NYC to Cairo, gig questions

AKallDay

I want to request that they fly me on a specific airline, has anyone done this route before and if so which of the many airlines would you recommend?also has anyone done a day trip from out in sinai, egypt to the dead sea? or to jerusalem? how is this as a one day trip or is it not enough time there vs. travel time ratio?do you have any cairo or sinai suggestions apart from the obvious?thank you thank you

fishmongerfunk

i have heard good things about dahab

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahab

georgeibrahim

i dont go from nyc but i go to cairo on the regular (family related), unless you speak good arabic, expect to be ripped off everywhere you go, take the new taxis which charge 10x the regular price for a taxi ride, they're safer and usually faster (if possible in cairo). its hard to get out of cairo to places such as alexandria but once youre on the road outside of cairo its pretty straight forward, but you'd be pushing it to do it in a day, you can do the cairo museum in a day, but again expect to pay tourist fees to get in (its LE 2 for adults who speak arabic or LE 50 for tourists!!)
you can get on relatively cheap internal flights from cairo to sharm & hurgada, i'd def check out sharm but there will be lots of tourists and it will be killer heat, but the sea breeze takes the edge off.
Go up the cairo tower and eat at the top, they have a revolving restaurant that is like the one in the CN tower that will let you get a good look over all of cairo.
i cant be much more help because i dont really see cairo as a tourist! but i hope this has helped.

youngEINSTEIN

i dont go from nyc but i go to cairo on the regular (family related), unless you speak good arabic, expect to be ripped off everywhere you go, take the new taxis which charge 10x the regular price for a taxi ride, they're safer and usually faster (if possible in cairo). its hard to get out of cairo to places such as alexandria but once youre on the road outside of cairo its pretty straight forward, but you'd be pushing it to do it in a day, you can do the cairo museum in a day, but again expect to pay tourist fees to get in (its LE 2 for adults who speak arabic or LE 50 for tourists!!)
you can get on relatively cheap internal flights from cairo to sharm & hurgada, i'd def check out sharm but there will be lots of tourists and it will be killer heat, but the sea breeze takes the edge off.
Go up the cairo tower and eat at the top, they have a revolving restaurant that is like the one in the CN tower that will let you get a good look over all of cairo.
i cant be much more help because i dont really see cairo as a tourist! but i hope this has helped.

thanks for the tips!

peace, stein. . .

AKallDay

right, i will be working, so after is when i am trying to get around but thanks for the safety warning, i will have a driver and so on for a few days while on the clock. gig is in september so i am hoping it won't be full of tourists at that time of year as much as in the summertime. but i am more interested in small villages than cairo itself as per moving around. dahab looks very intriguing.

meistromoco

If you do take the trek up to Jerusalem, I'd recommend spending at least 1 night and 1 full day there (I wouldn't do the day trip -- you'll miss a lot). Sooo much to see.

Dead sea is cool, but was unbearably hot when I was there and after about 20 minutes of floating in the water, I was bored. Mt Masada is there, which is cool to climb just before dawn to see the sun rise over the dead sea.

Also worth checking out Petra in Jordan. Again, I'd do at least a full day there if you can. Completely worth it (and closer than Jerusalem) -- more so than the dead sea, IMO.

georgeibrahim

September is when the tourist numbers start to die down, and the worst of the summer heat is over too. A local driver is a very good idea, Egypt runs on tips and bribes (even though the sign in the airports like to say otherwise) so if he's paid enough he will take you anywhere he knows, but if he's not paid enough....well someone has to pay him
Cairo itself is massive, there are many small villages within greater cairo, but getting to them is not easy and they do tend to feel kinda samey after a while. If you are interested there is a lot of beautiful coptic orthodox churches and monasteries that you can take a peek into.
also on a record related note, you'll be very lucky to find anything there, my flat is in heliopolis really close to where salah ragab had his egyptian jazz sessions, i frequently ask people if they have got sawt al cahira (sono cairo) records, but all i get is wierd looks. Not even my parents have any records of people like abdel halim and oum kalsoum etc, its all on tape.