If you are going to stay in an Pyramid View hotel, realize that you will have the view in the morning and evening, but not the afternoon when the sun is blazing right in the window.
The ATM machines will let you withdraw about 2000 E£ cash at a time, maybe 3000 if you are lucky. It is not your bank or card and you have not “reached your daily withdrawl limit.” It seem they limit how much you can take from their machine.
Your most frequent, biggest purchase will be water. Be sure it is sealed; if not it is refilled with tap water.
You need lots of little bills for continual tips. The smallest I have gotten is 5E£ notes, and I have a few one pound coins. But getting small money is a problem. You cannot go to the bank and trade in 200E£ notes for a bunch of tens or fives. So, you spend the biggest note you have on any purchase no matter how small, and start breaking it down. If you are buying a meal, or tickets at a window, you can often pull out an extra 100 or 200 and get them to break it down to fives, tens and twenties. You will have a big pocket full of bills; everybody does. But you need it when you are hit up for a tip for doing virtually nothing.
When someone walks up to engage you in conversation (Where you from? It is free to look! Hey lady. Want a camel?) just walk past. If they keep it up say La Shokaran just one time and keep going. If you say it a second time you have lost… you have engaged them in a conversation and they will keep following you.
I was really careful in what street food I ate (it was mostly grossly overcook to a charred, hard crisp) and to not drink any local water, yet somehow I still got a stomach bug. Bring pills if you have them.
Limit your daytime activities in the sumer because of heat. We were exhausted by 17:00. We would return, take a cold shower, change clothes (and wear that evening’s clothes the next day) and rest in the coolness.
We never did find beer or wine on our own in Egypt. I got one place to buy beer for us, and the cruise ship had wine, but it is a mystery to me where it is.
We have always traveled independently. This is the first time we have hired a driver (Cairo) and taken a tour(The Nile) and I have to say it was worth it on both counts.
I never wear hats. They get in the way. hat said, I bought one of those foldable, floyy “safari” type hats just for this trip and it was money well spent. Everybody else had one as well.
Well you really should see Egypt. To do it over I would get to Cairo perhaps around noon, stay by the pyramids of Giza and either observe and photograph them from the room, or buy a ticket just to walk around the general Giza Area but not spend the extra to go in any. First thing at the hotel buy up and freeze 6 waters and make one big one cold.
The next day I would hire Aton for a full, long day (paying a little extra) and see the Step Pyramid, Red Pyramid, Memphis, trash city (skip the church) cemetery city and a couple hours at the museum. Eat a big lunch.
Drop off at Giza Station, take the night train to Aswan.
Do the four day cruise, spend one or two nights in Luxor (we could have seen more things or gone back to three other tombs at Valley of the Kings) then fly out.
I guess what I am saying is that we would have shifted time from Cairo to Luxor, but that suits our personality more.