It was time. I’d been dreaming of adding the Pyramids of Giza to my travel blog. And we finally went! We were both a little nervous about visiting, there were too many horror stories out there to read. We decided 30 hours should be enough to see what we wanted, and fly on to Greece. I have to admit, we were wrong. We had a great time, never felt unsafe, and absolutely enjoyed our visit.
We arrived just before 3am, and easily took an Uber to our hotel, Pyramids View Inn Bed & Breakfast. With tip, it was less than $11 for the trip, almost 1.5 hours. There was some confusion, and the Uber guy actually dropped us at the wrong hotel, but they were very kind, even having been woken up by us, to walk us to the correct one. Even at almost 4am, it was thrilling to see the silhouette of the pyramids.
The next morning, we set an alarm for 7:45am, so we could grab the free breakfast and set out to explore the pyramids. The breakfast view was awesome, we could hardly believe how cheap this place was. It’s no 5 star, but it was perfect for one night of a few hours of sleep!
The gate to purchase our pyramid tickets was literally not even a 2 min walk. We had our cash ready, and bought our two tickets. We tried, and tried to find out what time it opened and how much it was but every website seemed to have different info. Our hotel said 8:30am, once we were in, our “guide” said it was 8am. I can tell you that the cash price to enter the pyramids was FAR cheaper than our hotel “package” would’ve been. We met a supposed guide when we walked in and he immediately started telling us about the pyramids and walking us through the site. We knew we’d tip him at the end and so went along with it. He had us pose for all the cheesy tourist photos, but they are funny to look at now.
He had us go under the rope and stand at the bottom of the pyramid, that was pretty awesome. There was a misunderstanding at the camels. I knew I wanted to do it. And having a friend of our daughters that worked there for six months, we knew it should be about $5 each, they told us $20 each. We went along with it, and even snagged this cute double camel selfie.
So after the camel guy, our guide and my husband argued for a bit, we continued our tour of the p pyramids on our own. Tipped our “guide” $20, and went to see the smaller pyramids. We opted to go inside the one that was part of our ticket, it was interesting, but our friend was right, it wasn’t a must.
It was ridiculously hot the day we were there, we brought water, but still bought more and a cold Pepsi too. After our tour, the camel ride, and the walk down and up into one of the smaller pyramids, we were done. We went back to the hotel, showered, and still checked out just after 11am.
We called another Uber to drive us back into town. It was too early to check in unfortunately, so we dropped our luggage and set out to see the Egypt Museum and then Coptic Cairo. It’s still crazy to me that we had so much time. We explored the pyramids, then made it back into Cairo, saw the museum, Coptic Cairo, enjoyed a fabulous lunch, and STILL had time.
Visiting the museum wasn’t on our list because I didn’t think we’d have time. I’m so glad we did! This is a must see honestly. If you’re in Cairo, you MUST check out this museum. We paid extra t visit the mummies, you can’t take pics which is a little bit of a bummer, but it was well worth it. So crazy to see!
From here it was another Uber to Coptic Cairo. Which we really enjoyed. You go through security into the area and then there are multiple churches that are amazing to see. Again, it wasn’t on our list, but I’m glad we had the time.
From here, we had THE greatest lunch. Now maybe being hungry had something to do with it? But really, it was delicious! If you’re in the area, try the koshary at Old Cairo Cafe. YUM!!
From here we went to the Khan Al-Khalili market. We’ve been to a lot of markets around the world, this one was just eh. Maybe it was the fact that it was the end of the day and we were tired? I’m glad we walked through because I would’ve regretted it, but it’s very similar to markets around the world.
We were exhausted now, and excited to head back to the hotel. We enjoyed the sunset from our balcony, and went to bed early, we had been up most of the night before! We had a free night with hotels.com and so splurged on Grand Nile Tower Hotel. The room and the view were spectacular. As well as the buffet breakfast before our flight. Our Uber picked us up at 7am to head to the airport for our flight to Greece.
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