After we visit a country we ask ourselves three questions: Are we glad we went? Would we recommend it to a friend? And would we go back? As far as Egypt goes, the answers were Yes. Depends. And No.
Egypt was country number 91 for us. It kept sinking to the bottom of our wish list simply because the negatives outweighed the positives for us; crowded, hot, dirty, and chaotic versus setting eyes on amazing pyramids, the legendary Nile River, spectacular ancient temples, and tombs. Not to mention, for this graphic designer, incredible images and hieroglyphics. So this past summer, after some other considerations, we had an “attitude adjustment” and decided to go for it.
However, earlier in the year, we wondered if we might be finished with full-time globe-trotting. Was it time to pick a place (or two) to call home and then reduce our travels to a more traditional pace? After all, we’d been on the road for ten years and we turned 68 and 78 this year. Add to that an adorable new grandson in Seattle, and it was tempting to at least think about settling down.
On the other hand, the list of countries we want to visit beckons. We are both in good health. Weston is still a baby, and houses are expensive, so…we are not quite ready to turn in our passports!
When we launched ourselves as the Senior Nomads in the summer of 2013, it was because “We had one more adventure in us!” And even with all of our incredible experiences, we still want to see and do more. So Egypt became the cornerstone for: “We have one more Adventure in Us 2.0!”
This beautiful house was part of what got us thinking about settling down. We were housesitting in Edmonds, Washington through Trusted Housesitters and loved this place. If you don’t know about that awesome way to find free housing check the link!
That meant instead of house-hunting, we gathered travel books from the Library, flipped open our laptops, and started planning an epic 2-month journey that would take us to Egypt, Dubai, Turkmenistan, Oman, and India. Special thanks to all of our Senior Nomads Group members who took the time to FaceTime with us and share their itineraries and wisdom!
Which brings me back to Egypt. And to my earlier point, it was indeed a challenging country to plan for. We’d settled on finding individual guides in major cities, but we knew we’d need a tour company to cruise the Nile. It became eye-crossingly complicated to choose the best one. Once you eliminate Royal Viking and other high-end operators (due to budget concerns), there are scores of companies selling almost the exact same itineraries at similar price points - and they all seem to have mixed reviews, from “best trip ever!” to “get me off this boat!”. At one point, we were ready to abandon Egypt altogether.
A typical Nile Cruise boat. This wasn’t ours, but it was very similar.
But one company kept surfacing in our searches - Egypt Gift Tours. So Michael sent them an e-mail, and within a few minutes, our Egyptian Guardian Angel arrived in the form of Heba Haggag. She loved our story and went out of her way to make sure we had an excellent experience for at least the part of our two-week visit she could control, that being a three-night, four-day Nile Cruise with side trips to a Nubian Village, Abu Simbel Temple and a hot air balloon ride in Luxor. I’ll return to this journey in the next blog.
Cairo was indeed crowded, chaotic, dirty and for the most part charmless. I know that sounds harsh - but for us, true.
Our trip began in Cairo on September 20th after a Turkish Airlines flight from Seattle that included a layover in Istanbul. After almost 20 hours of travel, we landed bleary-eyed from lack of sleep and barely noticed the scorching heat. That would be an issue later.
Cairo is a sprawling, overcrowded city, with over twenty-two million residents (Wikipedia) jammed into modern high rises, aging and often crumbling residential buildings, and wide swaths of ramshackle neighborhoods. The traffic is absolutely crazy. And the city is loud, extremely dirty, and ultimately, an exhausting place to be a tourist. But it's the starting point to visit Giza, home of the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx, so you really can't avoid it.
Al Azhar park in central Cairo and our neighborhood of Zamalek on the left side of this photo. Both from the internet.
To be fair, there were also a few lovely green spaces, promenades along the Nile, colorful markets, new pedestrian plazas, malls, and modern hotels. Eventually, the much anticipated Grand Egyptian Museum will open, showcasing the best Ancient Egypt has to offer, including all of the treasures found in Tutankhamun's tomb.
We booked a four-night stay in a funky, but very comfortable Airbnb in the upscale Zamalek neighborhood, so we were out of the fray. In fact, we were on the tip of an island in the middle of the Nile River, surrounded by Embassies, private schools, coffee shops, and plenty of greenery. There was still a lot of trash, silt, and precarious sidewalks, but nothing like the city's center.
Our young hosts Mira and Mourad were delightful! They arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport so we could avoid the scrum of taxi touts and made sure the building doorman was on the lookout for our arrival. He also seemed to materialize out of the shadows whenever we left and arrived to make sure we were safe.
They also hosted us for an afternoon cruise on the river. Like most things in Egypt, the boat had seen better days, but we had it to ourselves, and the owner seemed overjoyed to have any guests at all. In fact, to be sure we had a good time he had the skipper start up the boat’s very loud rattle-trap generator just to run a set of speakers so we could party to Egyptian Hip Hop. We quickly killed that and enjoyed the steady putter of the outboard instead.
