Family-Friendly Trips to Egypt

This is a luxurious ship with a stunning deck and swimming pool. The meals were outstanding, and I enjoyed a deeply relaxing massage from the onboard physiotherapist. The staff were consistently friendly and attentive. It was especially peaceful sitting on the top deck, taking in the views as we cruised along the Nile.

We drove through mountains on the way to Hurghada that were quite beautiful! It was a scenic drive!

The Valley of the Kings was mind boggling! The fact that so many important Egyptians were buried here, like Tutankhamun, was incredible! We visited several burial chambers and the colours of the pictographs on the walls and the ceilings were so vibrant!! The story of Hatshepsut, a female Pharoah was brought alive by our incredible guide, Omar, and the subsequent destruction of her images in her temple by her stepson were evident. Karnak and Luxor Temples were also mind boggling.

It was really interesting to see and hear the stories from our amazing guide, Omar, about the falcon-headed deity, Horus, his marriage to Hathor, the goddess of motherhood, and his victory over his evil Uncle Set. The pictographs here, like on all the temples were incredible to see! Abu Simbel Temple was incredible!! Definitely worth the visit! We got there early before the crowds and were able to get some really good pictures. This was the site of another engineering feet because it was moved brick by brick to prevent it from being covered by Lake Nasser. The figures are so massive!!!

Honestly as a woman I wondered before we arrived what the heck was so special about a dam. Learning about how much it fundamentally changed life for modern Egyptians was really interesting, as was seeing it was built like a mountain. I really enjoyed it! We also learned about the Philae Temple being moved brick by brick in the 70's in order to save it before the dam water covered it. Incredible feat of engineering! (There's some graffiti created by Napolean when he etched his name on the wall of the temple!) The story of the goddess Isis and her marriage to her brother Osiris was brought alive by our guide, Omar, as we walked through Philae Temple.

This wasn't a walking tour. It was a meal at a koshari restaurant our guide liked. We enjoyed the meal. Afterwards we went to a vendor to try Turkish coffee and my son smoked Hookah. We got an education of the process of heating and smoking it.

Our private guide, Yasser, did an amazing job of educating us about the Coptic Christians who reportedly hid Jesus and his family in the church we toured. We also toured the Citadel Mosque that Mohammed Ali built and the American boxer was named after. We entered a Jewish Synagogue and learned there are only a tiny number of Jews left in Egypt. We learned 90% of Egyptians are Sunni Muslims and 10% Coptic Christians. After lunch we walked through some touristy shopping areas where we saw small and larger items to buy. I got an Ankh (key of life) to put on a necklace.

The scenery was absolutely stunning!!! It was so interesting to see the landscape change as we drove from Cairo--with farms growing lush trees, to black sand, to beige sand, to quartz rock, to white, white rock formations. We loved getting out and exploring the landscape. We had fun 4x4 driving up and down sand dunes and even tried sand boarding down smooth sand dune hills. Crystal Mountain was disappointing. The crystals were apparently removed from the park 100 years ago, despite marketing pictures of large crystals coming out ot the ground. Despite this, the other landscapes absolutely made up for it! We went to some hotspring pools which we didn't know existed in the desert. We got no information enroute (their driver may have told our guide who didn't translate that information) that the expectation was for us to go in them. As the only woman there and many Arab men, that wasn't going to happen. Eventually two other women came and we sat on the side of the pool and put our feet in. Weird experience in the hot desert. The marketing photos of the camps were be very different than the reality. We saw photos of a large canvas tent with a queen bed or two double beds surrounded by hanging lights and ornate tapestries embroidered in gold with hanging green plants. There were also different pictures of a group of small portable western style backpacker's tents. We stayed in a more utilitarian permanent cabin with mismatched furniture and no decoration. There was air conditioning but the power went out in the middle of the night and it became very hot. The bedding and towels were white and clean. It was basic and ok to stay in, but not what was depicted in the photos.

It was so helpful to have Samara at the airport to greet us and walk us through different lineups and eventually out of the airport. There were so many people and it was a big airport and after flying for 17 hours, it was really helpful to be guided through seamlessly.

Mind blowing to actually be there!!! It was so helpful to have a guide giving us information about each area.

We went for a day of snorkeling and dolphin watching that included lunch. The water colours were gorgeous! There were soooo many fish in the water and the coral reef was so colourful! I've never seen so many fish in any other ocean! Bottlenose dolphins swam by our boat for quite a while! What a treat to see them!!! The lunch was good too!!

We left at 4:00 AM and I was unsure whether we would actually fly. We did!! It was honestly spectacular!!! It was so interesting to see ruins that are being escavated now, to see the Valley of the Kings, and to watch all the other balloons rise before and during sunrise. Gorgeous!! So peaceful too!

This is such an amazing temple. It was a highlight of our trip.

A great day to see sites and get the feel for old Cairo.

We enjoyed our float in the Dead Sea and the mud treatment experience. This was worth fitting into our tour. It was nice to have a relaxing day at the pools and spa too.

Petra was a key stop for us. We were fortunate to be there on a day with few other tourists. we enjoyed our donkey ride up to the Monastery

This guide was great and the historic hilltop has so much history to see.

The camp was empty so no social activities, too cold to swim. The sky wasn't very clear but we feel the lack of participants was why the stargazing was cancelled. For us, this was mostly a convenient stopping point on the way to Petra.

So much to see and learn about this complex and the road of sphynxes

Edfou was my favorite temple.

We recommend the balloon excursion. It was awesome to see it the Hatshepsut Temple from the air before visiting it on the ground. The temples and tombs are just incredible. Our guide was very knowledgeable. I am glad we did these early in the day beefier it got too hot.

The pyramids and Sphinx were exactly what we expected. This was out only camel ride enjoyed the longer circuit. Sakkara and Memphis were our first historic stop, I thinks it is best to see them before the Giza site.

The new museum is awesome. We spent a whole day here and still skimmed some sections.

The temples were fantastic. We recommend the balloon excursion but pass on the the Karnak night light show. The light show was disappointing and not worth the cost.