Track & Field Backpacks

Egypt: Preparing your trip

Here begins the story of my journey to the land of the Pharaohs in 2007. Over several posts'll tell the visits and experiences. I hope you serve as a guide or help at all you are going to visit this amazing country.
All what you will read below is taken from my own experiences and information I give is based on a typical 8-day trip through an agency.

like crazy Before you pack, there are several things you must consider. In the next 6 points I make a summary of what you need to know before starting the journey.

WEATHER

My visit to the country of the pharaohs was 12 to 19 February. To give you an idea, the time these days is like spring in Madrid, ie morning and evening you will not over a jacket or jersey, but at midday it can be quietly shirt. Keep in mind two things:

1 º. - Most excursions and visits are very early in the morning, and even some before dawn, (and I will be commenting on the time that we started visits each day), so at that time yes you have to go with a jacket.

2 º. - The trip has two completely different areas, the first is the central-south, in which while you are in the ship's deck, you'll notice the damp air of the Nile, especially in the afternoon, but when you are in Abu Simbel, at 10 am you can meet with about 30 º C. The second area is the northernmost, Cairo. I made very good time, but one morning dawned cloudy and you could see the cold, but at night, if you go out for a walk, it's better with some long sleeves.

What if I recommend is that you bear something to protect you from the sun, such as hats, sunglasses, skin creams and lip balm whiter.



CURRENCY The official currency is the Egyptian pound, divided into 100 piastres. These are the values \u200b\u200bthat circulates:

tickets in pounds: 100.50, 20, 10, 5, 1
piastres banknotes: 50, 25, 10, 5
piastres Currency: 10, 5, 1 ½

Not being in the foreign exchange market, you can not change to Egyptian pounds until you come to Egypt, but do not worry because almost everything you can pay with euros. I almost did not use Egyptian pounds more for some tips and to pay for taxis in Cairo, because there you save something it does, but the fact of change was more to handle an unfamiliar currency, go to change the bank for change and to get me a ticket back to Spain because as you will see are quite nice.

To give you an idea, I changed gave me 30 € and 225 pounds Egyptian. The exchange was about 7 pounds per euro delivered. Well, those 225 pounds, after buying tips, taxis and pay me on almost 80 (about 10 €) that I have stored in memory together with the inputs of the temples.
Anyway, if you remain without money, there are plenty of ATMs near where the cruise ships dock Luxor and Aswan, and if not, the end of the journey is often the city of Cairo, where it does not have problems to easily find an ATM.

HOTEL AND CRUISE MOTONAV

If you travel through an agency, prepare to leave home without knowing what hotel or boat you are going to sleep. In my case, at first gave us the name of 3 different hotels in the same category, and about a month before going and told us the final, the Hotel Royal Gardens.

With the boat was less fortunate, and that gave us the name of two different from the same category, but in the end, until we entered the boat, which we did not know how to. The assigned was the Moon River, neither of us had promised the agency, but the truth is I have no complaint from the boat, the food was alternated between menu and buffet, and had both Egyptian and Western dishes. In addition, the service and waiters were really the best of the stay on the boat later comment. To make a long

this too, here you have several links where you can read many reviews of hotels and ships from Egypt, where you will find that this is the trickiest issue of the trip, but we must not let a bad hotel and ship I ruined the trip. Reviews

Hotels
MV Cruise Reviews
Reviews Hotels & MV

My own advice is:

1. On the boat, giving you avoid rooms near the engines, there is much noise and smell of fuel can be annoying .
2. Note that the drink is usually not included in full board, so that's where you can drive.
3. If you have the opportunity to choose a good boat or a nice hotel, certainly picked a good boat, as the hotel of Cairo hardly going to enjoy it as it happened to me, however on the boat going to breakfast , lunch and dinner, in addition to sleep while you sail, so the better, less'll notice the effects of navigation.
4. Something must consider the categories in star ship and hotel, is that they are exactly the same in Egypt than in Spain. The equivalences are:
   

Egypt 4 stars =
Spain 2-3 star 5 star Egypt =
Spain 3-4 star 5 star Luxury Egypt = 4 stars
Spain Luxury 5 Star Superior level or above Egypt = 5 stars

Spain
NEED ME IN EGYPT

• Passport to NO expires within 6 months of your entry into the country
• visa that will give the flight or landing. (34 €)
• Money for tips and extra trips (150 € - 200 €)
• mosquito repellent (depending on the time, I did not need me)
• Sunscreen, hats, scarves, sunglasses
• Fortasec sun ... or any antidiarrheal, if you suffer the evil of Tutankhamun. Aspirin or paracetamol
• for fatigue
• If you are prone to be sick, medicine for the boat
• All coins of 1 or 2 € as you can, are the ones that are going to use
• Mobile phone charger / batteries. You do not need adapters
• Swimsuit, towel, flip flops etc. For the pool of the ship / hotel and the Nile
• For me the most important, the camera with all the reels or memory cards that you have
• Longing to experience another culture
• lot of energy to endure the folly of schedules, fatigue and early mornings

CUSTOMS AND TIPS

• takes candy, paint and pens to children, you will find that is one of the best memories you will have the trip.

• Nobody take back the language issue. You English speaking quietly, indeed, will surprise all English subjects who have reached those distant lands. In some specific cases you will use some English, but I will not deny that I had a little problem with the language on my journey As you will in another post later.

• The sense of time or being rushed in Egypt is somewhat slower than ours, you will see they do not get stressed easily, so I recommend tomároslo patience and sense of humor.

• Her life revolves around bargaining, and even for many is a lack of respect not haggle, so I never aceptéis the first price you give, can be lowered by an average of 40 or 60%.
  Beware that you do not sell soap figures guise of stone, the trick is to ask him to hit, take it to test the weight ...
  If something really interests you, mostréis no interest in it at first, ask the price of any otherwise, tell him you do not care the price that has given you and then asks what you were interested from the beginning
  To accelerate the process of bargaining, you are going to make or have someone rush you plan goal "let's go to the bus goes "or" leave it, do not waste time so you will not lose money. "
  

• If you want save many euros NEVER buy some nothing in the shops where the guide leads you. I will spare yourselves by 50%. I'll tell you my experience in the papyrus shop.

• Go not concerned about safety, is a town as pleasant and peaceful. Have maximum respect for the tourist and there are police everywhere, especially tourist police. But there is no sense of danger anywhere. Just use extreme caution because it is a country that lives off tourism.

• I hope you will not be very apprehensive when riding in taxis or buses dilapidated, dirty and old, but that will start as the lesser of your worries. Only I say that every time you arrive at your destination you will make a party. Really bad driving, but inexplicably miraculous and something happens rarely.
  About everything going to check when you get to Cairo. They spend more time doing bursts of honking and driving lights.
  Another adventure is to cross a street. The advice they gave us the guide to cross any street was that either the subway or cogiésemos cerrásemos cruzásemos eyes through which we liked, because I really do not care, do not stumble. It's something inexplicable but are real geniuses when dodging cars, pedestrians, police ...

VACCINES No vaccine is not required to enter Egypt, however, would not hurt to make sure we have made routine immunizations.
To learn more, I recommend you consult the website of the Ministry of Health recommendations for travel to Egypt in response to our personal circumstances:
http://www.msc.es/sanitarios/consejos/vacExt.do


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