Egypt



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Banz

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We are planning a cycling trip to Egypt and we'd like to take in Cairo, Giza and Luxor as a bare
minimum. The two route options seem to be Nile Valley or Western Oases.

Everything I've read about cycling over there says that we will need to inform the tourist police of
our plans and may get escorted. Does anyone here have any first-hand experience of general cycling
in Egypt or specifically the two routes mentioned above?

The Western oases seem quite well spread out judging from my world atlas so any advice on the
feasibility of this route would be welcomed!

Cheers,

Martin
 
"Banz" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> We are planning a cycling trip to Egypt and we'd like to take in Cairo, Giza and Luxor as a bare
> minimum. The two route options seem to be Nile Valley or Western Oases.
>
> Everything I've read about cycling over there says that we will need to inform the tourist police
> of our plans and may get escorted. Does anyone here have any first-hand experience of general
> cycling in Egypt or specifically the two routes mentioned above?
>
> The Western oases seem quite well spread out judging from my world atlas so any advice on the
> feasibility of this route would be welcomed!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Martin

Don't go ! Why should you risk getting killed by crazy Muslims.

Graham
 
"Banz" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> We are planning a cycling trip to Egypt and we'd like to take in Cairo, Giza and Luxor as a bare
> minimum. The two route options seem to be Nile Valley or Western Oases.
>
> Everything I've read about cycling over there says that we will need to inform the tourist police
> of our plans and may get escorted. Does anyone here have any first-hand experience of general
> cycling in Egypt or specifically the two routes mentioned above?
>
> The Western oases seem quite well spread out judging from my world atlas so any advice on the
> feasibility of this route would be welcomed!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Martin

I was in Egypt in 2000 - no cycling but being bussed around. There was a security problem in the
South of the country and travelling from the coast to Luxor involved a mandatory police escort.
No escort, no travel. Don't know what the deal is for bikes but could be interesting getting a
police escort
:)
 
"Banz" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> We are planning a cycling trip to Egypt and we'd like to take in Cairo, Giza and Luxor as a bare
> minimum. The two route options seem to be Nile Valley or Western Oases.
>
> Everything I've read about cycling over there says that we will need to inform the tourist police
> of our plans and may get escorted. Does anyone here have any first-hand experience of general
> cycling in Egypt or specifically the two routes mentioned above?
>
> The Western oases seem quite well spread out judging from my world atlas so any advice on the
> feasibility of this route would be welcomed!

I think I would be a little warry of travelling to Egypt at the moment. This year may well not
be the best given George W's appartent intent to bomb the bejebbers out of certain parts of the
Arab world.

That said, it is worth reading the travel advice from the government -- or, even more than one. Here
are links to British, Australian and US official advice. I haven't read it but I would lay odds it
includes words like 'heightened awareness' and 'some tensions'. However, governments are reactive
and I am sure they keep these things as bland as possible.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?M3FF21F13

http://www.dfat.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/Egypt

http://travel.state.gov/egypt.html

If you are determined you should also look at what the Egyptians are saying about the situation
themselves. If they are going to give you motorcycle outriders it might spoil the romance of
the trip!!

Finally, check out the web sites of Lonely Planet, Rough Guide and Footprint guides. At least one of
these has a bulletin board where you can get feedback from recent travellers to the area -- however,
you may need your 'panicky teenage Yank backpacker' filter on -- I have had some useful stuff from
these boards but, as with all self selected opinion (including this) objective filtering and cross
referencing are vital.

Tony
 
"Graham" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
> "Banz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > We are planning a cycling trip to Egypt and we'd like to take in Cairo, Giza and Luxor as a bare
> > minimum. The two route options seem to be Nile Valley or Western Oases.
> >
> > Everything I've read about cycling over there says that we will need to inform the tourist
> > police of our plans and may get escorted. Does anyone here have any first-hand experience of
> > general cycling in Egypt or specifically the two routes mentioned above?
> >
> > The Western oases seem quite well spread out judging from my world atlas so any advice on the
> > feasibility of this route would be welcomed!
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Martin
>
> Don't go ! Why should you risk getting killed by crazy Muslims.
>
> Graham
>
>
....When they'll quite happily come over here and do it for free!!... Having said that, it is warmer
over there...hell, go for it!!

Dave.
:-\
 
"Andy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Banz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > We are planning a cycling trip to Egypt and we'd like to take in Cairo, Giza and Luxor as a bare
> > minimum. The two route options seem to be Nile Valley or Western Oases.
> >
> > Everything I've read about cycling over there says that we will need to inform the tourist
> > police of our plans and may get escorted. Does anyone here have any first-hand experience of
> > general cycling in Egypt or specifically the two routes mentioned above?
> >
> > The Western oases seem quite well spread out judging from my world atlas so any advice on the
> > feasibility of this route would be welcomed!
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Martin
>
>
> I was in Egypt in 2000 - no cycling but being bussed around. There was a security problem in the
> South of the country and travelling from the coast to Luxor involved a mandatory police escort. No
> escort, no travel. Don't
know
> what the deal is for bikes but could be interesting getting a police
escort
> :)
>
>
>
There will be an even worse security problem in any "Arab" country once Tony has his war ! And
probably a pretty bad one here too ! We're going to war and Tony doesn't care what the
consequences are.

Graham
 
"Andy" wrote...
> I was in Egypt in 2000 - no cycling but being bussed around. There was a security problem in the
> South of the country and travelling from the coast to Luxor involved a mandatory police escort.
> No escort, no travel. Don't know what the deal is for bikes but could be interesting getting a
> police escort
> :)

Thanks for the advice (esp. Tony W). I had a quick look at the Lonely Planet website but will
investigate those other URLs further.

We were considering Egypt (plus Jordan and Syria) as part of a bigger trip but it is looking as if
some of this may not be possible due to the current political climate. If we keep to our schedule
we'll be in Greece in September and from there we can either go via the Middle East to Turkey or
take a more direct route.

The idea of cycling from Port Said, Cairo, the Western Oases, Luxor, Sinai Peninsular and up through
Jordan and Syria really excites us but our personal safety and the old maxim "Never holiday in a war
zone" could make it impractical.

Cheers,

Martin
 
"Scribe2b" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> >We're going to war and Tony doesn't care what the consequences are.
> ////////////////////
>
> of course he cares. you guys get a cut of the oil concessions made by the
new
> democratic republic of iraq's collective oil ministry, right? the new
moon is
> jan 30th, perfect night for stealth weapon deployments.

What guys ?

Graham
 
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