Like our off-the- beaten path tips? Get even more
ideas in a handy printable format you can take with you on your
trip! Luxor, Egypt
Luxor was hands down the most amazing
part of our trip to Egypt. The
temples and tombs were incredible -- they just got better and better
every day & our appreciation for them grew as we learned more about
ancient Egypt. We were astounded with the level of detail of the
drawings and the number of temples that still have their original
painted colors after thousands of years. Highlights included the Karnak
temple at Luxor (huge) and Nefertari's tomb. For Nefertari the journey
to get the tickets was half the fun -- only 150 tickets are sold per day
and the ticket office opens at the same time as the bridge required to
reach it, 6am, so everyone makes a mad dash to the ticket office! We
woke up early and were third in line for the bridge. After crossing the
bridge, our driver raced with everyone else, quickly becoming the lead
car and (luckily for us) never loosing that lead. We raced to the office
and bought four of the remaining tickets. Nefertari's tomb was
absolutely worth the extra effort in our opinion - the paintings were
the most incredible on our visit.
Having a private guide helped us appreciate the temples and tombs even more. Our guide was very educated, and was able to take us around the sights at our own pace and explain everything to us. He even taught us to decipher some of the hieroglyphics! We, of course, had lots of questions about details and all the new things we were seeing and he was able to give us great, thoughtful answers. We felt that having a guide gave us a depth of understanding that we would not have gained had we visited the sights on our own.
Abu Simbel
We took a daytrip from luxor to Abu Simbel. Our hottest day was in Abu Simbel - at over 110 degrees, we were sweating even sitting still in the shade and we could hardly walk in the sun. The site itself, however, was wonderful. The temples are very well preserved and it's interesting to imagine how they were disassembled and reassembled while the Aswan Dam was being built to save them from flooding. After visiting the site we quickly returned to the air conditioned airport to await our return flight!
Questions and Answers
Like our off-the- beaten path tips? Get even more ideas in a handy printable format you can take with you on your trip! Click here to buy our guides!