What to do with 7 hours in Egypt

Our Checklist:

1. See Pyramids of Giza ✅
2. Ride Camels ✅
3. Experience the People and Culture ✅
4. What ever else…. 😁😁😁 ✅

What would you do? We were planning our trip to Uganda, Africa to see my parents and realized we had a layover in Egypt for 7 hours! A decision had to be made, do we chill and relax in the airport, or do we create an adventure and hopefully not miss our connecting flight.

Obviously we couldn’t just sit in the Airport. So I began doing some research about what we can do in that short amount of time. The biggest challenge we had was that we were arriving in the afternoon. This meant our time table was super tight because places close at dark.

Doing some research we found this Camel Tour that seemed very flexible. Read some reviews and decided to book with them instead of one of the major tour companies located in Cairo. We needed to book it with Lisa Pearce (Who actually lives in Australia) by email. I know this sounds a little fishy, but why not try and live on the edge once in a while. 😬 We had communication back and forth and with us being on a budget the price ended up being only $25 usd per person, plus only $25 for the vehicle rental that would pick us up and take us back to the airport. ($100 usd for three people, could not beat that. Erin and I were traveling with my brother)

Arriving in Egypt – Navigating Customs

This was eye opening as the people in the Cairo Airport were more aggressive then any other place we have ever been. Before we even reached customs we had an official ask if he could help us through the visa process. We accepted his advise and immediately he tried to sell us on a taxi. We politely declined and purchased a 30 day visa for $25 per person. (We have heard this could range anywhere from $10 – $40 but take USD or Euro’s)

Making it through customs without much fanfare, we walked towards the airport exit to find Nassar (our guide) where he said he would be waiting. Between customs and the door there were at least 4 people that offered us a taxi.

Hoping Nassar was waiting for us. (Our flight was over 1 hour late) Walking out the door we spotted a sign that said Mr. Tyler. Figured that must be it. We got directed to the vehicle. One of the coolest cars we have ever traveled in.

Travel to Pyramids

Making it to our car was a great relief, that is until we experienced Cairo traffic. 😅 3 Americans crammed into the back seat is always exciting.

Just mins away from arrival to Nassar’s house.

Feeling blessed we made it to Nassar’s house. (Nassar is the one with the Tan jacket) The next picture was taken just outside Nassar’s house.

Camels and Pyramids

Because we didn’t arrive into Cairo until late afternoon. Nassar told us the pyramid gates would be closed by the time we got there. If we wanted to still see the pyramids, the options were to either ride camels or horses around the gate and up into the Sahara desert while getting a beautiful look at the Giza Pyramids with the city of Cairo in the background. We thought that sounded great and chose the Camels because what would be better than ridding Camels in the Sahara Desert with Pyramids in the background?

3 Things I Leaned About Riding Camels:

1. Camels Stink (Much worse than other animals)
2. It hurts to gallop on a Camel. (See story below)
3. While sitting on a Camel, it always feels like you will be thrown off.

Don’t Gallop on Camels:

You may be thinking we were nuts to go into Egypt with out much of a plan other than to trust a guy named Nassar. To make us feel better, there were a couple good reviews on Trip Advisory about the guy. 🙄 (Do you trust online reviews more than you should as well?) I would be lying if I said we were never worried. However, I would 100% recommend using him after our experience. Having only a couple hours after we arrived at Nassar’s house we quickly climbed up on the camels and were off. We each sat on the back of a camel with a guide. The front gates had just closed so we rode through the neighborhood with the plan to go through the gate at the edge of the city which lead into the desert.

This was where we experienced the amazingly uncomfortable experience of galloping on the back of a camel. What made it so bad was I had a heavy backpack on (not trusting enough to leave in the taxi). The combination of a camel gallop and a heavy backpack going up and down required some major concentration just to stay on. After a few mins i realized one of my hands was rubbing on the camel saddle horn and pretty soon a nice blister formed.😬 As we arrived at the gate that lead up into the desert (no other tourists anywhere to be seen) it looked like it had just closed. We were super disappointed, but Nassar was frustrated and said the gate should not have closed yet. Looking around you could tell it was not traveled a lot by tourists and a number of young adult groups were heading out into the desert on their horses and ATV’s. At this time Nassar had a conversation with the guard and somehow was able to get us in. (We believe he bribed him and later Nassar made the comment to us that he hates it that bribery is a necessary way of doing business in his country)

With the sun beginning to set, Nassar pushed us up the sand dunes so we could get a good view of the pyramids before it was to dark.

Making it here was sure worth the rush. Seeing the pyramids in the background after having rode Camels it felt like we had been transplanted into a different time. Spending a few mins admiring the view and taking some fun pictures we began to hear a hum or buzz from from the city. It took a few seconds to realize what it was but the entire city had begun to pray. It was incredible to experience and one we will never forget.

We could have stayed here forever, but we had a flight to catch. We could not have left Cairo without the typical Egypt hustle (Only half joking). Nassar assured me we would get back to the airport in time by saying “No Worries My Friend”) so I guess we had to trust him. We were more than a little nervous that we were going to miss our flight but we decided to enjoy every min and if we ended up missing our flight we would just have to figure it out.

Nassar ended up taking us on the camels to one of his friends houses or local merchant stores that sold perfumes made from local flowers from the Nile River and local paintings/artwork. I don’t think they would have let us out of there without buying something or at least without us feeling super guilty. (We did end up purchasing a few bottles of perfume and a couple pictures) You can’t leave Egypt without a few souvenirs.

Nassar stated we only had one last stop and that was back at his house. There we met a couple of his wifes and other family members. They were all so friendly and even invited us to eat dinner with them. We assured them that we would have loved to, but that we needed to get back to the airport. Taking a white knuckled drive back through the evening traffic at breakneck speed we felt relieved to step back into the airport with a few mins to spare.

Good resource for all your up to date info about Travel to Egypt: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Egypt.html

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