Luxor after Red Sea

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Ah, so you had a driver AND a guide. Nice. Ok, that makes more sense. I'll be sure to give them a shout and see what itinerary they can figure out. Thanks!
Here’s one of my email exchange with Safwat (my Egyptologist guide) that may help explain the logistics:

“Hello Dan :
Thanks a lot for your kind and detailed email.
Sure we can provide all the requested service but for exact prices and details I'll need to know the following:

We need to know the number of passengers on the transfers and on the trip to Luxor.

We can organize a transfer for you from Hurghada Airport to the place you will spend your time in till noon (we need the name of the place where you want to be dropped off) and then we can organize the transfer from Hurghada city to Port Ghalib marina.

Finally for the last day trip to Luxor it should start from Port Ghalib around 4:00 am to do the following itinerary and back to Hurghada around 9 or 10 pmwhich is enough time before the flight.

Luxor Excursion
Your personal chauffeur driven air conditioned car will pick you up from your hotel at 4.00 am.

On arrival in Luxor you will meet your private English speaking Egyptologist guide. You will visit three tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon and then lunch in an oriental restaurant.

Then enjoying a boat trip on the Nile for around 45 minutes till the car make it back to the city around the bridge.

Next, you will explore the vast Temple of Karnak, then can have a walking tour around the town center.

Return to Hurghada Airport by about 9:30 pm.

This excursion is possible on any day of the week and the prices include use of the car all day, private guide, entrance tickets, lunch, boat trip, walking tour, bottled water and travel permits.

Thanks in advance and waiting for your reply with the exact number of passengers and the name of the place you want to spend half day in before the transfer to Aggressor at Port Ghalib marina to send you the exact price of the different service and more of the details.

Kind Regards
Safwat
Reservation Manager
marsaalam .com
+201010945699


If Safwat still guiding, please give my regards to him.

Don’t forget to bring an unlocked phone to be used while you are in Egypt. The driver will give you a local simcard so you can communicate with them after he picked you up on arrival at Hurghada airport.

Have a blast in Red Sea!
 
I read in a couple of places that while that's an option, you "do so at your own risk". But I figure the guide would be able to advise on my best option. I was just asking Dan how it worked in his case since he didn't stay there overnight, so leaving them at a hotel wasn't an option.
I have only taken a couple of trips to Egypt, so I'm no expert on how things work. Nevertheless, the feeling I got was that while Egypt may be rife with petty crime, if you're paying for even a minor "service," such as having a hotel store your luggage, the people whose job that is take it seriously. I'd bet would-be luggage thieves are dealt with severely, and pilferage by hotel staff is near-nonexistent. Egypt is a paradox.

Along the same lines, I'd bet that if you had no choice but to take your luggage with you for the day in your guide's vehicle, the guide might even pay some kid to watch the vehicle. We used to do that in Mexico often, and the kids never let us down.

Leaving luggage involves a bit of risk anywhere in the world, but I doubt it's riskier in Egypt than other places.
 
Last year i did the Luxor visit, but I set it up before my Port Ghalib liveaboard. My two cents of advice would be (1) drop off your gear at your hotel, give the bellhop a few bucks, and they’ll keep it safe until you return to check in, (2) do NOT expect a real “Egyptologist” on any tour, regardless of how you booked the tour, as most of what you will get is very superficial convention wisdom learned from the same guidebook that you could buy at any gift shop — so you might as well just find a cab driver with a sense of humor, and a good guidebook, and do your own itinerary at your own pace, and (3) take MASSIVE amounts of water with you any time you head out to see the sights. It was 112 degrees in the shade in Luxor during our trip last May. At least 20 degrees hotter than at Port Ghalib.
For my case, I was not planning to go to a hotel after the LOB and I needed to be picked up at Port Ghalib at 4am & drove straight to Luxor and did the day tour before being dropped off at Hurghada airport that night.

Safwat is the genuine Egyptologist. He used to guide the Aggressor River Cruise.
 
Here’s one of my email exchange with Safwat (my Egyptologist guide) that may help explain the logistics:

“Hello Dan :
Thanks a lot for your kind and detailed email.
Sure we can provide all the requested service but for exact prices and details I'll need to know the following:

We need to know the number of passengers on the transfers and on the trip to Luxor.

We can organize a transfer for you from Hurghada Airport to the place you will spend your time in till noon (we need the name of the place where you want to be dropped off) and then we can organize the transfer from Hurghada city to Port Ghalib marina.

Finally for the last day trip to Luxor it should start from Port Ghalib around 4:00 am to do the following itinerary and back to Hurghada around 9 or 10 pmwhich is enough time before the flight.

Luxor Excursion
Your personal chauffeur driven air conditioned car will pick you up from your hotel at 4.00 am.

On arrival in Luxor you will meet your private English speaking Egyptologist guide. You will visit three tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon and then lunch in an oriental restaurant.

Then enjoying a boat trip on the Nile for around 45 minutes till the car make it back to the city around the bridge.

