Egypt Travelogue-5: Accomodation and food

Our motto was "Enjoy Egypt economically". We stayed in budget hotels in all the three cities(Cairo, luxor and aswan) that we visited. We chose the hotels that were near the city centre. We covered most of the sites by walk that way. Only exception was Sharm, where we stayed in a resort that we booked through our club membership. (RCI through club mahindra)

Hotel and resort details

We booked the hotels through hostelworld, one of the best sites to search budget hotels in a city. As soon as you book the hotel, you would recieve an e-mail from the hotel welcoming you and giving you the tour details that they offer.In all the three hotels we booked a room with double bed and a private bathhroom.

In Cairo we stayed in Nubian hostel located very near to Cairo museum. The rooms were quite decent and spacious. The manager was very friendly and helpful. More about the hotel on day wise trip.

In luxor, we stayed in Hotel Nefertiti, one of the hotels reccomended by lot of travel guides. Its a bit expensive when compared to other budget hotels in luxor, but again it was at a walkable distance from Luxor museum and corniche and if you have strong legs, you can even walk to the world famous Karnak temple from the hotel, which we did. Again the hotel was decent, though the room was a bit small.The manager was very friendly and helpful. These managers know how to handle the tourists. Egypt being a tourist nation, its in their blood to be friendly and polite. More about the hotel on day wise trip.

In aswan, we stayed in Hotel Keylany, the best hotel of our trip. It was like a 3 star hotel at the price of a budget hotel. Moreabout the hotel on day wise trip.

Accomodation in the resort was a different story. We were shocked to hear from the receptionist that his computer does not show any booking and the resort has been converted into a pub sometime back. My husband handled the situation so efficiently that after a couple of phone calls to the resort manager by the receptionist, he was able to locate our booking details and finally handed over the room key to us. Though the resort was clean with all facilities and very close by to the beach, we would not recommend this resort because it becomes very noisy because of the disco that continues till early morning. More about the resort on day wise trip.We stayed in a resort called Sanafir Vacation Club now renamed to Pacha.


Food

This is one section that I would not be able to give much information on. I being a strict vegetarian, stuck to the MTR ready to eat stuff that I carried with me. My husband did not have any other option but to give me company, though he tried I think pita. I did have karkady(hibiscus tea) once and that was the only time in our entire trip that we were conned. More on it on Shopping. I think the hotel manager would be able to guide you if you give your preferences with respect to cost etc.

To be continued...