A Practical Guide for Petra to the Pyramids in January
A Practical guide to Petra to the Pyramids tour in January
What a great experience - this tour is very active and intense - and just amazing.
Clothes
In Jordan I wore long sleeved t-shirts, a vest and a hoodie most of the time - added a windbreaker for Petra and gloves and a hat. Jordan was cold. The Beduin dinner was super fun but also super cold - wear your long johns!
Egypt is warmer - I wore t-shirts and a light hoodie. Good walking shoes are essential on this tour - bonus points and saved time for you if they come off easily in the airport security.
Hotels
Great hotels here - the sprawling Kempinski is just amazing. Movenpick not as nice but amazing location. The Old Cataract is spectacular - probably the best hotel and view I have ever stayed at in 7 Tauck tours. I advise opting for the tours that stay in Aswan at Old Cataract for two nights. The Oberoi Zahra was lovely but has ridiculous cabin locks. The Mena House is nice, dated but amazing location. The food was great at all and the shower controls were sometimes harder to figure out than I wanted.
Flights and Security
Lots of flights - lots of security - so much patting down. Each flight in Egypt you go through security twice. Leaving Jordan they are concerned with “military equipment” and drugs - so leave your binoculars home. They want luggage unlocked for that flight from Jordan for easy searching. The charters were nice - Egyptair was not bad. Our guide in Jordan had a saying - “Got time to spare? Fly Egyptair!” Each hotel has security, the museum in Cairo has security coming and going.
What to bring
I had a lightweight backpack that I carried on day trips to peel layers into and carry water. Egypt is super dry and it’s lovely how Tauck supplies the bottled water. Take chapstick and lotion. Carry tissues with you and hand sanitizer. I have a phone lanyard that I got on Amazon to hang my phone around my neck - it’s my camera. I took along about $100 worth of Jordanian Dinar and Egypt pounds. I used most of the JD, not even half the EP.
Dina was our TD and honestly, she is the best TD I have ever had. She not only took care of all details well, and prepared us well, but she did it with LOVE. I would travel again with her anytime!
Comments
Your comment about the locks on the Zahra made me laugh. Yes, insert the key, wait for the click, the turn it, not too slow, but not too fast, and hopefully the door will open. If not, repeat
Dina was our TD for the Egypt: Jewel of the Nile tour. Totally agree with your comments about her. She was very excited that even TDs got Junior Suites at the Old Cataract.
The first time I tried that lock myself - I got the door open on the 18th try
I was always looking for the nice stewards to open it for me!
We are taking the Jewel of the Nile in February. (Egypt only). We planned to go in early for an extra day at the GEM since it was supposed to open in NOVEMBER!!!!!!. ( oh I thought I was so smart). So I’m curious, was the one day Tauck gave you at the old Egyptian museum enough? or should we also go on the extra day I had planned. I’m concerned all the good stuff is already moved to the GEM.
Thank you for reporting. It sounds like your trip was Tauck superior as expected.
A lot of the good stuff is already at the closed GEM and they don't know when it will open. Not sure what they are waiting for but it sounded like its not opening anytime soon - but in Egypt you never know! I was ok with the time we had at the old museum.
AustinGirl - During our October, Egypt Jewel of the Nile tour, the one day (which is really only three or four hours) was enough time for me at the Old Egyptian Museum. I'm more of a look, take picture, move on type of viewer vs someone with a history or art background that might study each piece in much more detail.
If you're the latter type, then you might want to plan additional time there. If you're the look and move on type then you'll be fine.
I agree with Sam. Initially, I was considering going back to the museum after lunch (across the street), but decided not to. Besides the challenge of crossing the street (you'll understand that when you see Cairo traffic), the museum was not a great experience as it was very crowded. For example, when we were there, the wait for the Tut room was about 30 minutes.
We had no wait for the Tut room, just lucky I guess. Again with my look and move on viewing mode (no pictures allowed in the Tut room, and they police it) I was only in the Tut room for maybe 5 minutes.
We did not have a wait to get into the small Tut room, either. I'm somewhere between both extremes, but I could have easily spent a full day there, since our visit to the museum came at the end of J&E and especially after all the pre-trip research I had done. But really, how many sarcophagi, especially plain un-decorated ones which are all over the place, are too many, and if you've seen one bust of Djoser or Rameses II, do you need to see more?
Egypt now has a major problem- with what they have discovered in recent years in Tanis, Tapposiris Magna, Heracleion, Saqqara, Luxor, etc., etc. they are really short of display floor space, even with the new GEM.