Travel Log: Cairo, Egypt

Thank you for your patience as life and work have been crazy busy over the last few months. I have not forgotten, and in fact have had this post in various stages of completion for weeks now, but all that being said I am ecstatic to finally share my Cairo travel log with you! You can catch up on our summer Africa trip via my Marrakech travel logs here and here, and my Casablanca travel log here. My husband and I spent about a week in Cairo back at the end of August/beginning of September, and we were so fortunate to have been connected via longtime friends to a local to Cairo who is now a dear friend to us and who went out of his way to show us around the area. Touring the area with a local friend made exploring so much more fun and less scary (especially since traffic in Cairo is wild and the hawkers in the markets can be aggressive) and I highly recommend touring with a guide or tour company if you are a first time visitor. I very much enjoyed our first visit to Cairo and absolutely 100% want to return sooner rather than later to explore more of Egypt's historic areas. Please continue reading to learn more about how we spent our time in Cairo and the surrounding area. Fair warning: this post has a significant amount of photos compared to my normal posts (40+) and may take a minute to load.

We arrived in Cairo via a five hour redeye flight from Casablanca, Morocco, departing around 1am and arriving around 7am with a one hour time difference. Customs and immigration didn't take long, fortunately, but as US residents we did need to make a quick stop at a kiosk right before the immigration line to purchase a 30 day tourist visa for $25 USD per person. We read online that you must bring the exact amount of cash in brand new crisp bills (similar to tourist cities in Mexico where locals only want crisp new bills and will turn down any bills with creases), so I made a special trip to a local bank to ask for new bills (who does that anymore??) and we had no issues getting our visas. We also chose to utilize the Uber app to hire a car to our hotel to avoid the hassle of negotiating and overpaying with taxis. We had no issues getting to our hotel, the St Regis in old Cairo, and since our room wouldn't be ready for a few hours we decided to chug some espresso and check out the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. I am so glad we did and would recommend a visit to this museum for the Royal Mummies hall alone! We were not allowed to take photos inside the Royal Mummies hall, but this extremely special exhibit holds 20 mummified remains of 18 kings and 2 queens who (mostly) rested formerly in the Valley of the Kings. Absolutely incredible to see in person and read more about these dynasties! In addition, I very much enjoyed the Textile Gallery that showed and described the history of textiles and clothing throughout Egyptian history and highly recommend a visit when in Cairo. We then rested for a bit back at our hotel and headed to the famous Khan-el-Khalili Bazaar at night. This bazaar was a fantastic adventure between driving and negotiating a parking space, walking to the bazaar and navigating its many alleys and shops, grabbing dinner at a rooftop cafe, and just seeing so many people on a lively evening having a great time. I wish I had taken more photos but I was just taking it all in.

One of our biggest reasons (well, three really) to visit Egypt were to see the Great Pyramids of Giza: the largest of which is the oldest of the seven Ancient Wonders of the World and the only one still standing. These pyramids were built during the period of time in which the Egyptian civilization was extremely powerful and wealthy--one of the most powerful in the world at that time. It was absolutely incredible to see these pyramids in person and revel in the fact that they are roughly 4,600 years old and have survived through so many periods of change. The Great Pyramids are located fairly close to Cairo at only about 30 minutes drive from old Cairo (our hotel, the St Regis, is in old Cairo) and a bit farther from the new Cairo area. To visit these pyramids, you first need to decide if you want to purchase a ticket to explore the grounds or whether you want to go inside any of the pyramids. We were told that it really was not worth paying to go inside these particular pyramids because nothing is left inside, so we opted for the tickets to just explore the grounds at the cost of 200 Egyptian pounds per person (~$4 USD). Entry is pretty simple: there is a parking lot close to the ticket office, then is a security screening and a ticket scanner inside a room next to the ticket office, then you are free to roam the grounds. Since our visit was during low season (late August) the crowds were minimal and we had plenty of room to explore, but there were also many local hawkers competing for camel rides, horseback rides, and carriage rides around the complex. We initially said we were not going to buy into these touristy rides...but eventually the deals were too good to pass up and as you can see below we were convinced to hop on camels and walk for a few minutes to a great photo spot. No one hassled us terribly and we had a great time just taking everything in.

