Egypt with GAT Tours

My husband, Al, did his homework and found a tour company in Cairo that made all of the arrangements for a 19-day holiday go like clockwork.

GAT Tours (5 Mohammed Ibrahim St., Dakki, Egypt; phone 761-9788 or 749-0425, fax 3355618 or visit www.gattours.com) planned an itinerary that was flawless. Our trip, Feb. 18-March 7, ’06, cost $1,160 per person, including all transportation within Egypt, hotels, two meals a day and guides and entrance fees to historical sights. This cost much less than a comparable package from a U.S. company.

We were met at the Cairo airport by a company representative who took us to our hotel in the Giza section of the city. The following day a driver and guide took us to see Saqqara, where the oldest-known large stone pyramid is located. We also toured the once-grand city of Memphis, where only a few ruins remain. The Giza pyramids and Sphinx were next on the agenda — impressive, to be sure, but surprisingly close to Cairo’s busy streets.

That evening we boarded the overnight train to Aswan. We had a sleeping compartment where we ate our dinner and breakfast. It was small but cozy.

The first day in Aswan was a leisure day, and we walked along the Nile River and then took a horse-and-carriage ride for an hour and a half for less than $10 — a great way to see the sights.

The next morning we left the hotel at 4:45 a.m. to join a convoy of vehicles that drove through the desert to Abu Simbel Temple. It was worth more than an early-morning departure and the 3-hour drive to see this nearly unbelievable sight.

Awesome doesn’t begin to describe the feeling I got when I saw the façade with the 65-foot-high statues of Ramesses II cut into the side of the cliff. As impressive as its original construction is the fact that this temple was relocated in the 1960s to make way for the Aswan Dam, which would have covered it with water.

Returning to Aswan, we boarded a Nile River ship for a 5-day/4-night cruise. This excursion was a relaxing and enjoyable way to travel to Luxor, stopping at ancient sites along the way. We had a guide who took us to Philae, Kom Ombo, Edfu, the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut, Karnak and Luxor. We enjoyed the meals, table companions and entertainment on the ship.

We had one last day of leisure in Luxor at the Hilton Hotel on the Nile, then we went via convoy again to the resort area of Hurghada on the Red Sea. For four days of R&R in a complex called The Golden Five, we were welcomed warmly and felt very safe. This area is on the coast of mainland Egypt — the recent terrorist bombings (Sept. ’05, pg. 16 & June ’06, pg. 20) were on the Sinai Peninsula, on the opposite coast of the Red Sea.

We returned to Cairo for a day and visited the Egyptian Museum, where the artifacts from King Tut’s tomb are on display as are hundreds of other ancient archaeological finds.

Our final two days were spent in Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea. We stayed in a lovely, 100-year-old hotel, the Windsor Palace. The view of the sea and the location were wonderful for walking, and we were welcomed by many as we walked along the beach. All of our concerns and fears about traveling in a Muslim country were erased as we received the warmth and kindness of the Egyptian people.

— SHARON FISHER, Sonoma, CA