We learned a great deal about current life in Cairo through the eyes of this young couple, and that's just the kind of interaction that keeps us using Airbnb.
We booked three Airbnb Experiences while we were in Cairo. In our travels we’ve come to rely on them to be reputable and credible tours or activities, and, just like Stays, there is a vetted host, and a review process, plus Airbnb has your back if something goes wrong. I’m glad we used the platform because two of the three were very disappointing and we needed Airbnb’s intervention.
The first was a food tour. We were looking forward to a three-hour exploration of local food stalls and restaurants to get a flavor of Egyptian food. However, the time and meeting point on the listing differed from the actual instructions the host gave at the last minute, which we missed. So, of course, even though we arrived early, we weren’t at the right place. We tried through every means to find our host and arrange to catch up with the group, but she was rude and pushed the fail back on us. Airbnb told us a host cannot change the time or place on the listing without the guest's consent, so we got a refund and made our own fun.
We would have like to taste the foods featured in the experience - but we did manage to find some delicious street food on our own - and enjoyed buffet style dining at our hotels. At least in that setting you can try a lot of things!
The second Airbnb was an all-day tour of Cairo Highlights (excluding Giza). The tour started out well - and in fact, we enjoyed seeing The Hanging Church, The Coptic Church, an enormous Mosque, and particularly enjoyed The Museum of Egyptian Civilization. We felt it was more comprehensive than the National Museum - and it was home to 22 Royal Mummies!
The new Coptic Church, a vignette from the mosque, and an image of one of the 22 mummies at the Civilization Museum.
Our guide was fine - but when it came to lunchtime, he ignored our request for something simple like Shwarma and took us to a scam restaurant where, once we were seated, he quickly disappeared. A team of servers descended on us with platters of food we hadn’t ordered. We were a bit bewildered and didn’t want all this food - but when I finally found our guide to say so, he told us it “was only $20 USD per person and it was for our own good since we wouldn’t get sick!" What? We’d spent around $10 USD for both of us on delicious meals. Michael was furious, and we left the restaurant, reluctantly paying for a $4 Diet Coke and the salads we'd barely tasted. No doubt our guide did not get the kickback from the restaurant he’d hoped for.
Needless to say, we were done with that guide and that tour. Again, we got a refund. But this time, the tour operator jumped in and was so appalled by his guide's behavior that he arranged a free trip to the airport for us the next day and swore he would not be using that guide again. Mustafa turned out to be a very responsible and personable business owner who continued to apologize and try his best to make things right. I will include this experience link - because, other than the lunch incident, it is a good tour and has a lot of great reviews. However, this episode, plus a few others put us on notice for this trip - Buyer Beware!
We learned quickly to not accept or pay for anything we didn't ask for. Absolutely nothing is free. Check your bills and receipts carefully. Double-check itineraries to ensure nothing “extra” has been added that you’ll be asked to pay for later. Do not get in a vehicle (or on an animal) without knowing the price of the ride. In fact, use UBER. Do not hand your camera to anyone other than another bonafide tourist to take your pictures unless you want to pay to get it back. Avoid eye contact with aggressive vendors and use a firm "no thank you" as often as necessary. Or try speaking in Star Trek Klingon - a language now available on Duolingo. That would really through them off.
Our lovely guide Amal. The pyramids were amazing - and fascinating to contemplate. If you want to visit, you’ll have a better experience with a guide to keep the touts at bay, make sure you have authentic tickets, and get you to the best view sites.
Fortunately, our last Airbnb experience was a delight. Our guide, Amal, met us at our Airbnb and spent a day touring the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Egyptian Museum together. She shielded us from the worst of the touts, ensured our tickets were authentic and correctly priced, and carefully explained everything we saw. And we had a very civilized and affordable lunch together. This is one experience I am happy to link to.
And of course, we were in awe of these majestic monuments just like everyone else. How on earth did mere mortals create those massive, perfectly engineered structures? Once you’ve seen them in person, you can’t help but ponder the universe. And I am glad we saw them with our own eyes.
But at the same time, we were a bit underwhelmed. Too much anticipation, perhaps. Or too many camel touts and trinket sellers? And definitely too many “stay out of my Instagram space!" moments (there were many of those throughout the trip). It was also hot. Very hot - as in 109+ degrees hot. Which can sap your energy for touring. We might have been better off starting in October when it gets cooler, but I don’t think I’d trade twice the tourists for the heat. I also feel that the Egyptian government is valuing tourist dollars over the conservation of their ancient treasures. More on that later.
From Cairo, we flew to Aswan, where we started our enjoyable Nile Cruise to Luxor and explored many fascinating temples and tombs along the way. All that and more in the next blog. Stay tuned!
Thanks for following along,
Debbie and Michael Campbell
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