hi it depends realy on what you want from your holiday,if you want the beach then yes it is like a resort away from all the history sites and some trips can only be done easy and quick by plane..
if you want history then base yourself in luxor which i s near the sites or do a nile cruise to see most of the sites.cairo and the pyramids is a plane ride away from luxor though.
egypt is a big country and the best way to do it is do a two centre holiday 1 week nile cruise and then 1 week on the coast....
it truly is a remarkable country with awesome sites and freindly people.

My honest opinion is if you have never been to Egypt before, I can't see why you would want to go to a place with so much history just to sit on the beach in an AI hotel.

I can understand doing that if you've already been to see the Pyramids in Cairo, visited the temples in Luxor and sailed in a fellucca on the Nile at Aswan...

Each to their own, I know - but that's just my opinion.

However, you have 2 children there who may just want a say in the matter too. Why not ask them which they would prefer to do?

We first took my stepson when he was 12yrs old to Luxor for 2 weeks. We based ourselves in a central hotel on B&B and ate out each evening. We took a camel trek one evening on the West Bank after crossing by a small motor boat and had a brilliant time seeing "real" Egyptian life.

We took the overnight train from Luxor to Cairo, arriving early morning in Cairo - jumped train at Giza and booked into a hotel. We took him to see the Pyramids, visited the Khan el Khalili bazaar and the Cairo Museum. Did the Sound & Light show at the Pyramids that evening and altogether had a great time. We travelled back to Luxor on the overnight train the next evening and back to our hotel. We had a day sailing the Nile to the temple at Denderah, going down to the crypt with the bats flying around and had a fantastic lunch during the sail back to Luxor.

We've been to Egypt many times and have always used Luxor as a base and travelled from there. We've spent an overnight in Hurghada and had a day snorkelling in the Red Sea around Gifton Island. The sea is truly beautiful but I couldn't spend 2 weeks there.

We've also done a twin centre with Luxor and Aswan - taking a day tour out of Aswan to Abu Simbel by minibus and visiting both dams on the way. A trip to Philae Temple on the island is a "must do" if you visit Aswan and the Unfinished Obelisk is an amazing sight. You have absolutely no conception of its' size until you go and stand at the bottom end, looking up along the length of it. Sadly, you can no longer climb down onto it any longer (something we did in 1994).

We now live in Cyprus and are in a much better position to visit Egypt and the whole of the Middle East (we're off to Syria in October for a couple of days).

We visited Egypt again last year on an itinerary we put together ourselves and travelled with a couple of friends. We spent 10 nights travelling Larnaca to Cairo, Cairo to Aswan for 4 nights, 3 nights cruising to Luxor with a couple of nights at the Sonesta St George in Luxor, then took the overnight sleeper carriage back to Cairo ready for our flight back to Cyprus.

This was our 7th or 8th visit and there are always things we still want to see.

The Valley of the Kings is just too big to do more than the 3 tombs your ticket allows at each time and with 72 of them there (and counting), there is always something new we want to see. We do have a favourite tomb - Tuthmosis III, which is a bit like something from an Indiana Jones movie in that you first have to climb up a metal staircase to reach the entrance to the tomb, before climbing all the way down the steps inside until you reach the burial chamber. The colours in some of the tombs are fantastic and it's hard to believe they were painted thousands of years before.

If it's possible at all for you to combine your beach vacation with Luxor, then I would definitely recommend it. But, ask the kids and see what they want to do...

Either way, have a great time

CwB

I agree, a two centre holiday would be ideal, starting with Luxor then relax on the beach for a week - I thoroughly recommend El GOuna on the Red Sea, half an hour from Hurghada airport, and four and a half hours overland from Luxor. You certainly are not confined to hotels, it is a hassle free resort where you can wander around either downtown or the marina, play pool in the bars downtown. Best of both worlds this way.