Next, you will explore the vast Temple of Karnak, then can have a walking tour around the town center.

Return to Hurghada Airport by about 9:30 pm.

This excursion is possible on any day of the week and the prices include use of the car all day, private guide, entrance tickets, lunch, boat trip, walking tour, bottled water and travel permits.

Thanks in advance and waiting for your reply with the exact number of passengers and the name of the place you want to spend half day in before the transfer to Aggressor at Port Ghalib marina to send you the exact price of the different service and more of the details.

Kind Regards
Safwat
Reservation Manager
marsaalam .com
+201010945699


If Safwat still guiding, please give my regards to him.

Don’t forget to bring an unlocked phone to be used while you are in Egypt. The driver will give you a local simcard so you can communicate with them after he picked you up on arrival at Hurghada airport.

Have a blast in Red Sea!
And I imagine that, since it was a private tour, they were able to tweak it to do the things you wanted? For example, I'd much rather hit Luxor Temple/Karnak first thing in the morning before all the other people get there, rather than in the afternoon like most of the tours seem to.

Thanks, and will do! I'll be using AT&T Day Pass, so my phone should work as normal there.
I have only taken a couple of trips to Egypt, so I'm no expert on how things work. Nevertheless, the feeling I got was that while Egypt may be rife with petty crime, Iif you're paying for even a minor "service," such as having a hotel store your luggage, the people whose job that is take it seriously. I'd bet would-be luggage thieves are dealt with severely, and pilferage by hotel staff is near-nonexistent. Egypt is a paradox.

Along the same lines, I'd bet that if you had no choice but to take your luggage with you for the day in your guide's vehicle, the guide might even pay some kid to watch the vehicle. We used to do that in Mexico often, and the kids never let us down.

Leaving luggage involves a bit of risk anywhere in the world, but I doubt it's riskier in Egypt than other places.
Makes sense
 
Thanks, and will do! I'll be using AT&T Day Pass, so my phone should work as normal there.
Check it ahead of time with at&t for sure! The last time I was there, in December 2019, my at&t day pass didn’t work! Luckily I had an old unlocked iPhone that I used with local simcard for local phone access when I was there.

I also used it for mobil hotspot for my at&t phone as plan B (just in case the day pass did not work), like what happened to me (again) in Palau last month. At&t subscribers beware Day Pass doesn’t work in Palau!

I have no problem using at&t Day Pass in a Maldives though. However, forget about $10/day when you’ll be staying there for 3 weeks. I just got $30 local simcard that was good for 16GB data plan and use it for personal hotspot while I was in Maldives. They sold them at phone store right outside Male airport.
 
Check it ahead of time with at&t for sure! The last time I was there, in December 2019, my at&t day pass didn’t work!

Luckily I had an old unlocked iPhone that I used with local simcard for local phone access whenever I’m in the foreign country. I also use it for mobil hotspot for my at&t phone just in case the day pass does not work, like what happened to me (again) in Palau last month. At&t subscribers beware Day pass doesn’t work in Palau!

I have no problem using at&t Day Pass in a Maldives though. However, forget about $10/day when you’ll be staying there for 3 weeks. I just got $30 local simcard that was good for 16GB data plan and use it for personal hotspot while I was in Maldives. They sold them at phone store right outside Male airport.
Hmmm... Maybe it wasn't added to the list at the time. I'll bring my old hotspot device just in case. Palau still isn't on the Daypass country list, though, so that explains that. Also, the $10/day Daypass charge is limited to 10 per month, so you pay a max of $100 for a month on international use, which is well worth it IMO to just be able to use my phone as I normally would in the states.
 
Hmmm... Maybe it wasn't added to the list at the time. I'll bring my old hotspot device just in case. Palau still isn't on the Daypass country list, though, so that explains that. Also, the $10/day Daypass charge is limited to 10 per month, so you pay a max of $100 for a month on international use, which is well worth it IMO to just be able to use my phone as I normally would in the states.
Hopefully it’s in the list by now.

You’ll get the local simcard for free anyway. It’s included in the tour package if you get it through MarsaAlam.com

Another tip is to have WhatsApp account in your phone. Most of my foreign contacts use it and it’s free text, voice & video messaging (including voice & video calls).
 
Hopefully it’s in the list by now.

You’ll get the local simcard for free anyway. It’s included in the tour package if you get it through MarsaAlam.com
Yup, it's on there. A full day and night in Cairo, two weeks of diving, 2 days and a night in Luxor, and one day and one night in Hurghada. I'm pretty stoked!
 
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Actually, one other question for the people that have been there. Light pollution levels. I try to do a little astro-photography as well, when possible. Are the skies dark enough for me to bother bringing a tripod?
 
Reading the one day here and there while in Egypt is pitiful. I spent three weeks in Egypt and of that only three days of diving. If went back I would spend a week diving and two weeks seeing 5000 years of history again.
 
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