The colored circles that I have shown in the map are the cities that we visited, in the order in which they are numbered.We travelled once by bus, twice by train and once by cab.Booking bus and train tickets is not very difficult, atleast, it was not for us. From the day we landed people of Egypt were very kind enough to help us in every possible way which made it easy for us to do our travelling independently. They especially treat Indians as their friends.
Intercity booking details
Cairo to Sharm
The hotel manager at Nubian Hostel booked us the bus tickets for a commission of 10EGP for each.The bus was at 10:30 in the night. He was also kind enough to arrange a taxi for us to reach the bus stand..The bus was very comfortable. It had a very good push back.If you are used to travelling overnight by volvo bus in India, you should not have any problem.The journey was 11 odd hours. We boarded the bus from turgoman garrage.
The cost of the ticket for two of us one way was around 160EGP.
Sharm to Cairo
We booked the tickets ourselves by going to the booking office in Sharm at Super jet office. There are service taxis in Sharm that run for 2 EGP per person. We took that taxi, reached the booking office and booked our tickets.Don't forget to take your passports while booking the tickets or for that matter, its better to carry the passports always with you. We boarded the bus from Super jet office where we booked our tickets.
Cairo to Luxor
We tried to book the train tickets through the hotel manager once again. But he was ready to book the tickets only if we took the luxor-aswan package from him. We decided to book the tickets by ourselves. When we came back from Sharm, the bus stopped near ramses station in the morning. We decided to book the tickets by ourselves.We were wandering to locate the station when one gentleman was kind enough to accompany us till the railway station.(eventhough he did not have any work in the station)The booking counter was not crowded. The person sitting at the booking counter was kind enough to clarify all our doubts regarding tourists travelling in trains. He gave us the tickets in second class AC as first class was completely booked. He also assured that tourists are allowed to travel in 2nd class AC. We boarded the train from Ramses station.
Luxor to aswan
We did this travel by booking a cab in luxor. The original price that the driver quoted was 500EGP. After bargaining, the price came to 250EGP + 24EGP tip to the driver. En route to aswan, we stopped in kom ombo and edufu and visited the monument. The local mobile connection that we took as soon as we landed in Egypt was very useful in contacting the tour operators, taxi drivers, hotel managers. More on getting the mobile phone connection on Communicating within and outside Egypt
Aswan to Cairo
We booked the train tickets to Cairo on the same day when we booked our tickets to luxor from Cairo. One important thing that has to be noted is, train tickets can be booked only 7 days ahead of the date of journey. There is a website for Egypt rail. But it does not allow non Egyptians to book the tickets.
We were somewhat worried about the intercity travel while planning. But everthing from booking the tickets to travelling went on very smoothly.
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