Who: Tom, Laura, Jim and Judi Buzbee of Centennial
Where: Luxor Temple, Luxor
Best meal: In Luxor we stayed at the Jolie Ville Moevenpick resort hotel on a private island on the Nile River. Good food, clean rooms, tight security. In Cairo, don’t miss the Naguib Mahfouz Café, named for the famous Nobel Prize-winning writer who frequently ate there. An authentic Egyptian meal can be ordered for $10-$20. You’ll find the restaurant in the heart of the ancient Khan al-Khalili bazaar.
Best deal: Instead of going with a prepackaged group tour, we opted to define our own schedule using a local agency, SEEgypt (see gypt.com.eg/), for a la carte tours. SEEgypt provides English-speaking, degreed Egyptologists who are prepared to dig deeper into subjects than other guides might.
Best time to go: To avoid the hot summer season, we visited in the fall when the daytime temperatures were mostly in the 80s. Additionally, we visited during the Islamic celebration of Ramadan, which added a festive air to the city, but many attractions closed early in the afternoon because of the holiday.
Best travel tip: You’ll wonder at the treasures of Tutankhamen in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but when in Luxor, don’t miss seeing the final resting place of the workers who were responsible for building the tombs of their pharaohs. In the ancient workers’ village at Deir el-Medina, you’ll see that like the pharaohs, common people also had a belief in the afterlife. Tomb paintings from nearly 3,000 years ago are still vividly colored and nearly pristine. Inside the tombs, you’ll find scenes from the life of the deceased, funeral scenes and visions of how the deceased would travel on to the afterlife under the protection of the gods.
