Destination: Egypt

LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL ITINERARY INFORMATION

Itinerary: Fortnight Jaunt

TWO WEEKS / CAIRO TO MT SINAI

Two weeks – a perfect time frame in which to experience the ancient and modern elements described in our Fortnight Jaunt.



A fortnight is an ideal amount of time in which to explore the country’s ancient and modern facets.

Start with three days in Cairo. Spend your first day touring the area’s huge collection of monuments in proper chronological order, starting at Saqqara, moving on to Dahshur, and finally visiting the Pyramids of Giza, a wonder of the ancient world.

Spend your second day at the Egyptian Museum marvelling at the antiquities and relics, of which there are more than 100,000. On day three explore the twisting alleyways and splendid mosques of the medieval quarters of Islamic Cairo. Take your time and spend a moment or two relaxing in one of the area’s fabulous ahwas (coffeehouses).

Train it straight down to Aswan, from where you can organise a day tour to see both Abu Simbel and the island temple of Isis at Philae. Then move into relaxation mode with two nights on a felucca sailing up to Edfu, site of a fine Ptolemaic-era temple.

From here you can move on to Luxor, where two or three days can be spent looking around the Pharaonic sights before catching a bus across the Eastern Desert to the resort town of Hurghada, where you can catch a ferry to Sharm el-Sheikh in southern Sinai. Around here you can delight in the underwater world before visiting the Greek Orthodox St Katherine’s Monastery and climbing to the top of Mt Sinai, which is revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews.