This August, my boyfriend and I had quite a long layover in Cairo, 9 hours to be exact. Instead of wasting our time at the airport, we decided to do a layover tour of the city. I had been before, but my boyfriend hadn’t, so we wanted to hit the highlights: Pyramids & Sphinx, Egyptian Museum, and the Citadel. I looked around on TripAdvisor and found some recommended tour companies. I emailed quite a few for a quote and got back quite different results. Some offered the tour for about $40 per person and some went as high as $100 per person.
I finally decided on Egypt Fun Tours (www.egyptfuntours.com) for about $55 per person. The main reason I went with them is because they were very responsive to my emails and nice about all the questions I had regarding what we could see, do, etc. We exchanged phone numbers and I sent our flight details before we arrived in Cairo. Hani, our guide, picked us up at the airport and we had a great time! We went during Ramadan, and since our flight arrived somewhat late in the afternoon, the pyramids area was already closed. Instead, he brought us to what must be the KFC with the best view: right in front of the Sphinx and Pyramids. The Museum and Citadel were closed because of Ramadan, so we drove to Islamic Cairo instead and visited Al-Azhar Mosque. After that, we walked through Islamic Cairo for quite a while and worked up an appetite for dinner, which we picked up at El Fishawy and took to a coffee shop in the Khan-El-Khalili bazaar. We had a great time, and I enjoyed Cairo a lot more than the first time I had been there when my mom and I tried to do things alone.
Even though I usually prefer to organize things myself and do not use tour guides often, I am so glad we did for our layover tour in Cairo. Since you are between flights, you have such important time restrictions that it is invaluable to have somebody with you who knows how long it will take to get from point A to point B and what is open and what is closed. It made the whole thing much more relaxing!
A few things I would look out for when booking a layover tour in Cairo:
- Shop around until you get a feel for what the different companies charge,
- Be comfortable with the guide you choose (After many quick responses from Egypt Fun Tours to all my emails, I reasoned that they weren’t going to forget to pick me up or something),
- Listen to your guide (They know what’s possible and what isn’t – While I would have liked to see the Citadel and the Egyptian Museum, it just wasn’t possible. I was happy that Hani had some alternative suggestions, and I’m glad we kind of just went with the flow.)
- Include food in your plans (For me at least, food is such a big part of the culture that I wouldn’t want to be in Cairo without having some falafel, shawarma, koshary, etc.)
- Don’t pay in advance! All the tour companies I was in contact with demanded payment when they brought you back to the airport, so don’t let anybody talk you into transferring any money ahead of time.
- If you’re a girl: bring a big scarf! You can use it to cover your hair and shoulders if you visit mosques or other places where you can’t show too much skin.
I have some pics on my travel blog (www.countryskipper.com) if you are interested: http://countryskipper.com/2010/09/13/7-steps-to-a-great-layover-tour-in-cairo/.
