Black and White Desert

The white and the black desert will be one of the best destination you will have if you come to Egypt. 

The melt of the landscapes will cut your breath away. So I guess your first question will be : “how do you go to this place?”. Well follow our instructions and you will have all the best tips you need.

The departure is from Cairo. You will take a bus from the bus station called El Turguman. The ticket cost 35LE (4.6 euros). It is five hours to go there. You arrive at Bahariya Oasis and people are here to welcome you (from the hotel). At the Hostel, you will have all the information about the desert trips. We choose the “Old Oasis” to spend our nights.

All guides and drivers are born in Bahariya Oasis so they know what they are doing. They have Bedouin generations of experience in the desert. They carry out any program in anywhere in the desert.

You organize your trip in the desert from the hotel (number of 4*4, number of nights spent in the desert …). You will have lunch at the Oasis, see wonderful sand dunes and natural water springs. 

If you love camping, this trip is made for you: camp in the desert, do bump fire, grilled food … and drink typical Egyptian tea. 

Cairo

So first of all, when you are in Cairo the capital of Egypt u HAVE to act like the biggest tourist ever (as you can see on the pictures)!

Of course one of the places you can’t skip is the pyramids; once you are there you can only feel like the smallest thing ever, you can take horses or camels and a guide that you will have no problem to fine once there to enjoy your round.

Don’t forget you will walk where the pharons waked and where everything started…

Then you have in Cairo a place called kankalili, it is a huge souk where you will find everything you want and even more. You can go there to shop, but also to have a typical Egyptian meal or a nice tea with a shisha.

Oh and before going there you have to take negotiations lessons; everyone is very friendly and willing to make good prices!

Nuweiba - Red Sea

Let’s first make a point on the geographical situation of this place crossing the Red Sea.

Nuweiba is a coastal town in the eastern part of Sinai Peninsula, sandwiched between the Sinai Mountains and the Gulf of Aqaba. It is located some 150 km north of Sharm El Sheikh, 465 km southeast from Cairo and 70 km  south of the Israel-Egypt border separating Taba and Eilat.

It is easy to go in Nuweiba, for example with the East Delta Travel company (in bus) from Cairo or with mini bus from Alex. It is approximately 7 hours to go over there.

You can find over there a lot of moderns hostels, but what we preferred to do is sitting on a camp (there are a lot of camp) just next to the Red Sea. Far from the luxury of moderns’ hostel we found a camp, where we were slept in sweeties hut. 

We went there in October, and there were not so much people. There are mainly Israeli and foreigner’s people, crossing to border to spent time in the Red Sea. But it remains a typically quiet place, far from the touristic place in Egypt. It is the best place if you are looking for calmness and serenity.

All you can do there is snorkeling on the Red Sea, reading a good book in front of the sea with an amazing cup of tea, and having nice time the night around a camp fire with music by meeting foreigners. If I could get an advice, it is not a place where you stay 1 complete week, but 3 or 4 days, to take a rest. 

One thing you can also do to move from your camp is going in “Castel Zaman”: maybe ten minutes from the camp by having a taxi. This is an amazing place you have to see if you plan to go in Nuweiba, because of the famous landscape at the top of the castle. You can find over there a lot of foreigners. You can just spend an afternoon there; they are not offering hostels facilities. But believe me it worth!

                                       The camp...

                                        Castle Zaman...

Jordan - Petra

It is not so complicated to go in Jordan from Egypt. 

How to go in Jordan from Egypt? You can go from Nuweiba, by having a ferry boat that will arrive in Taba (in Jordan). The price for this travel is around 70 US dollars and the duration around 2 hours and a half. The ferry shop is very clean, and for those who are worried about their seasick….the ferry boat is very big, so there is scarcely any turbulence!

You don’t need any Visa, everything is going to be done at the border (as for us, we had just the students Visa for Egypt). You just have to pay entering fees…

What we planned to do was visiting Petra, one of the seven world wonder. So to go in Petra from Taba, you can easily find a taxi…but you will have to negotiate the price! (2 hours for the trip in Taxi).

Petra, meaning rock, is a historical and archaeological city that is known for its rock cut architecture  and water conduits system. UNESCO has described it as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage." Petra was chosen by the BBCas one of "the 40 places you have to see before you die". 

