Though conditions are getting easier, you shouldn't expect comforts in the oases. Accommodation (in government resthouses or private hotels) is generally basic; there's little choice of things to eat, rarely any alcohol, and no bright lights. Passengers might have to stand during long bus journeys, while motorists must reckon on potholed roads and very few petrol pumps, hundreds of kilometres apart. Keep your passport handy to show at checkpoints. There are banks in the "capitals" of Bahariya, Dakhla and Kharga oases, and all the oases now have telephone links with the outer world.

 

Broadly speaking, the oases share the climate of Nile Valley towns on the same latitude - Bahariya is like Minya, and Kharga like Luxor - but the air is fresher (although the dust sometimes causes swollen sinuses). Winter is mild by day and near freezing at night (bring a sleeping bag); during summertime temperatures can soar to 50°C at midday and hover in the 20°s after dark. From October to April, each oasis can usually muster half a dozen visitors, making it easy to assemble a group for excursions to hot springs and other sites - unlike over summer, when tourism evaporates. Spring and autumn are the best times to visit the oases, with the orchards in bloom or being harvested, and enough fellow travellers around to make sharing costs easy.

Tourism is in the hands of local officials and entrepreneurs whose competence and honesty varies. Hustling is big in Bahariya but nonexistent in Kharga; Farafra and Dakhla fall somewhere in between. Tourist officials claim to be able to arrange trips at lower prices than private operators charge. In some places this may be true, in others not. The only way to be sure is to sound out different sources and compare what they're offering. But don't let over-suspicion sour things, since you really need local help to get the best from the oases and will have to strike a deal with somebody in the end - preferably one that both sides feel happy with, as disgruntled guides or tourists can spoil the most magical spot.

Visitors should respect local values by dressing modestly and observing the conventions on bathing in outdoor springs (mostly concrete tanks, fed by a pipe or water percolating up from below). The ones nearest town are always used by local men; if women bathe there, it is only after dark, never when males are present, and only fully covered by a galabiyya. Tourists can avoid these restrictions by bathing in more isolated spots (or in the enclosed pools attached to resthouses), but most women cover up anyway to discourage lechery from guides and hangers-on. Women on their own should beware of entering palm groves or gardens - regarded here as an invitation to sex - or accepting rides from drivers who haven't been cleared with the tourist office.