Family vacation February 2026 Egypt
Egypt
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Feb 9 - Feb 26, 2026
In February, 2026 our family of six adults toured Egypt on an itinerary put together with Habiba.
kimkim has a set itinerary for each country for a set number of days, typically seven or fourteen days. The client then has the opportunity to modify the itinerary to suit their needs.
Habiba worked with us to develop the tour that satisfied our requests and desires. After the initial contact with each other she set about making up an itinerary. Once we received it we began the long process of giving ideas to her which lead to new itineraries. This process went on until we were happy with the itinerary. We then paid our deposit and waited. Habiba handled all of the paperwork at her end to make sure all the tickets and passes were ready for us. Even as the trip was almost ready to begin our daughter made a request to see another site not originally part of the itinerary and Habiba was able to find a time to work it into the new itinerary. We were happy with the final itinerary and with Habiba for how she was always pleasant and eager to come up with a memorable family vacation.
We had asked for a private tour for the six of us and while this option was more expensive than a group tour we were more comfortable having our own private 12 seater Toyota van accompanied by our driver and guide.
In Cairo our guide Osama and driver Ahmed picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel. We had asked Habiba to select a hotel with more character than hotels favoured by Americans and she suggested Le Riad Hotel de Charme on El Moez Street. It was a terrific choice! Most tourists want to visit the historic sites which are fabulous but what really makes Egypt memorable is the chaos and that was on full display on El Moez. It is exciting and exhilarating and if you don't experience it then you haven't seen Egypt.
Our guide for the Pyramids and mosques and temples over the next three days was Mahmood who was passionate about his country and history and caring about us in answering our questions.
We were driven to Alexandria by Ahmed to spend a night then boarded a sleeper train in the following evening to go to Aswan. The sleeper car had been recently refurbished and was quite comfortable. A dining car on the train would have made the experience even better but it was still quite good,
We had chosen a somewhat remote hotel across the river from Aswan but Habiba made sure to have a company representative meet us at the train station and escort us to and from the hotel which was an adventure in itself. The hotel was called Kato Dool Resort and it was terrific!
Aswan is the most scenic of the cities we visited although the Corniche in Alexandria is beautiful.
Eslam was our guide in Aswan and he was very knowledgeable about the various sites we explored. He helped us board our river boat for the cruise down the Nile and then met us Kom Ombo and Luxor for other temple tours. Kom Ombo was disappointing in that it was extremely busy with many cruise boats all arriving at the same time creating a crush of tourists all trying to see the wonderful temple but being pressured to hurry because so many other people were waiting.
We were told by Eslam the scheduling culprit is the government but it is unfortunate we felt so pressured and we didn't get to fully appreciate the temple.
Luxor has two wonderful temples but again I feel we weren't given enough time to get the full experience there.
The cruise boat was very nice with a good buffet for each meal and the cabin was comfortable.
One of the pleasant surprises of the tour was watching the boat vendors tie up to the cruise boat while underway and start selling their wares. That was quite fun to watch.
We were driven to Hurghada to stay in an all-inclusive resort which was very, very nice!
The next day was our snorkeling day, a terrific day out on the Red Sea with some beautiful coral and tropical fish to admire. We were very pleased with this activity however the next day was a big disappointment.
It was our safari day and it was not what was advertised. My advice to kimkim and any potential traveler is to skip this activity, it is a very obvious tourist trap and does nothing to enhance the Egyptian experience. kimkim, stop offering this activity!
With that bad taste still in our mouth the next day we boarded a plane to Cairo for our final two days. We lodged at the Steigenberger Hotel in El Tahrir, a departure from the character hotels but we wanted to be in a different part of the city this time.
We had booked a food tour which was advertised as an eight hour event but because of Ramadan it got shortened and then substituted with a city lights tour conducted by Osama. This tour was enjoyable enough but we had expected a full food tour for the foodies in our family so it was a bit disappointing we couldn't have it. My advice to kimkim and any agent working on itineraries is to not offer the food tour during Ramadan.
So then it was time to leave and once again Osama was our guide to the airport. With our goodbyes came the end of the trip.
Many thanks to Habiba and all the drivers and guides who helped us realize a very memorable vacation.
Activity Reviews
An excellent day!
A wonderful day in the Sea!
The only bad day of our tour. The quad and spider driving was okay but limited and the Bedouin village was not a village at all and to top it off was a ridiculous three minute camel ride. Just a very poor experience and not worth doing and for kimkim it should be removed from the optional activities list. Get rid of it!
It didn't happen because of Ramadan.
A huge temple for one lady! Well worth the visit