While most folks go on holiday and stay in one hotel for the entire duration of their holiday, I like to be a bit different and decided to split our holiday up with four nights in Aswan and spending our last three nights in Cairo so that we could go shopping. So how does one enjoy a luxury holiday to Cairo, let me show you how..
…firstly you stay at a lovely hotel in Cairo. With the lack of tourists in Egypt there are some pretty good deals going on for accommodation so you don’t really have an excuse not to spoil yourself! We choose to stay at the Sofitel El Gezirah for our three nights in Cairo; there will be a full review to follow but these are the views from our balcony.
..Secondly find somewhere fancy to eat – the lovely gentleman that picked us up from the airport told us that Kebabgy at the Sofitel made the best bread in Cairo and he wasn’t fibbing. Yes I ate bread, there are some days when I crave it so much that I head into Waitrose just to sniff the fresh bread on display (yes I’ve just admitted to my rather dirty habit) – I was having one of those days however I ate the bread this time and it was pretty darn tasty. We decided to live dangerously and ordered Egyptian Sparkling Wine (it makes my eyes water just thinking about it!). How much did I enjoy Kebabgy, so much that we ate there two nights on the trot but the second visit was without the Sparkling Wine or the bread!
And then of course we had to go shopping at the Khan el-Khalili souq – our bank accounts are still crying from over use from the lantern shopping. We bought quite a few!
While shopping we took a wrong turn and ended up finding this pretty building, there’s always a silver lining for each wrong turn in life.
This was my third visit to Cairo and I’ve seen most of the main sights however these bad boys are always worth a visit when in the area; they still take my breathe away.
G finds Cairo slightly chaotic while I just find the craziest so so appealing! I left him safely at the hotel while I visited the pyramids.
I’m going to spam you with photos of Pyramids now (but not too many as I starting getting RSI pains from editing pyramid photos so I gave up, you’re lucky!)
You know how I mentioned there aren’t too many foreign tourists in Egypt at the moment, well I became a bit of a tourist attraction for the locals who were visiting from the South of Egypt. I signed autographs and had my photo taken with A LOT of people – I do wonder how many Facebook profile photos have my ugly mug in them now! These girls were precious and I got lots of cuddles, I tried to teach them to say cheese but obviously it means something completely different in Arabic as they went running towards the camera.
I did have a “police incident” while at the Pyramids; as I was super popular with the locals and everyone wanted my photo, I had to start saying no especially when it came to the young men. One young man tapped me lightly on the shoulder and then ran off which caused the guys on the camels to start screaming to the police that I was injured. Needless to say I was soon surrounded with what felt like half of Egypt while I told the police I was unharmed and that everything was fine – I received an apology and then was offered a camel ride (as you do!)
I declined the camel ride but was forced to have a photo beside a camel – this is what NOT to wear while in Egypt! The camel is definitely better dressed!
Mama Mia its the Sphinx!
I used the hotels chauffeur service to take me out to Giza which made life super easy as I had air conditioning plus I didn’t have to negotiate with a taxi driver to get back to Cairo. Just a few of the weird and wonderful things we saw on our drive back to the hotel, we were both giggling!
Soon it was time to board our British Airways flight back to London after spending three nights in Cairo, time flies when you’re on holiday.
We managed to score an old BMI plane which had big comfy seats and a lot of space; someone was so comfy he became Sleeping Beauty…
which made it difficult to have a constant supply of gluten free jelly beans! Thank goodness that the cabin crew understood my plight and did regular trips to keep me in my sugar coma.
Travel Tips for visiting the Ancient Pyramids in Giza
- Opening hours are from 8am through to 4pm.
- To gain entrance to the site around the Pyramids cost 80 Egyptian Pounds for an adult and 40 Egyptian Pounds for a student.
- The Great Pyramid is closed between Midday and 1pm and costs 200 Egyptian Pounds to enter (half this price for students).
- The entrance fees for the other Pyramids are as follows – The Khahfre Pyramid costs 40 Egyptian Pounds; The Menkaure Pyramid costs 40 Egyptian Pounds and the Mers Ankh Tomb costs 50 Egyptian Pounds to enter. (student prices are half the adult prices listed – a valid student identity card must be shown).
- Cameras aren’t allowed inside the Pyramids or Tombs
Have you visited Cairo in Egypt – what was your favourite thing to do? What’s your favourite ancient site in Egypt and your tips for visiting the country?
xx
If you liked this post on my Luxury Holiday to Cairo, Egypt then why not come and join me on Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest and Bloglovin’ – I won’t bite!
