High Speed Cruising from Alexandria to Cairo

[Crocodile Dundee]

Cruising Down the Road to Cairo

 

When my wife and I go cruising, we like to maximise our whole experience by arranging our own shore excursions. The alternative is to join the hoards of tourists disgorged at every port who leap straight from one controlled environment to another in the form of endless coach convoys and guided tours. These hoards (herds?) are fine for those who prefer a safe and controlled environment, but it does limit one’s overall experience. Ships often stay in port for only a matter of hours, and we prefer to spend those hours seeing as much as humanly possible.

 

As dedicated exponents of independent excursions we research and plan our time in port extensively, yet our most recent cruise presented a major challenge. Our destination was the port of Alexandria in Egypt from where the pyramids of Giza are tantalising close. Everyone wants to see the pyramids at some point in their life, but unfortunately Cairo is still three hours drive from port. This poses a formidable obstacle for the one day visitor.

 

The easy option would have been to take the ship excursion, yet as usual we wanted more. Together with our friend Google we researched our options obsessively, leaving no stone unturned, no sarcophagus un-exhumed in our search for factual information about this journey and the possibility of finding a viable alternative to the ship-based shore excursions. Unfortunately, our fastidiousness resulted in the discovery of some positively unsettling statistics about the perils of travelling the Cairo road. Apparently Egyptian drivers are not particularly skilled at staying alive whilst driving. Conscious of this, and the political unrest in the area we researched our journey a tad more obsessively than usual, not necessarily a good idea. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss. Perhaps in hindsight we should have buried our heads in Egypt’s copious volumes of sand rather than torturing ourselves examining possible dangers.

 

In addition to less than encouraging road toll statistics was my discovery that all cruise ship excursions from Cairo are required to travel in convoys accompanied by armed police escorts. Call me paranoid, but it seemed that there were serious doubts in someone’s mind about the statistical probability of my reaching Cairo unscathed. It appeared that there was a significant chance that if not blown up by terrorists, there was a very good chance of my ending up as road kill. The cruise brochures, however, made no mention of such things and instead concentrated on glossy pictures of the pyramids with nice camels carrying smiling tourists.

 

Intrepid explorers that we are, we nevertheless chose to press on with our independent shore excursion. We concluded that with only 12 hours in port, 6 of which are consumed getting to Cairo and back, every moment was important. We reasoned that transferring hundreds of passengers from ship to tour bus would simply devour too much time. We also figured that if we hired our own transportation perhaps we would be less of a terrorist target than a convoy full of rich Americans. As it turned out, terrorism has very little to do with the provision of a police escort.

 

We arrived in Egypt and disembarked as planned while the rest of the ship’s passengers assembled in their hundreds pending transfer to tourist coaches. Our new hosts, arranged via the internet, met us as planned and we were quickly ushered to our private van into which we strapped ourselves as if there were no tomorrow. Our guide assured us that seat belts were unnecessary, looking somewhat bemused as we lashed ourselves to our seats. We were soon on the road to Cairo well before the ship’s herds had been released from their corral, and thankfully all indications suggested a country dedicated to road safety. Frequent signs confirmed a maximum allowable speed of 90 kilometres per hour, periodic electronic devices told drivers what speed they were actually travelling and police radar traps were commonplace.

 

It was not until a Mercedes shot past us at high speed that we began to have our first concerns. It transpired that these cars are driven by couriers who traverse the Alexandria/Cairo road many times a day and thus know where all the radar traps are. If one wishes to get to Cairo in a hurry you simply tag along for the ride. Unfortunately, a small, top heavy HiAce van is not designed as a pursuit vehicle, and even more unfortunately, our driver was totally oblivious to this fact.

 

There is something disconcerting about travelling in a small van at warp speed down a road your driver appears to have mistaken for a take-off runway. Call me old fashioned, but I have this quaint belief that all four wheels should touch the road simultaneously, although admittedly there must be far less wear and tear on the tyres doing it the Egyptian way. My pulse rate and vital signs were now of concern as were the creaking sounds a HiAce van emits just before it succumbs to metal fatigue. Little did I realise that this dramatic change of pace was simply a taste of things to come.

 

It soon transpired that my earlier fears of terrorism were in fact groundless. The police presence in tour convoys is in fact an acknowledgment of how important tourism is to the Egyptian Government. Cruise ships berthing in Alexandria bring with them millions of dollars clutched in the hands of thousands of tourists. In order for the country to relieve them of those burdensome dollars, the tourists must be transferred to Cairo as quickly as possible. Driving at the maximum safe speed of 90 kph just isn’t going to do it for them, and so the police escort ensures that the convoys can break every speed limit along the way, thus reaching Cairo with plenty of shopping time before their return.

