Istanbul, Greece, and Egypt

[Marco Polo]

A buddy and I are going to backpack across Istanbul, Greece, and Egypt for two weeks at the end of May/early June. In Greece, we have a free villa to stay at in Athens so we were thinking of taking day trips to Delphi and Olympia, then do an entire day/night at Athens then go to some Greek islands, maybe Mykonos and Santorini before heading to Alexandria, Luxor, then Cairo/Giza.

Has anyone been to those three countries and have any recommendations and tips for a fellow international traveler?

[Marco Polo]

Originally Posted by Param

Marco Polo, so how was the rest of the trip?

Luxor and Cairo was a giant educational trip of history, religion, and culture. Luxor used to average 6000 tourists a day before the revolution; now just 800. Meanwhile you have the same number of "workers" that rely on tourism, the people that sell you the trinkets, water, camel rides, etc, so you have that many people swarming you for things. It's annoying but when you look at it from that perspective, it's a bit easier to put up with.

When we were in Luxor, we were the only Westerners we saw on the entire trip. Everyone we met was extremely kind to us (with the lack of tourists, mostly everyone is wanting to project an image of peace) and the costs of items were ridiculously cheap (my hotel in both cities were around $8 a night and included airport pickup and breakfast). Karnak Temple in Luxor was my favorite part in Egypt, surprisingly.

Cairo is an extremely large and dirty city. We stayed near Tahrir Square and never felt threatened. Unfortunately it seems like their whole tourism industry, which is a large part of their economy, is completely unorganized. In the antiquities museum that holds over 100,000 artifacts, the majority of them are unmarked and no translation. At the Pyramids, we had to ask five people where we need to go to get tickets to go inside the Great Pyramid. There were people riding camels everywhere and it just didn't seem organized and felt they could make a lot more money if there was structure. Lastly, Egypt would not allow you to take pictures inside any museums or tombs. I would've taken hundreds of more pictures. In Greece, they let you take pictures of anything, just no flash.

The good side (if you want to call it that) of the post-revolution tourism is that it enabled me to have a more intimate view of the historical monuments. I was in the nicest tomb at the Valley of the Kings all by myself and the workers allowed me to go back and actually touch parts of the tomb. When I climbed inside the Great Pyramid, my buddy and I were the only ones inside for about 15 minutes. Having that opportunity without a swarm of tourists is a memory that is priceless.

Overall it was a wonderful journey, I never once felt threatened, and if you are ever on the fence on traveling, lean towards the side of living and new adventures!

[Param]

Very cool my man! Sometimes the best time to travel are after disasters(Fukushima) or in your case, a revolution. Tourism is the first thing that plummets and as a result prices drop dramatically.

"Overall it was a wonderful journey, I never once felt threatened, and if you are ever on the fence on traveling, lean towards the side of living and new adventures!"

I agree

[JD10367]

Originally Posted by Marco Polo

Overall it was a wonderful journey, I never once felt threatened, and if you are ever on the fence on traveling, lean towards the side of living and new adventures!

I had never been out of the U.S. until recently. Since the wife and I took up cruising in the past few years, we've taken two international trips: one out of Barcelona to Nice, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Palermo; and another out of Oslo to Amsterdam and Bruges (Belgium). They were both easily the highlights of my life so far. I strongly urge everyone to go abroad. Somewhere.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Marco Polo

Luxor and Cairo was a giant educational trip of history, religion, and culture. Luxor used to average 6000 tourists a day before the revolution; now just 800. Meanwhile you have the same number of "workers" that rely on tourism, the people that sell you the trinkets, water, camel rides, etc, so you have that many people swarming you for things. It's annoying but when you look at it from that perspective, it's a bit easier to put up with.

I think that's a normal third-world thing, though the Egyptians are particularly pesky.

Originally Posted by Marco Polo

When we were in Luxor, we were the only Westerners we saw on the entire trip. Everyone we met was extremely kind to us (with the lack of tourists, mostly everyone is wanting to project an image of peace) and the costs of items were ridiculously cheap (my hotel in both cities were around $8 a night and included airport pickup and breakfast). Karnak Temple in Luxor was my favorite part in Egypt, surprisingly.

Holy cow. $8? What type of hotel? We stayed at the Mercure or something like that, and I think it was $60 or so even back in 2001.

Originally Posted by Marco Polo

Cairo is an extremely large and dirty city. We stayed near Tahrir Square and never felt threatened. Unfortunately it seems like their whole tourism industry, which is a large part of their economy, is completely unorganized. In the antiquities museum that holds over 100,000 artifacts, the majority of them are unmarked and no translation. At the Pyramids, we had to ask five people where we need to go to get tickets to go inside the Great Pyramid. There were people riding camels everywhere and it just didn't seem organized and felt they could make a lot more money if there was structure. Lastly, Egypt would not allow you to take pictures inside any museums or tombs. I would've taken hundreds of more pictures. In Greece, they let you take pictures of anything, just no flash.

The good side (if you want to call it that) of the post-revolution tourism is that it enabled me to have a more intimate view of the historical monuments. I was in the nicest tomb at the Valley of the Kings all by myself and the workers allowed me to go back and actually touch parts of the tomb. When I climbed inside the Great Pyramid, my buddy and I were the only ones inside for about 15 minutes. Having that opportunity without a swarm of tourists is a memory that is priceless.

You got to go in the pyramid? Awesome. It's not like there's a lot of decorative stuff to look at, but wasn't it amazing to see how all of the stones fit together on the inside? Going up that big ramp, I had no concept of how they fit that enormous ceiling stone in there.

Egypt is a place that everyone should see at some point in their life. I think it's the most incredible place I've ever visited.

Originally Posted by Marco Polo

Overall it was a wonderful journey, I never once felt threatened, and if you are ever on the fence on traveling, lean towards the side of living and new adventures!

Other than a few obviously hostile places where the government or other power structure doesn't like Americans (e.g., Iraq, Iran), I think the dangers of international travel are overestimated.

Congrats to you on a great trip.