A trip to Egypt off the beaten track

A Trip to Egypt Following a Friend’s Invitation

My first discoveries of Egypt date back to the 1980s. At that time, I went there a few times as a group leader on organized trips for Nouvelles Frontières, a French tour operator.

I went back with my partner in the early 2000s because I wanted to introduce him to the country, and I wanted to learn more about it.

In April 2024, it all began with an invitation from a friend, Pascale, who had gone to live with her partner, Sergio, in the Siwa oasis. She warmly invited us both to visit them and discover this oasis, whose name alone made us dream.

Convinced to take the plunge, we decided to spend some time in Cairo and other parts of Egypt to discover a more contemporary side of the country than the one we had visited twenty years earlier.

We opt for :

• Spend five days in Cairo first.
• Then on to the Siwa oasis.
• Stop off at Marsa Matruh before heading for Alexandria.
• Fly to Sinai to relax in Dahab and visit St. Catherine’s Monastery.
• Finally, return to Cairo with a stop at the Suez Canal.

The map below shows our route.

Our day-by-day journey

Our trip lasted almost four weeks, with the following schedule:

Day 1: Paris (CDG) – Cairo (CAI) by plane

Days 2 to 6: Cairo (1 on map)

Day 7: Cairo – Alexandria by train and Alexandria by car (7 hours)

Days 8 to 13: Siwa (2 on map)

Day 14: Siwa – Marsa Matruh (3 on map) by car (4 hours)

Day 15: Marsa Matruh – Alexandria by car (3 hours 30)

Day 16: Alexandria (4 on map)

Day 17: Alexandria (HBE) – Sharm el Sheik (SSH) by plane (1 hour 30) and Sharm el Sheik – Dahab by car (1 hour)

Days 18 to 23: Dahab (5 on map)

Day 24: Dahab – Saint Catherine (6 on map) by car (2 hours)

Day 25: Saint Catherine – Ismailia (7 on map) by car (4 hours 30)

Day 26: Ismailia – Cairo by car (1 hour 30) and Cairo (CAI) – Paris (CDG) by plane

Three articles about our trip

Here are three articles about our trip:

• Explore Cairo in five days and take your time!
• En route to the little-known Siwa oasis in the Libyan desert
• Egypt by the Sea: Marsa Matruh, Alexandria, and Sinai

I’ve also written another article with a few keys to independent travel in Egypt, so that you too can make the most of this extraordinary country.