 

Meanwhile, back in the van, where my seatbelt was drawn so tightly that gangrene was imminent, our driver had been outrun by the Mercedes and our modest HiAce had returned to sub-light speed. Soon, however, a thundering presence in the rear mirror indicated that one of the many cruise convoys was heading our way, and soon we were totally engulfed by a convoy of huge tourist coaches, bucking and swaying as they jostled for position behind a lone police car. The wailing siren and flashing lights should warn all sensible road users that now would be an excellent time to hide, turn off the highway or check one’s life insurance. Unfortunately, our driver was not one of those sensible users. These buses travel within inches of each other at 130 kph, take no prisoners and seem intent on decimating anything in their way. Despite this, and with foot pressed flat to the floor, our driver hurled us into the middle of the convoy, much as an over-enthusiastic lemming might leap over a cliff. I was expecting a very similar outcome. In seconds we too were bouncing along at 130 kph, buses to the left of us, buses to the right with our poor little HiAce the meat in a coach sandwich. Had I been able to release my whitened knuckles from their death-like grip on the panic strap, I could have reached out and touched the buses on either side. Reaching Cairo alive was one of the high points of our trip.

 

The return journey I expected to be somewhat more sedate, and indeed it was initially. However our driver’s death wish soon returned and our tyres once again began to lose touch with the road. Without the shelter of a convoy, it was only a matter of time before a policeman waved him to the side of the road where he was informed that he had been exceeding the maximum speed limit. A short and unintelligible conversation in Egyptian between the driver and police ensued, which my guide later interpreted for us.. I gather the free Australian transcript was roughly as follows:-

 

Officer: “You have been recorded travelling well in excess of the speed limit”

Driver: Yeah, well … see that ashen looking guy in the back seat – he’s with the cruise ship and we’re a little tiny convoy of one HiAce van.

Officer: Oh crikey, no worries mate – didn’t realise – don’t worry about it pal, just keep driving and have a good one”.

 

With that we were waved past the queue of other speedsters being booked for their transgressions, and were on our way again. In India cows are sacred. In Egypt, it’s tourists.

 

At the end of the day the question might be asked, was it all worth it and would we do it again? Once you have seen the pyramids, the Egyptian Museum and looked the Sphinx in the eye there would be few who would consider it a wasted trip. Would we do it on our own? Certainly, only next time I would chooses a Mercedes, not a HiAce van, and I would lay down some ground rules before the journey specifying my preferences in terms of air speed, altitude etc etc. Notwithstanding the whole “near death experience” it remains true that doing this trip on your own allows you to see and explore far more in the time available than anyone possibly can as a member of the tourist herds that roam the Egyptian deserts.

 

We saw not only the primary sights but also the Citadel and the special rooms at the museum containing the mummies of the Pharaohs. We viewed the actual mummies of a dozen or more Pharaohs as they lay in repose just as they have done for over 3000 years. Trust me, a face-to-face encounter with Ramses II is worth making your own arrangements. I have to say that staring death in the face on the highway was worth staring death in the face in the Cairo museum.

 

Finally, if you are ambivalent about religion, travelling to Cairo is an awfully good way to resolve your doubts. I personally prayed to every God I could think of, and was prepared to convert to any one of them in return for a guaranteed safe passage. The drive to Cairo can do that for you too.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Hlitner]

I will admit that at this moment I am laughing so hard its difficult to type this message. The tale of your drive is wonderful and rings very true. We recently returned from spending two weeks in Egypt (on our own) and also did the Cairo to Alexandria drive in order to spend a couple of nights in Alexandria. You are absolutely correct that there are no terrorist problems in this part of Egypt and the convoys are a bit of a joke (you do need convoys if driving outside of Luxor). We used a private car/driver for the same journey between Cairo and Alexandria and also encountered a few police road blocks. This is more common on the way to Cairo (as opposed to going to Alexandria) because the Egyptian Police try to screen most folks heading into Cairo. By they way, there is a fascinating area about half way between Cairo and Alexandria called Wadi el Natrun. At that little town (its near the main reststop area) there are several amazing monestaries (Coptic) and we had a wonderful tour of one of those places with our guide being a resident Monk. Egypt is truly an amazing country and the authorities have obviously made the protection of tourists their major job. During our two weeks journey (including internal air flights, convoys, etc) from the Northern tip to the Southern tip we always felt safe (once we got used to see so many automatic weapons) and found the Egyptian people to be very friendly and helpful. Unfortunately for cruise passengers, many of the most interesting parts of the country are not accessible during a 1 or 2 day port stop.

