Is Egypt safe these days?

SShar

Hi,

I understand your concern but many places are dangerous, many people will visit them unaware and have a great time, same with Egypt, I went a few years ago and you could feel some trouble stirring but nothing happened until recently. I've been since and still loved it and had no trouble. It's a beautiful country and I'd recommend it, would be brilliant for a family holiday - just use common sense - keep to normal touristie places and you should be fine.

Haven't been to Marsa Alam but I've been to Luxor and Cairo and i would definitely recommend you visit them.

You HAVE to go to Giza, see the pyramids and do other touristy things like go to Valley of the Kings - Tutankhamen's tomb, the museums, Abu Simbel and local markets.

You should get quite a few nice packages for Egypt so have a look around, get a few more quotes and then compare with the people going. They may like going to the beach more than historic sites so always safer to run it past them

HAVE FUN

onlyroz

After consideration, we have decided on this resort:

http://www.firstchoice.co.uk/holidays/egypt-red-sea-holidays/marsa-alam/sol-y-mar-dar-el-madina/

And these excursions:

http://excursions.firstchoice.co.uk/excursions-details/EGY/Egypt/001689/Red-Sea/003406/Marsa-Alam-in-/all/All-activities/1008990621/Cairo-by-Air.aspx

http://excursions.firstchoice.co.uk/excursions-details/EGY/Egypt/001689/Red-Sea/003406/Marsa-Alam-in-/all/All-activities/1008995328/Luxor-Overnight-City-Break.aspx

Looking forward to it :T

Tojo_Ralph

onlyroz wrote: »

Has anybody been recently, with any experiences to report?

I spent 5 days in down town Cairo the tail end of last month and I cannot say I saw much difference to pre revolution Cairo.

We drove via Tahrir Square twice daily and saw little evidence of any trouble, however it goes without saying that the area is best avoided Friday after prayer when the weekly stone chucking session inevitably takes place.

I guess the biggest change was the fortification of Embassies and the Police Inactivity. Pre revolution the Police were active dealing with traffic and day to day issues, however now they are very passive. I even witnessed Police standing by whilst one of the inevitable fender benders escalated into a full blown fist fight.

onlyroz

Do people STILL think Egypt is safe? I haven't booked the holiday yet, and I'm starting to think that we should make other plans...

travellerboy

It has always been viewed as a risky holiday destination. I doubt whether the current problems have too much impact on the tourists, but terrorism is always the main threat like so many other parts of the world.
I would visit and just take sensible precautions. Probably at the end of the day the biggest risks is Sunburn.

sillygoose

I have given up trying to guess where to go next year for some sun.

Egypt - probably will be kicking off.
Italy and Greece - will be bankrupt
Turkey - earthquakes and downwind of Iran when Israel has nuclear war with them. Also next to Syria, also kicking off.
Australia/USA/New Zealand too far with hyper kids.
African countries - war zones or don't fancy free 'excursion' to Somalia
S.France - full of French, enough said.
Leaves Spain/Islands and Portugal both of which seem horribly expensive for next year as the Euro wobbles and people book them as safe and less likely to feed you road kill stew in a restruarant (like East Europe..)

Looks like putting the flak jacket in the loft this year and heading for Cornwall

trolleyrun

According to a stock broker friend of mine, Egypt is about to implode in one way or the other. Sorry. I'd consider going elsewhere if I were you, just to make sure you don't lose your holiday and/or money.

onlyroz

We're starting to think holding off for a year or two. If we went to Egypt we would want to see the pyramids etc etc, but it does concern you when you hear about 20+ protestors being killed, tourists being raped and Nile cruise boats catching fire.

We had a fantastic holiday in the Caribbean a few years back so perhaps we'll look into where in that part of the world we could visit...

As for Greece/Italy being bankrupt - won't that just make holidays there even cheaper?

BTW we went to Turkey in August and it was lovely.

sillygoose

onlyroz wrote: »

As for Greece/Italy being bankrupt - won't that just make holidays there even cheaper?

BTW we went to Turkey in August and it was lovely.

Maybe Greece/Italy will be cheaper or maybe falling apart with strikes and work to rules. If Greece had fallen out of the Euro and back into its own currency raging inflation would have followed. Everyone remembers when in Italy the Lira had to be carried around in wheelbarrows it was so worthless!

At least in a troubled country you can take some measures to stay away from risk and trouble. Its almost worse if your stuck at home for your 2 weeks filling out an insurance claim because the Italian baggage handlers walked out when their wages were slashed or such like.

Glad you enjoyed Turkey. The West is probably going to be fine but tensions are growing over Iran's nuclear program and Israel could strike at ANY time on Iran's facilities, wouldn't mean a nuclear explosion but contamination blowing across the region. Wouldn't go North either including Cyprus. Syria is really getting a hot bed at the moment, its virtually in civil war.

onlyroz

After some deliberation, we have decided to go to Cuba at Easter.