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Independent Travel
Tips:
Particularly
for well-informed and experienced travelers, an independent trip to
Egypt can be fun and fulfilling. But for many visitors, this is not the
best way to visit, and for many more, it will certainly not be the least
expensive means to view the country. For the first or second time
visitor to Egypt, a guided package tour will work much more
satisfactory.
A
number of readers have been emailing us in order to make rather complex
arrangements for travel to Egypt. Independently, they are often
attempting to include other areas such as the Holy Land, That is all
fine and good, and tour companies do this all the time.
Costs and Pricing
Most of
the tour and travel companies bringing tourists to Egypt receive deep
discounts from both airlines and hotels. Often, they may pay as little
as half of the going rate for such services. This is due to the number
of bookings they make, which entitles them to "wholesale" discounts.
Package pricing varies among tour and travel operators, but it is safe
to say that in some instances, a percentage of this savings is passed on
to tourists, making the trip cheaper than they could have arranged it
themselves.
In fact,
recently travel companies have been making some fantastic deals with
hotels
Once
inside Egypt, independent travelers must
always arrange to visit the antiquity sites that they are interested in
seeing. This can be done in one of two ways; either by going it alone
completely and only hiring transport to the antiquity sites, or by
joining a day tour.
Day tours can
be arranged from most any hotel in Egypt, those the quality and pricing
on these may vary considerably. Particularly from the standpoint of an
inexperienced traveler, hiring the transport to sites can end up being
as expensive as or more so than a day tour. In either case, if one
wishes to visit a number of antiquity sites throughout Egypt, day tours
or transport can easily add up to more then the cost of a packaged tour.
On top of that, making all these arrangements can take time out of the
trip.
One can
easily find oneself spending several weeks in Egypt, but using several
full days to make independent arrangements for various day tours or
transport. Overall, it it likely that, given the same period of time,
one may end up seeing only half the sites that an efficiently run tour
would visit.
Aggravating this situation is the fact that many independent
arrangements cannot currently be made prior to arrival in Egypt.
Certainly one may arrange day tours prior to the trip, but
transportation to certain locations can be a real problem. Trains,
busses and Red Sea ferries, and of course taxis, are very difficult to
book from outside of Egypt. Tour and travel companies receive no
commission for simply booking a train, bus or ferry so about the only
way for the independent traveler to make these types of transportation
arrangements is to do so after arrival.
Other Concerns for Independent Travelers
Another
aspect of packaged tours is simply the company of others. Traveling far
away from home can be somewhat lonely, even for couples. Planned tours
bring together people, usually of the same nationality, and very often,
with similar interests and can make a distant trip much more enjoyable.
In fact, we have seen that people in these tour groups often become long
term friends, and even return to Egypt together.
Finally, even for some experienced travelers, there are times when only
a good tour or travel operator will be able to efficiently make certain
arrangements. For example, certain areas of Egypt, including some major
antiquity sites such as Abydos, require a special permit that must be
arranged days in advance of the visit. Even if one is a highly
experienced traveler, where to go and how to get these permits would end
up being not only a problem, but a time consuming one as well. In
addition, tour and travel companies often offer opportunities which
independent travelers will never get, such as lectures or visits by
famous Egyptologists or special entertainment (one tour company arranged
dinner for its guests inside the Temple of Luxor).
Hybird Tours
Independent Travel Advices
Private Tours
Egypt Budget Packages
Phone Calls
Tipping in Egypt
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