guide books

This is a very useful companian as it is easy to read and in a format which is fairly ready to use as a quick reference. Prior to going to egypt it enthused and motivated me even more as it really conveyed the message that this is a truly amazing country to visit. It also provides some useful key tips, such as suggested itineraries and how to avoid AEO (Ancient Egypt Overload - getting fed up of seeing temple after temple...). It also seems to be a popular choice amongst other travellers, so to use this guide will provide some common ground when you meet people.

The book's greatest shortcoming, however, is that the costs of hotels, goods and services are way off. Either the prices they quote are impossibly too low (especially their price they quote about a round trip down to Abu Simbel from Cairo, two days and nights on a felucca and luxor if you go through Amigo travel agents - a simple calculation proves that just the train ticket and the cheap hotels would be more expensive than the price the Lonely Planet claims) or too high (I managed to make some purchases for about half the prices quoted in the book). In addition, its descriptions of the quality of hotels are as accurate as one person's one-off experience.

That said, it prepares and guides you very well for an adventure of a lifetime...

There is one correction I'd like to add to the Lonely Planet, Egypt. I recently returned from Cairo, Egypt. I bought my papyrus art from Mr. Said (pronounced Saieed) and highly recommend him. However, go to his office (Delta Papyrus Center--21 El Ghouria St., 3rd floor #17, Cairo, Egypt) BY YOURSELF. There will be people trying to "guide" you to his office and then ask you to pay them. He will give you an excellent price, but go alone without any guide. Enjoy!

I have used several LP guides and this was the best one yet. I found the info to almost always be spot-on, and the writers of this edition present it to you with far more wit and humor than you would expect in a guide. I looked at a couple of the other reviews and noticed they were quite critical. This doesn't square with my experience at all. I spent 6 weeks in Egypt in spring 2003 and this guide was incredibly useful. Aside from the inevitable little mistake here and there, the only major inconsistency I found was that bus trips usually took about 20-30% longer than the guide estimated. that is, a 4 hour trip would usually take closer to 5. Other than that I had no complaints in 6 weeks of using this guide every single day.

While my companion and I had four guide books between us for our two week trip, the Rough Guide was the one that we constantly referred to. After a while, we didn't even look at the others, even though they had fancier and more colorful illustrations. By far, the Rough Guide gave us more, and more useful, information on the locations we visited than the others. The descriptions of the various neighborhoods and the sights along the way were most helpul in our planning for the one free day in Cairo that we had from our group tour. We also appreciated the discussion of customs and practices (the notes on baksheesh, for example, helped us gain a better understanding of a practice that many Americans found annoying). An added benefit: it weighed less than the fancier guides with glossy pages, so it was far easier to carry with us.

Overall I was quite pleased with this guide. It provided accurate information for transportaion details, hotels and restaurants and gave good basic introductions to the sites and cities, as well as what to expect in the culture. The city maps were accurate and the maps of ancient egyptian monuments were helpful and enough for me, though anyone with a serious interest in them will want to pick up something extra (the guide recommends titles). DOn't rely on the arabic section at the back - if you need to teach yourself any arabic for a trip you'd do best to buy an egytian arabic phrasebook as the rough guides section is small and can mislead your pronounciation.