 

Hank

[MercedMike]

Thanks for a great report, Croc!

 

We are contemplating the same trip soon, and your description is pretty much as I imagined it!

[EASYTRAVEL777]

What a great review!

 

Would you recommend a guide for the Museum? Did you have to pay extra for the mummy room? How much were you charged for using a digital camera?

 

I always wondered about not having a convoy returning to Alexandria.

[Smiles3usa]

Thanks for the laughs. Which agency/website did you use for your trip? Would you recommend them?

[Hlitner]

You do have to pay extra for the Mummy rooms (there are now two open) and they sell the tickets in a small booth outside one of the rooms. We had our personal guide in the museum (he was an Egyptologist with 7 years of university education) but they have very strict rules about guides in the museum. They are not supposed to take you into the Mummy or King Tut rooms. The museum has imposed this requirement to keep down the crowds (fewer guides) and to avoid having a lot of guides talking in a small area. We did see one guide break the rules, and she was quickly stopped by a guard. Our guide would give us detailed explanations before he would send us in those rooms. The exhibits all have explanations posted in English. As to cameras, they are absolutely not allowed inside the museum and you must check them at the gate. Our guide insisted that we leave our cameras in our car.

 

Hank

[Crocodile Dundee]

What a great review!

Would you recommend a guide for the Museum? Did you have to pay extra for the mummy room? How much were you charged for using a digital camera?

 

Thanks ... 8*)

 

We had the guide for the day, so we also had her for the museum. On the one hand it's handy to have one but on the other I think you might get to see more of what you want without one. It depends on how much explanatory stuff you like. As for cameras ... no way - you might just as well try walking around with a machine gun - you'd probably get the same response!

[Crocodile Dundee]

Thanks for the laughs. Which agency/website did you use for your trip? Would you recommend them?

 

We used GAT tours, who were fine - except they were a bit preoccupied with trying to sell us stuff and take us to places where they received kickbacks. If I did it again I'd make sure they took me only where I wanted. Hindsight would make me a tad more assertive about the times I spent at various spots.

[Crocodile Dundee]

You do have to pay extra for the Mummy rooms (there are now two open) and they sell the tickets in a small booth outside one of the rooms. Hank

Yup .. and I forgot to tell you how much they were - it was 100 Egyptian pounds each which was around $25 Australian dollars or whatever it translates to in your currency. I think it's around US$18.00. That give you entry to both mummy rooms and it's well worth it to see all of the actual pharaohs face-to-face!

[simonv]

You did in six hours what took us three days to see (of course we had three wonderful Egyptian lunches in between). I'm impressed. We used A&K for Cairo. The line to buy the tickets for the museum is long, but the A&K had a representative with tickets for their tours waiting, so we didn't waste time waiting. The A&K is the biggest highend tour operator in Egypt. Wish we had the same service in Vatican.

[Saga Ruby]

I was on my first trip to Cairo last December (2006) as an independent traveler, one day only from Port Said to Cairo. Your wonderful account of surviving the roads made me smile.

 

What interested me was the behavior of the drivers on the port highways and the "superhighways" in Cairo on the way to Giza. At some rare times, my driver actually had two lanes open which would seem to allow us to drive inside our own lane. Instead, we straddled the white stripe between the two lanes as a matter of course. It was fascinating on the Cairo highways to watch the people walking alongside the edges of the highway, waiting for transportation to show up, while the donkey carts plodded along as though cars were not whizzing past their flanks at 90k.

 

Because we all spend so much time in the vans in transit from port to Cairo, we have plenty o' time to view the surrounding landscape. My memory of those long road trips are the pale beige plastic grocery bags which decorate every rock, tree, plant, and bush along the way. Evidently it is a local tradition to buy an item at a local grocery, then discard it into the wind on the way home. And how 'bout those unfinished staircases reaching up to the sky on most of the roofs? A tax dodge, doncha know.

 

Thanks for the wonderful narrative about your Cairo visit.

 

Ruby

[Sandy R]

Thanks for the eloquent and entertaining report! We will be stopping in Alexandria/Cairo overnight and also want to hire a private guide company. After reading your report, we will definitely NOT take a ship's tour. We intend to stay in a Cairo hotel overnight, so hopefully our tour should be a little less frantic. I have downloaded your info and helpful tips... can't wait until our 2008 cruise!

 

One question please... did you get an Egyptian Visa or were you able to use the ship's blanket Visa?

 

Thanks again... Sandy

[Trece]

...and here's the view from our van en route from Cairo to Alexandria. I can't say I've ever seen an accident like this at home, but that's because this type of accident would close our state highway down for hours, probably in both directions. Here our tour van merely slowed down to warp speed as we passed by in the "slow" lane!

