Egypt trip expense details: 1.4L INR, 2 pax, 6 days all inclusive!

This post shares our Egypt trip expense details. We spent about 1.4 lakhs all inclusive for 2 people for 6 day trip. If you're planning a trip this will help you understand the costing and optimize as per your choice.

Points to note:

Our flight ticket was inclusive of Etihad Stopover Holiday at Abu Dhabi. If I had not opted for the stopover, I could have booked my ticket for 28k on cleartrip, saving about 8k for 2 people. We spent about 10000 INR in Abu Dabhi for 2 days- Entry tickets, food expenses, bus/transport cost etc which is excluded from above.

We didn't go to Luxor, we didn't opt for Nile River cruise. This can easily add over 1000 USD extra- flight to Luxor & Aswan, River cruise cost 400-500 USD per person and other miscellaneous expenses. If you have 4-5 days extra and an additional 1000 USD+ budget then you can plan for it.

A typical Egypt land package will cost about 2-3 lakh INR for 6-7 nights, excluding flight, for 2 people. You will need another lakh extra for expenses not included in the package.

Our mistakes:

Alexandria day trip we booked from hostel for 120 USD for 2 people. This was in a private car. Few travel agents were selling Alexandria day trip from 30 USD per person onwards- 60 for 2 pax, which is mostly in a large tour bus- will take a bit more time but can save you half the money.

We did not visit many places like Abu Simbel, Saqqara etc as we couldn't find a custom tour that suits our timing. Day trip from Cairo including Giza Pyramids and then Memphis wasn't working for us as we'd already visited Giza. 

Tips to save:

Booking.com has budget hotels for about 15 USD per night, which are decent enough. You don't have to spend a lot on stay. Packages usually include luxury hotels which cost more.

Having some amount converted into EGP helps. Many accept USD but use their own conversion rate, so it will be a loss. Like for an attraction, 150 EGP entry fee equals 3 USD, but counter person was asking for 4 USD.

We skipped Nile dinner cruise with belly dance. This costs 15 USD per person if booked from travel agent whereas your hotel may quote more. We took a joy ride in a shared boat spending only 100 EGP per person (2 USD)- we got the ride, just missed buffet dinner and belly dance.

Lots of things are cheaper in Egypt- Banana is 40-50 INR per kg. Mango is 80-90 INR per kg. 1.5 liter water is 17 INR and so on. So you will be able to find something to eat for reasonable price. Couple of nights we went to Ramsey Hilton which had an Indian restaurant. Costed us a bit more but was fine.

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