That’s why we have to see this history heritage, and please if you are around there, have some time to visit the site. Tickets are 50 Jordan Dinar, it is expensive but the ticket is available 3 days (the site is very big).

But be careful to book a hostel before, because it is a huge touristic place!

Petra is not the capital. Amman is, but let me tell you that it is useless to go there….we went there 2 days, and there is nothing to see!!

                                           Entrance to Petra... 

                                      In front one of the most beautiful temple...

Sainte Catherine - Mont Sinai

One of our most original experiences I would like to share is about Sainte Catherine.

Saint Katherine is the capital city of Sainte Katherine Marzak and a natural protectorate in South Sinai Governorate in Sinai in Egypt. It is located at the outskirts of El-Tur Mountains Province at an elevation of 1586 m, 110 km away from Nuweiba, at the foot of Mont Sinai and the St. Catherine's Monastery. The highest mountain in Egypt is  Mont Katherine, and there are many other peaks in the area over 2600 meters.

But what we wanted to do is to climb Mont Sinai to see the sunset, and to sleep at the top to see the sunrise! Mount Sinai is a 2285 m-High Mountain in Saint Katherine city, in Sinai region. It is next to Mont St. Catherine(at 2,629 m, the tallest peak on the Sinai Peninsula). It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks of the mountain range.

I just want to warn people that if anyone is able to climb the mountain, it is very hard to sleep on the top because of the temperature! You have to choose the right season, but event in summer, the night is very cold! Some of us can remember of this freezing night. So if you are an adventurous team, that is one of the things you have to experience in Egypt, definitely.

You will find there a famous landscape you cannot find elsewhere…

Besides, you can also visit the Monastery of Sainte Catherine at the mouth of an inaccessible gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai in Sainte Katherine city in Egypt. The monastery is Greek Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Saint Katherine is the capital city of Sainte Katherine Marzak and a natural protectorate in South Sinai Governorate in Sinai in Egypt. It is located at the outskirts of El-Tur Mountains Province at an elevation of 1586 m, 110 km away from Nuweiba, at the foot of Mont Sinai and the St. Catherine's Monastery. The highest mountain in Egypt is  Mont Katherine, and there are many other peaks in the area over 2600 meters.

                                    4 hours to get on the top...

                                  View at the top of Mont Sinai

                                 Our freezing sleeping place...

Marsa Alam

Marsa Alam is at 130 km in the south of Quseir , between desert and see.

It is a great place for diving actually one of the best, and if you are one of the lucky divers you can even have the chance to see water turtle, sharks… a whole world  under the water!

If you are like us, one of the yellow-bellied, you can also have a great time there because Marsa Alam is a very relaxing place, if you like to sit around a boom fire, listen to music, meet new people…it is made for you; it has a wonderful weather and has this atmosphere you will only fine there and in Nuweiba.

For the accommodation, we strongly recommand you the diver’s camp, they are really nice, they serve great food, the double room are amazing and only for 100poinds with breakfast !

For the ride, it is long tripe (9 hours from Cairo), you can take a direct bus from Cairo for only 180 pounds (going and coming) or:

What we did and what we recommend you is to make a stop in EL GOUNA, it is a tourist resort, it is an expensive place to go to in everything (accommodation, restaurant, outgoing…) but worth visiting, full of young people (the Egyptian “jet-set”), tourists ready to have fun and enjoy their time!

 

The team

                                Let me introduce you to our french team !

 

Hey !

We are happy to present yourself on our brand new blog!!
So, we are 4 French girls studying abroad on Egypt, so fare we are having a great time and a lot of fun. That’s why we decided to share our experience, give some types about the best places to visit and most of all we want to show everyone how amazing is this country and make more student choose Egypt as their destination!

Okay, now let me introduce my friends and I:

Eva Kartner, 23 years old who is graduating this semester in Egypt, and is too sad to say anything else about herself because she just had the last exam of her all life!

Tamara Gilotaux, 23 years old, she is my sister so I can’t really tell anything bad about her, lest say she’s perfect!

Noemie Benatouil, 20 years old, who doesn’t stop speaking so for your own good we won’t ask her anything else about her.

Alia Gilotaux, 20 years old, the writer of this amazing article!