 

Actually, our van driver did not drive all that fast, and we felt very safe. Seeing this accident within a half hour of our start (we were staying in Cairo and traveling to Alexandria) was a little disconcerting, but all was fine.

 

Our favorite road memory was on the way back, when we were stuck in end of the day dusty Cairo traffic & pollution. A pickup truck next to us had a guy in the bed unsuccessfully holding down a tarp covering something that we were dying to see. When the tarp billowed up, we could see the bed of the pickup was filled to the brim with what looked to be new computer monitors, not wrapped, not boxed, packed every which way and exposed to all the dust & sand that makes Cairo so special. And you know, they probably work better than our coddled & pampered US computers!

[ldog]

Funny thread.... we did independant tour in Alexandria too. Our guide commented that the lane dividers on the highway were for decoration only!

[Nebr.cruiser]

When we were in Cairo on a tour about ten years ago, our tour bus actually ran into a taxi on one of Cairo's main throroughfares. It was a pretty minor fender-bender, but the taxi was out of commission.

 

The bus driver, our guide, and the taxi driver all got out and started arguing, with much arm waving and gestures. After a few minutes our driver enlisted the aid of a few other drivers/gawkers and they physically LIFTED the taxi out of the way and we continued merrily on to our destination, while the taxi driver yelled and screeched. Anything to keep the tourists happy, I guess.

 

In the US the highway would have been blocked for an hour, with police, etc. Cairo has to have the absolute craziest traffic we have ever seen. It has to be experienced to be believed.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

Thanks for the description of the egyptian highway system!!!! yikes!

 

Has anyone tried taking the train from Alex - Cairo? We have heard the 1st class on the Turbo train is good and takes just over 2hrs.

 

Has anyone done this? We are considering taking the train - any caveats?

[suzieque]

Crocodile Dundee,

That was the absolutely funniest post I have read!! You should be a travel writer!! We are on Oceania's Barcelona to Istanbul cruise Aug.6, 2008 and it stops in Alexandria for a day then Cairo for a day. Please share the tour company you used. I am hoping to have someone pick us up in Alexandria, and arrange an overnight in Cairo and then return us to the ship in Cairo at the end of day 2. I have heard of NileBlue, but would like to hear more about yours.

Hank, if you are still following these posts, "hi" from Suzie. We communicated about the Galapagos trip I took this past December, which was truly amazing. Looking forward to trying out Oceania next.

Suzie

sprovo@gmail.com

[roscoe39]

Thanks for the description of the egyptian highway system!!!! yikes!

 

Has anyone tried taking the train from Alex - Cairo? We have heard the 1st class on the Turbo train is good and takes just over 2hrs.

 

Has anyone done this? We are considering taking the train - any caveats?

hi rabbit., weve discussed this at length under the thread "

train from alexander to cairo" if you want to take a look.

its a great trip.... roscoe

[engineer38]

Crocodile Dundee,

That was the absolutely funniest post I have read!! You should be a travel writer!! We are on Oceania's Barcelona to Istanbul cruise Aug.6, 2008 and it stops in Alexandria for a day then Cairo for a day. Please share the tour company you used. I am hoping to have someone pick us up in Alexandria, and arrange an overnight in Cairo and then return us to the ship in Cairo at the end of day 2. I have heard of NileBlue, but would like to hear more about yours.

Hank, if you are still following these posts, "hi" from Suzie. We communicated about the Galapagos trip I took this past December, which was truly amazing. Looking forward to trying out Oceania next.

Suzie

sprovo@gmail.com

 

Very much doubt that your ship calls at Cairo! it's at least 100miles from the sea, probably Port Said is the next stop after Alexandria. Check with your cruise line. Quite a few people do tours from Alexandria to Cairo overnight and back to Port Said or vice versa and indeed some ships excursions offer that sort of option. Enjoy Egypt. It's just as intense as the original post would lead you to believe.

[Andiamo!]

Crocodile Dundee,

That was the absolutely funniest post I have read!! You should be a travel writer!! We are on Oceania's Barcelona to Istanbul cruise Aug.6, 2008 and it stops in Alexandria for a day then Cairo for a day. Please share the tour company you used. I am hoping to have someone pick us up in Alexandria, and arrange an overnight in Cairo and then return us to the ship in Cairo at the end of day 2. I have heard of NileBlue, but would like to hear more about yours.

Hank, if you are still following these posts, "hi" from Suzie. We communicated about the Galapagos trip I took this past December, which was truly amazing. Looking forward to trying out Oceania next.

