her own if she didn't want to be. We sat at round tables for meals, though we didn't have to sit at the same one each time so she always had someone to sit with and on excursions she always had someone to walk around with if she wanted company.

Hi Judith

The Lake Nasser cruise is on our list and has been for a while. One day we will get there!

We're hoping to go back to Egypt next year but with friends who want to visit Cairo so we would like to do 3 days in Cairo first then fly onwards to Luxor and meet up with our friend in time for one of her cruise weeks. The only problem is with the issues still ongoing in Egypt and the fact the election results will not be complete until next year....

As we're in Cyprus, we book all our holidays independently as the tour operators here don't offer the travel plans we want. We're a bit dubious about booking just now as we have to go via Cairo no matter what happens. That in itself isn't an issue if we were flying on directly to either Luxor or Aswan - just that we planned to start in Cairo for the hectic site seeing in the beginning then relax with the cruise afterwards.

Lake Nasser could be an option if we decided not to do Cairo though? We could do the one way sail from Luxor to Aswan then carry on from there..... Hmmmmm, something to think about!

Shell
Limassol, Cyprus

Hi Shell

I can understand your apprehension about Cairo, I would have preferred to have spent the time there before the cruise with time to relax on the boats, infact I wasn't really bothered about seing the city as I had been before, but the friend I was travelling with hadn't and we could only fit the visit in after our cruises.

Although the protests kicked off once again during our visit, we were staying out at the Pyramids so apart from the one trip to the Eygptian Museum we were actually a long way from anything that was happening. Of course it could have escalated into something worse and the airport could have been affected as it was in the spring, so it's a bit of a worry if Cairo has to be included in your intinerary. Luckily when flying from Europe I have the option of flying directly to either Aswan or Luxor and will use one of these airports on any future visits.

Judith