We were originally scheduled to see the sights of Upper Egypt on a Nile Cruise. Stacy and I have traveled in Egypt twice before, and have experienced both cruising on the Nile and travel by local train. Cruising is the most popular, and on previous trips, it was common to see dozens of ships disembarking passengers at every site. Given the pandemic, we chose not to risk the close quarters of a river cruise and decided to make the journey overland.
We met our guide, Walid, in Cairo and he flew with us to Aswan. After the sights in and around Aswan, we drove north to Luxor, stopping along the way to see temples at Kom Ombo and Edfu. The Temple of Horus at Edfu is the best-preserved temple in Egypt as well as one of the largest. It is just over 200 kilometers from Aswan to Luxor, but traveling along the Nile with stops to enjoy the major temples, it took most of a day to reach Luxor. Here, we spent a day on the east bank (Karnak and Luxor temples) and a day on the west bank (balloon ride at sunrise, Valley of the Kings, and Hatshepsut’s temple). After these sights, we dropped Walid at the airport to fly home to Cairo and we drove the 300 kilometers to Hurghada.