Suzie

sprovo@gmail.com

 

If you decide to use Nile Blue Tours like we did, you won't be disappointed. Try to get Hazem Abbas, the manager, as your guide. He's absolutely great and will definitely personalize your tour as much as you'd like, and for an extremely competitive price. He's a very nice man and you cannot go wrong with him. We will definitely be using him again on our next cruise.

[potteran]

I vastly enjoyed your story. What a sense of humor! But, honestly who was your tour company. Planning to do the same trip in October. I don't necessarily want to do the ship's tour and end up at the Papyrus factory while I can spend more time in the Cairo Museum.

 

thanks

[ldog]

You will have to resign yourself to the fact that every tour will take you to a factory or some sort whether it be papyrus, perfume or carpet. It's part of travelling in the Middle East.;)

 

That said, on our tour with BestWayTravel Egypt we stopped at the perfume factory and when none of us bought anything we carried on.

 

The good thing about a small van tour (we were seven) is that you travel faster and don't spend hours waiting for people to catch up or shop so you see a lot more. In places like the museum you can thread your way around the large tour groups and actually hear your guide.

[Andiamo!]

You will have to resign yourself to the fact that every tour will take you to a factory or some sort whether it be papyrus, perfume or carpet. It's part of travelling in the Middle East.;)

 

 

Idog, I'll have to disagree with you on that point, though it certainly appears to be true that most of them do.

 

We did an overnight shore excursion, but during the planning stage, when our tour operator asked us if we would like to visit a papyrus or carpet factory, I told him our schedule was too tight for that, but that we would like to do some shopping. He recommended an hour-long stop at a government-regulated store in Giza that was spread over three floors. I never made it to the papyrus section in the basement, but I picked up a couple of small 18 kt. Ankh pendants on the ground floor which had a wide selection of jewelry, and then went up to the second floor where I bought two cotton kaftans, some absolutely great amber jewelry, and a water pipe. I was so amazed at the low prices on the amber jewelry I asked our guide if it might be fake. He said that in this government-regulated shop there was no risk of that.

 

That is what I liked so much about Nile Blue Tours that I mentioned in an earlier post. They truly personalize your trip completely and look out for your best interests. No one on our tour had any trouble in the pyramid area either with people doing things like refusing to give back your camera after offering to take a picture of you. They provided great service all the way around.

[plane2port]

This is my first visit on this board and it was great to read your post. We are just now starting to think about a trip to Egypt. We will probably do a Nile cruise, but just not sure right now. I would like to take my teenage children, and we would probably go late May or early June of 08. Will it be unbearably hot then?

 

Like you, we prefer to arrange our own tours to get away from the hordes. Please keep posting and do some more port reviews.

 

Leigh

[Hlitner]

When we spent two weeks touring Egypt (this past October) we avoided the tourist-trap problems by simply going on our own and hiring our own private guides/drivers. The thing about traveling this way (without being part of a group) was that it actually did not cost us much more money, and all of our guides were governement licensed, college graduate real Egyptologists. When we wanted to go shopping we would just tell our guide what we wanted and he would take us to the best places. If we wanted to stay at a particular site (such as Valley of the Kings) we would just tell our guide that we want another hour here.,.etc etc. It was wonderful. We only used 2 guides for our entire trip (one for the Alexandria/Cairo area and the other for the Luxor/Aswan region). When we flew up to Abu Simbal we arranged for local guides to meet our flight and take us through the ruins (simply amazing) and on our Nile river cruise (Oberoi Philae) the boat provided licensed guides (there were 3 on the boat) for all stops along the river. Egypt is an amazing country, and unfortunately, a one-day cruise stop cannot even begin to expose the riches of the country. In fact, the most interesting part is in the south (far from the cruise ships) in the area extending from Abu Simbal to Luxor and Aswan. I should mention that offical licensed guides are truly licensed by the Egyptian government and have very extensive education and training. Most have a 4 year (or more) college degree in Egyptology (this has the same prestige in Egypt as a physician), additional training, plus they must pass very stringent oral exams. These guides can speak multiple languages, read hieroglyphics, know Egytpian history like a text book, and have very interesting personal opionions about everything from politics to the maintenence of the ruins. One advantage of having your own guides and drivers (we actually had drivers seperate from the guides) is that you get to know these professionals on a very personal basis, and this helps one to understand the Egyptian people. For those who worry about going to this country I can only offer the following advice. We spent 15 days traveling throughout the country (only needed an armed convoy in driving from Luxor to Dendara) and never had a bad moment. Every Egyptian we met (and we met many) were polite, curious, helpful, and made it clear they were happy to see Americans enjoying their country.

 

Hank