The possessions of Tutankhamun are among the world’s greatest treasures. When they went on show in London in the 1970s, people queued all day for a quick glimpse. The main collection, the centrepiece of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, usually attracts many thousands of people each day. But last Sunday, when I went to see it, there were only 20 of us in the room.
The lack of visitors, along with tumbling prices, means that there has never been a better time to visit Egypt. The country’s antiquities have been all but abandoned by travellers ever since anti-government protests began in January — but while there was good reason for us to stay away during the troubled days of early February, leading up to President Mubarak’s fall from power, the Foreign Office currently has no travel restrictions in place.
Still, bookings are down. Many hotels along the Nile are reporting 20% occupancy or lower, and the Easter high season looks like being as bad as anyone can remember. If you have ever wanted to visit the sights along the Nile, do it now.
The obvious starting point is Cairo. Home to an estimated 20m people, it has always been a unique mix of the unruly and the unexpected, with big crowds but low crime rates. That remains generally true, although there is a slight lingering sense of nervousness and a middle-of-the-night curfew in force. The army was still very visible on the streets two weeks ago, though in Tahrir Square they were mainly serving as a prop for “revolutionary tourists” — Egyptians wanting to have their photograph taken with the men whose restraint hastened the downfall of the former ruler. By last Sunday, the tanks had left Tahrir and the traffic had returned.
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Only the tourists are staying away. I found only five other visitors at the Step Pyramid, at Saqqara, the world’s oldest large-scale, cut-stone construction, a site that would usually see thousands a day. At the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx, at Giza, hawkers and camel drivers were sitting in a huddle, idling away the time by discussing the latest political turn of events.
Things are no livelier upriver. In Luxor, the epicentre of Nile tourism, starting point for cruises and home to some of the world’s most famous monuments, hotels remain empty, ships are moored eight-deep, shops are closed. Karnak Temple, the largest of all religious sites and one of the wonders of the world, is usually wall-to-wall with crowds from cruise boats and day-trippers from the Red Sea. I have visited this extraordinary place several times for each of the past 20 years, and not since the hiatus caused by the attack on tourists at the nearby Temple of Hatshepsut in November 1997 have there been as few visitors as there were last week.
The dozens who turned out to see the tombs of Tutankhamun had all gone by late morning and I had the whole place to myself
Across the river in the Valley of the Kings, the dozens who turned out to see the tombs of Tutankhamun and other pharaohs of the New Kingdom had all gone by late morning and I had the place to myself: on a similar week in March a couple of years ago, I queued for up to half an hour to enter each tomb. Other sites on the West Bank, including the Tombs of the Nobles and the Workers, with their fabulous scenes of everyday life in ancient Egypt, were entirely unvisited. Even at the height of the revolution, when the Foreign Office advised against going to Cairo and Luxor, there was never any restriction on cruising the Nile, yet most of the 300 floating hotels are tied up. The few that shuttle between Luxor and Aswan have no more than a handful of people on the upper deck during the day, and very few cabin lights on at night.
By May, the weather will be too hot for most people to venture to Egypt. Ramadan, the month of fasting and another low-point in tourism, falls in August this year. Put that together with a cautious public spooked by the revolution, and the prospect of a sudden spike in numbers is slim. For the immediate future, Egypt should stay both uncrowded and cheaper than it has been for years. There are deals and reductions aplenty (see below) — and, what’s more, with the fall of the Egyptian stock market, the British pound now goes much further than it did before the uprising.
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There is, inevitably, a cloud wrapped around this silver lining. Although the situation is calm, it remains uncertain. The March 19 referendum was well attended and mostly peaceful, but the old regime still holds power, the revolution remains a work in progress and there will be many twists and turns before the presidential election in September. And if you do go now, you are likely to attract more than the usual share of the hawkers’ attentions. Some shops and restaurants will be closed, as will some of the sights. In Cairo, for instance, the Museum of Islamic Art remains shut because of a lack of security. On my visit, the great medieval mosque complexes of Qalawun, Barquq and An-Nasir, at the heart of Cairo’s old city, were also locked.
The odd closed site will not spoil your holiday, however. Egypt has so many temples and tombs, mosques, museums and other attractions. It also has a lot of people who depend on tourism waiting to welcome you. What it lacks now is visitors.
Pyramid schemes: the best deals to Egypt and the Red Sea
Get to Egypt fast and you won’t just avoid the crowds — you’ll spend a lot less, too. Deals and reductions abound, especially at the Red Sea resorts, where there are more charter flights and hotel beds than there are people to fill them.
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In April and May, Discover Egypt (020 7407 2111, discoveregypt.co.uk) has a week at the four-star Viking Club Resort in Sharm el Sheikh from just £399pp, all-inclusive. In June, Longwood (020 8418 2515, longwoodholidays.co.uk) has an all-inclusive week at the five-star Sofitel Taba Heights from £569pp. And a week at the five-star Oberoi Sahl Hasheesh, near Hurghada, is from £905pp, B&B, (saving up to £322), departing on May 13, with Planet Holidays (0871 871 2234, planet-holidays.co.uk). Prices include flights.
Packages to Cairo and the Nile aren’t quite such a bargain. Still, you can save £140 off a 10-day group tour with On the Go (020 7371 1113, onthegotours.com), departing on April 15, now £1,179pp; and Audley (01993 838410, audleytravel.com) is offering £350 off its luxury, 12-day tailor-made equivalent, now from £2,100pp. Again, flights are included in prices.
You’ll save a lot more if you go independently. The hotel market is a souk right now, and haggling is the order of the day, but even published rates have tumbled.
At the heart of old Cairo, Le Riad (00 20 2 2787 6074, leriad-hoteldecharme.com), the only real boutique hotel in town, has cut prices in half — rooms that were £211 are now £105. The Four Seasons First Residence, also in Cairo (fourseasons.com), has three nights for the price of two, while its sister property in Sharm el Sheikh is offering £63 a day credit towards food and drink. The Al Moudira (moudira.com), our favourite hotel in Luxor, has a 20% reduction on its website — and we’ve heard of cheaper deals being struck.
Scheduled flights to Cairo are about £250 with Bmi (0844 8484 888, flybmi.com). And EasyJet (easyjet.com) flies to Luxor, Hurghada and Sharm from about £200.