Egypt

[midagetrolop]

Fancy Egypt - luxor - can you get to the pyramids and so forth from here and is it safe?

[CheekyChops]

I've been to Luxor twice and love it. It is safe but there isn't a great deal to do outside of the hotels, a few restaurants, a couple of pubs and mainly jewellers shops.

The pyramids are on the outskirts of Cairo, about 400 miles away! You can get there, last time I went some of our group went on a trip organised by our travel company. It cost nearly �200, they were picked up at 4:00am, flew to Cairo and got back about 10:00pm the same day.

I also saw a poster offering a trip to the pyramids via train, it was half the price but took 2 days.

[JK2]

You can get holidays that combine a few days in Cairo with the rest of the holiday in Luxor. Be very careful about when you go to Luxor - it is incredibly hot there in the summer months. Even at the end of March it can go over 90 degrees. It's the ideal place to go in the winter months.

I've been twice in March and even then you have to visit the Valley of the Kings first thing in the morning because it gets so hot there. The Temple of Luxor, Karnak and the museum are all very good.

As CheekyChops said, there are only a few restaurants - most recreation is hotel based. When we went with Portland Direct we were allowed to get vouchers to eat in alternative hotels so were able to vary things a little.

There are tourist police on the door of most hotels & a high police presence in the town due to previous bomb problems so it feels quite safe.

[jno]

in effect that's a two-centre holiday. Not sure about the train - it runs through fundamentalist territory and some years ago there was an attack on a train, so if you're going to do it as an excursion from Luxor I'd do it by air. Pyramids and Sphinx and Tutankhamun's mummy in Cairo (though there's an exhibition in the Dome in London next week), temples and Valley of the Kings in Luxor. Cruises mostly bettween Luxor and Aswan.