Getting there from Britain and Ireland
The simplest way of getting to Egypt from Britain and
Ireland is to fly. From London, there are regular direct
scheduled flights to Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor, and
highly competitive charters to Luxor, Hurghada (Red Sea)
and Sharm el-Sheikh (Sinai). At the time of writing,
there were no direct flights to Egypt from Ireland: you
need connecting transport to London, or you can fly on a
European airline via their "home" airport on the
Continent.
If you're pushed for time, or want to make things
easier, buying a package holiday makes a lot of sense.
There are still some amazing bargains to be had amongst
the basic Luxor-plus-Cairo or Luxor-only packages,
although prices are beginning to rise now that the
security situation seems to have stabilized. Besides
these, many smaller independent operators feature
felucca trips on the Nile, diving holidays on the Red
Sea, or camel trekking in Sinai.
Alternatively, for anyone wanting to take in Egypt as
part of wider travels in the Mediterranean or the Middle
East, InterRail passes offer a cheap and flexible way to
get there
Getting there from the US and Canada
The volume of North American travellers to Egypt is not
great - and this is reflected in a relative dearth of
flights. Other than on EgyptAir and TWA, which fly
direct to Cairo from New York (11hr) and Los Angeles
(15hr), you'll have to transit via Europe or Israel.
North American travel agents can arrange flights with no
problem, or - if you're heading to London - you can
arrange connections yourself
Getting there from Australia & New Zealand
Most Australians and New Zealanders visit Egypt as an
extension of a European trip, usually buying a flight to
London, plus an add-on fare to Cairo. However, you might
want to consider taking in Egypt as a stopover on a
Round-the-World (RTW) ticket, or take advantage of some
very reasonable budget fares to Cairo from Asia.
Whatever route you decide on, all fares vary with the
seasons; for most airlines, low season is mid-January to
February 28 and October to November 15, and high from
mid-May to August 31 and December 1 to mid-January (shoulder
seasons cover the rest of the year). The prices quoted
below are the fares published by the airlines. However,
carriers regularly offer special promotions of up to 20
percent off the published price; and discount agents can
usually give a further ten percent reduction. If you
shop around, you can expect to pay up to A/NZ$500-600
less than the published price at any time of year.
If you are travelling to London first, ticket
prices are "common rated" (identical fare from different
departure points) for Sydney , Melbourne
and Brisbane ; in low season you can expect to
pay around A$1600. From Auckland , low-season
fares are around NZ$2400 (add on NZ$150-350 from
Christchurch). For the final leg from London you can
either arrange a flight once there, or buy an add-on
fare before you leave: in low season this will cost
A$1015/NZ$1110, about A/NZ$100 more in high season.
Via Asia , all flights to London involve a
stop in the carrier's hub city. Fares vary considerably
depending on the airline; the cheapest currently on
offer are with Garuda: from Sydney , Melbourne
, Brisbane and Cairns , fares start at
around A$1350 (low season) and A$1900 (high season), and
from Auckland at around NZ$1800 and NZ$2150.
Mid-range fares are available on Japan Airlines,
Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways and Royal Brunei: around
A$1700/NZ$2100 in low season and A$2200/NZ$2750 in high
season. At the expensive end, tickets with Qantas,
Cathay Pacific and Singapore cost between A$2399/NZ$3000
and A$2999/NZ$3750.
At present the only RTW fare from Australia
and New Zealand that takes in Cairo is Qantas/British
Airways' "Global Explorer", which allows six free
stopovers worldwide for A$2499/NZ$3120 in low season,
A$2950/ NZ$3690 in high.
Getting there from Israel and Jordan
If your travels include Israel or Jordan, moving on to
Egypt is fairly straightforward. You can either fly -
from Tel Aviv or Amman to Cairo - or, more cheaply, use
one of the many bus and ferry services. From Israel the
quickest checkpoint for Cairo is the divided border town
of Rafah, near the Mediterranean coast; for the resort
towns of the Sinai peninsula, head for Taba (near
Eilat). If you are travelling from Jordan, you can
either go by ferry from Aqaba to the Sinai peninsula and
then continue your journey by bus; or take the fast
catamaran service that runs to Sinai's main resort,
Sharm el-Sheikh, and on to Hurghada on the Red Sea Coast
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