Our next stop after seeing the Great Pyramids was the Sphinx, as it is only about a five minute drive between the parking lots for these two historical sites. The ticket purchased to see the Great Pyramids also includes visiting the Sphinx, so be sure to keep your ticket to show at the entrance to the Sphynx. From the parking lot, you walk past a row of vendor stalls selling souvenirs and yes, everyone will ask you if you want to buy something. If you politely say no they should not press too hard, that was our experience, although we were fortunate to have our local friend with us to provide an additional buffer. Once you pass the vendor stalls you can walk down a set of stairs to the viewpoint with the Spynx and Pyramid of Khafre lined up behind it. You can also explore around the area and its walkways to find more viewpoints and photo spots. We even saw a stage set up for a concert, although I am not sure if it was set up for a specific artist or the nightly Sound & Light Show at the Pyramids. We didn't stick around long enough to find out because by that time it was the middle of the day and quite hot.

After visiting the Sphynx, it was the hottest part of the day and we were ready to cool down somewhere with air conditioning. It was a perfect opportunity to grab some lunch and check out the second museum on my list: the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). This museum is located approximately a 10 minute drive from the Giza Necropolis and approximately a 20 minute drive from the St Regis Hotel in old Cairo. The GEM soft opened earlier this year with a great hall and staircase with artifacts available to the public view, as well as restaurants, a gift shop, and a fine jewelry store. I read that the main artifact galleries exhibit halls opened in October and their website still says they plan to be fully open by the end of this year. When the museum is fully open, they will have several more galleries, a children's museum area, and an impressively large collection of artifacts from King Tutanhkamun's tomb available for the public to view! So incredible and we definitely will be planning another trip to Cairo in the next couple of years to see the rest of the museum. One last thing that I thought was amazing is that you can take in an unobstructed view of the Great Pyramids from the air conditioned museum at the top of the grand staircase--check it out in the last photo. I don't remember how much we paid to visit the museum back in August, but according to their website the entry fee for non-Egyptians is 1,200 Egyptian pounds (~$24 USD) and I very much enjoyed seeing the part that was open at the time. 

After visiting the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Sphynx, and the Grand Eyptian Museum all in one day, we decided that the next day we would visit the Pyramid of Djoser and other sites in the Saqqara area. The Saqqara necropolis area is located approximately an hour south of downtown Cairo. There is an entrance gate with a ticket booth and an all inclusive ticket to the site for non-Egyptian adults at the time of our visit was 600 Egyptian pounds ($12 USD). The Pyramid of Djoser is a step pyramid, built in the 27th century BC, and is known to be the first pyramid to be built as well as the earliest colossal stone building in Egypt at approximately 4,700 years old. Visitors only recently became able to visit the interior of this pyramid after a multi-year and multi-million dollar renovation restored the king's burial chamber and added a safe lighted walkway. There are other tombs in the complex that you can enter, albeit some require navigating narrow and steep entrances and walkways with low ceilings that could be difficult for those with mobility challenges. However, visiting the interior of this tomb and others in the complex was definitely a highlight of our trip as we were able to see hieroglyphs and reliefs that are thousands of years old and some still had color. Truly an amazing experience that I recommend for anyone who can!

The final activity I want to share with you from our time in Cairo was actually a last minute booking through our hotel, the St Regis Cairo, to take a private dinner cruise on the Nile River. We enjoyed a Mediterranean style meal with kabobs, veggies, rice, salad, hummus, and more as we cruised up the Nile during golden hour and watched the sunset. We very much enjoyed seeing part of Cairo by boat and I highly recommend taking a sunset boat cruise when visiting this city.

I hope that after reading through this post I have inspired you to think about visiting Cairo and its historical sites. Have you been to Cairo? If so, what was your favorite moment? If not, is it on your travel wish list? Please leave me a comment below to let me know. Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Linking up with Curated by Jennifer, Doused in Pink, I Do deClaire, Is This Mutton, Nancy's Fashion Style, Style Splash, The Fashion Canvas, This Blonde's Shopping Bag, Walking in Memphis in High Heels