Even though our ship is in Alexandria overnight, we've opted to visit the pyramids on a long one day RCCL tour.
I am looking for input on the following options offered by the cruiseline:
1. Museum, mummies and Nile includes National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Nile cruise with lunch, Giza plateau and Papyrus Institute $247 pp
2. Simply Pyramids offers Giza plateau, Sphinx, Valley Temple, hotel buffet lunch and Papyrus Institute $223 pp
3. Pyramids and Grand Egyptian Museum has the museum as named, lunch at a hotel, Giza plateau, Sphinx and Papyrus Institute $295 pp
4. Pyramids and Pharaonic Village offers the village which is a living museum of daily life in ancient Egypt, lunch in Cairo, brief stops at pyramids and Sphinx and Papyrus Institute $243 pp
Thanks for your insights and suggestions!
This will be our one and only opportunity to see pyramids. For our second day in Alexandria port we would spend time there.
Posted by
10225 posts
Do you plan to return to Egypt and visit more than just the Cairo/Giza area?
If you do, I suggest that you visit Alexandria, which is very historic.
I have visited Egypt three times and love it. My last trip was three years ago and I visited Abu Simbel, which I had not seen before.
It is best to do Egypt properly, doing Cairo and Giza with the new wonderful Grand Museum then a Nile cruise including Aswan and Luzor, and the Valley of the Kings, as well as Abu Simbel. Our tour was with Gate 1 Travel and cost was about $3500 pp and that included airfare from JFK airport.
If you have no plans to do the rest of Egypt, then do not miss the new Grand Egyptian Museum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Egyptian_Museum
Therefore, I would recommend Option # 3, which is the only option that included this museum. Option # includes the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, which includes key items taken from the old Cairo National Museum, which would be good to visit, but I believe the Grand Egyptian Museum would be more impressive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Egyptian_Civilization
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
3388 posts
Option 3 for the GEM and pyramids. No question.
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
7458 posts
By all means, option 3, with the pyramids, Sphinx, and the GEM. Think of the GEM as the British Museum or Louvre of Egypt. And it's the only place now to see the Tutankhamun artifacts.
BTW, take the "Institute" part of the Papyrus institute with a grain of salt. Its the name given to several stores selling papyrus paintings and souvenirs that get the name and publicity by giving a talk and demonstration about how they are made. The talk we saw was still well done. And yes, I ended up buying a (small) painting.
Posted by
Virginia
850 posts
It sounds like OP will see Alexandria on day 2 of their port call. I agree with #3. The new museum with the famous sites of Giza is a good combo, although you probably won’t have as much time in the museum as would be ideal. I visited before the new museum had opened but I would love to see it. Number 1 seems a bit too packed, especially with Nile cruise, and while cruising the Nile is very nice, Cairo isn’t the best place to do it. Definitely not 4. I’m not familiar with the “Pharaonic village” but feel quite confident that it isn’t something you want to spend time at, at the cost of maximizing your time at actual world class sites. The “Papyrus Institute” common to all of them will tell you something about papyrus but don’t be fooled by “Institute”, places like that are more accurately titled “Papyrus high pressure shopping opportunity.” As you say, any of these will be a long day, and not cheap, but I quite agree that you should see the Pyramids and Sphinx, as while a longer tour of Egypt would be better, that’s not this trip and who knows if or when you’ll ever have that opportunity again? And I also agree that it’s worth to take the cruise line tour as it’s a long way from Alexandria to Giza and you don’t want to just “wing it” in Egypt, even though you do have some time cushion as your ship will be in port that night.
Posted by
OP
287 posts
Your responses have been unanimous for #3 and so it will be.
I kinda figured that the Papyrus Institute was more of a shopping stop than a purely educational center.
By spending our 2nd day focusing on Alexandria we can opt for a shorter tour- most likely via Tours by Locals or a private guide. i did see an Egyptian food tour on Viator that intrigues but would prefer to book direct with the provider if I can sleuth it.
Thanks and a hi to G&G from Candy Cann!