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Cairo, Egypt - The Pyramids


DoonTheSlope

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Looking to go and see the pyramids next year but more than likely going to go on my tod. Ive been toying with the idea for a couple of years and today I heard a Thomas Cook advert on the radio about Egypt so it must be safer now than it has been in the recent past

I checked the Thomas Cook website but it’s all package holidays to resorts miles away from Cairo and because I’d probably be myself I’d rather just an in - out job in 3 night and don’t fancy spending a week on an all inclusive etc

So, has anyone been to Cairo indepentantly recently and able to give any details on safety for a lone traveller, tour guide operators and basic recommendations and tips etc

Cheers!

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I know Cairo well. Was last there in 2010, just before Mubarak was overthrown, so don't know the current security situation but suspect a lone male would be absolutely fine if you're sensible (ie: don't go wandering off the beaten track - same as most any large city).

The Giza pyramids are right on the outskirts of Cairo. Any halfway-decent hotel will run a bus out there for guests. If you're looking at three nights there's plenty of options for other days (Giza wouldn't take a whole day anyway). If you're just after pharaonic stuff, I'd spend a day in Sakkara (sometimes written Saqqara), site of the oldest pyramid but also many tombs that are open with wall paintings, incised hieroglyphs and the like - none of which you'd see at Giza. Again, I'd imagine that a hotel would be laying on trips out there (it's a few miles south of the city).

The old medieval centre of Cairo is well worth a visit too, for the architecture, and Khan el Khalili, the main souk in the medieval centre. 

Accommodation - depends on budget. Plenty of five-star options, but a personal favourite is the 3-star Windsor Hotel. Great bar barely changed for sixty years or so and I'm sure they run day trips. Palin stayed there in Around the World in 80 Days (I actually appear very briefly being served a beer in a panning shot round the bar). 

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You used to be able to do it on a boat trip from Cyprus. That was a quick in and out job. Overnight boat to Egypt, day trip to the pyramids then back to Cyprus overnight again. It was pretty reasonable value. No idea if they still do those trips though. 

Edited by Orraloon
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Btw, assuming you were going to spend two or three nights in Cairo you'd want to take in the Cairo Museum, just off Tahrir Square. All the Tutankhamen tomb contents plus a mass of monumental statuary and stuff.

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