Mike Walker
Contributor
Having done one trip in 2018 and scheduling another for 2020 right now here's a few things I've perceived on getting to Egypt from Canada:
(This should be applicable as most Calgary routes seem to bounce through Toronto)
- Firstly, I've been watching prices for a while and there seems to be a lot of variation as to what is cheap at any particular moment. Right now I'm looking at about 3 months out to optimize prices but it's hard to predict.
- Some sort of intermediate stop in Europe seems to improve costs. I try and make it an interesting/useful stop as part of the trip rather than just a layover.
- In 2018 my stopover was Dubrovnik - there was a reasonable deal with Turkish to get to Hurghada from there. Beware Turkish and schedule changes but they did have a deal for Red Sea destinations where a bag of dive gear was free.
- For 2020 I'm looking at Zurich as a stopover; I have a friend there and there are cheap 'vacation' flights with Edelweiss.
- For Canada to Europe Condor and TapAir seem to pop up frequently for cheaper flights. TapAir is star alliance.
- Hurghada seems much easier to get to and the car ride to MA is not bad - I used 'stephen's taxi' in 2018 and they seemed well organized.
- Don't try to taxi/bus to/from Cairo - long and boring drive. Just pay for the flight. I would not recommend GoBus if you value being alive...
Anyways - just some random thoughts. There doesn't seem to be one universal solution that is always applicable for this route. Deals can be found by playing with Google Flights.
(This should be applicable as most Calgary routes seem to bounce through Toronto)
- Firstly, I've been watching prices for a while and there seems to be a lot of variation as to what is cheap at any particular moment. Right now I'm looking at about 3 months out to optimize prices but it's hard to predict.
- Some sort of intermediate stop in Europe seems to improve costs. I try and make it an interesting/useful stop as part of the trip rather than just a layover.
- In 2018 my stopover was Dubrovnik - there was a reasonable deal with Turkish to get to Hurghada from there. Beware Turkish and schedule changes but they did have a deal for Red Sea destinations where a bag of dive gear was free.
- For 2020 I'm looking at Zurich as a stopover; I have a friend there and there are cheap 'vacation' flights with Edelweiss.
- For Canada to Europe Condor and TapAir seem to pop up frequently for cheaper flights. TapAir is star alliance.
- Hurghada seems much easier to get to and the car ride to MA is not bad - I used 'stephen's taxi' in 2018 and they seemed well organized.
- Don't try to taxi/bus to/from Cairo - long and boring drive. Just pay for the flight. I would not recommend GoBus if you value being alive...
Anyways - just some random thoughts. There doesn't seem to be one universal solution that is always applicable for this route. Deals can be found by playing with Google Flights.