Met at Cairo airport and transferred to your hotel. A briefing with your guide about what this particular itinerary involves - including the driving, which we would rather discuss on day one than day four. Overnight in Cairo.
Cairo, Alexandria & the Siwa Oasis - 9 Days
9
Days
Overview
Egypt without the Nile valley. This route goes west instead of south: down to the Mediterranean at Alexandria, then along the coast and eight hours into the Western Desert to Siwa, close enough to the Libyan border that the language changes.
Siwa is not like anywhere else in the country. Berber rather than Arab in character, with its own language, Siwi, which is not written down. A mud-brick fortress town dissolving slowly every time it rains. Salt lakes so dense you cannot sink in them. Springs that run warm all year. And the oracle that Alexander the Great crossed this desert to consult in 331 BC, to be told what he had come to hear.
Alexandria first
Alexandria is the other Egypt too. Founded by a Greek, capital for a thousand years, and until the twentieth century a Mediterranean city as much as an Egyptian one. What survives of the ancient city is mostly underground: the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa go four storeys into the rock and mix Egyptian, Greek and Roman carving in the same tomb, sometimes in the same figure.
Above ground there is Pompey’s Pillar on the ruin of the Serapeum, the Citadel of Qaitbay built from the rubble of the Pharos lighthouse on the lighthouse’s own foundations, and the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which is a serious piece of architecture in its own right. Then a fish lunch on the corniche, because that is what one does here.
Four nights in Siwa, and why that is right
Because getting there takes most of a day, and because Siwa punishes a schedule. Four nights gives you the fortress and the oracle, a full day in the dunes of the Great Sand Sea, and one day with nothing in it at all - which in Siwa turns out to be the day people describe afterwards.
The oasis is about 300,000 date palms and 70,000 olive trees around a set of springs, with a ridge of salt lakes on one side and 72,000 square kilometres of sand on the other. The Shali fortress in the middle of town was built of kershef, a mix of salt and mud, which works perfectly until it rains - which it has done, twice, disastrously, and the town has been melting gently ever since.
The honest part: the driving
Cairo to Alexandria is about three hours. Alexandria to Siwa is roughly eight. Siwa back to Cairo on day eight is around nine. That is three long days in a vehicle out of nine, and no amount of good writing changes it.
What makes it bearable: a private air-conditioned car rather than a bus, your own stops, and a coast road for much of the western leg that runs beside the Mediterranean. What makes it worthwhile: almost nobody you know has been to Siwa.
If the drives are the sticking point, there are flights to Marsa Matruh in some seasons that remove several hours. Ask us and we will check for your dates.
Things worth knowing before you go
Siwa is conservative, more so than Cairo - modest dress matters here in a way it does not on the Nile, and that applies to men as well. Alcohol is largely unavailable. Accommodation is simple: eco-lodges and small hotels built of the same salt-and-mud as the town, some without air conditioning by design. The food is excellent and very local.
The season is narrower than for the rest of Egypt. October to April is the window; in high summer the desert days are not a reasonable proposition.
Who it suits
Second-time visitors to Egypt, above all - people who have done the Nile and want to know what else there is. Travellers who like places more than sights. Anyone who finds a nine-hour drive an acceptable price for somewhere genuinely unvisited.
It is not a first trip to Egypt, and it is not one for small children.
Slower, or differently - always possible. Tell us how you like to travel and we will rebuild the day around it.
Siwa is a long way out and the season matters more than usual. See the best months to go.
Two other ways into the Western Desert: the Nile and the White Desert in nine days pairs the desert with a stretch on the river, and Grand Egypt over twelve days keeps Alexandria but swaps Siwa for five nights under sail.
Diese Reise auf Deutsch: Kairo, Alexandria und die Oase Siwa, 9 Tage
Trip Highlights
Tour Itinerary
Day 1 :
Arrival in Cairo
Giza in the morning: the three pyramids and the Sphinx, before the heat. In the afternoon the Grand Egyptian Museum below the plateau, with the complete Tutankhamun collection. A conventional day, and the last one on this trip. Overnight in Cairo.
Day 3 :
North to Alexandria
North to the coast, around three hours. In Alexandria, the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa - four storeys down, Egyptian gods carved in Roman dress, the strangest tomb in the country. Then Pompey’s Pillar on the Serapeum ruins. In the evening the corniche, which is where the city actually lives, and fish for dinner. Overnight in Alexandria.
A morning at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Citadel of Qaitbay, standing on the foundations of the Pharos lighthouse and built partly from its stones. Then west along the Mediterranean and south into the desert - a long afternoon, with the sea on your right until it isn’t and nothing but sand after that. You arrive in Siwa in the evening, and the air is different. Overnight in Siwa.
Day 5 :
Siwa town
Siwa on foot and by bicycle if you like. The Shali fortress, built of salt and mud and dissolving a little more with each rare rain, climbed for the view over the palms. The temple of the Oracle at Aghurmi, where Alexander came in 331 BC and left satisfied. The Mountain of the Dead, honeycombed with painted tombs. And Cleopatra’s spring, which has nothing to do with Cleopatra and is a very good swim. Overnight in Siwa.
Day 6 :
The Great Sand Sea
Out by 4×4 into the Great Sand Sea - 72,000 square kilometres of dune, and one of the largest sand seas on earth. Fossil beds where this was ocean floor, a hot spring in the middle of nowhere, and one of the salt lakes, where the water is dense enough to hold you up without effort. Sunset from Fatnas Island, looking back at the oasis across the water. Overnight in Siwa.
Day 7 :
Siwa at its own pace
A day without a plan, deliberately. The olive and date gardens, which is what Siwa lives on. The handicraft workshops, where the embroidery and silverwork are genuinely distinctive rather than tourist output. A hot spring at dawn if you can manage it, or a salt pool in the afternoon, or a chair in the shade and nothing at all. Overnight in Siwa.
Day 8 :
Back to Cairo
The long drive east across the desert to Cairo, around nine hours with stops. It is a day in a car and we do not pretend otherwise; there is a reason we put it at the end rather than the middle. Arrival in the evening. Overnight in Cairo.
Day 9 :
Old Cairo and departure
Depending on your flight: Khan el-Khalili and the Islamic city, or the old churches and the synagogue of Coptic Cairo. Then the transfer to the airport. End of services.
Costs
The Cost Includes
The Cost Excludes
How much of this is driving?
Three long days out of nine. Cairo to Alexandria is around three hours, Alexandria to Siwa roughly eight, and Siwa back to Cairo about nine. It is a private car rather than a bus, with your own stops, but it is still three days in a vehicle. We would rather you knew that now.
Enquiry
Dr. Sherif Azab-Els reads and answers these himself, usually within a day. An enquiry costs you nothing and commits you to nothing.
From
$1,850/ Adult
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