The planing for this trip took a lot of time and research, probably the most out of all our trips, for two reasons: 1) We had a lot of miscellaneous airlines miles, hotel points, and hotel rewards nights that took a decent amount of coordination to figure out how to best put them to use. 2) This was only our second trip to the Middle East and since Egypt has had a lot of turmoil since the Arab spring in 2011 we wanted to make sure we had a sound plan.

If you don’t have the patience for a DIY itinerary and aren’t booking anything with points and miles, I would recommend that you go through a tour agency and book a package that includes your transportation, accommodations, and guides. Most travelers we met in Egypt were on some sort of all inclusive trip.

If you are interested in our itinerary and trip costs, read on. In this post, I will share every nitty gritty detail about our travel plans and daily expenses. This will give you the inside scoop on how I was able to book our roundtrip flights for only $128.50 per person, redeem hotel rewards for free stays, and optimize our budget while we were there in order to keep our trip affordable.

The Planning

When planning any itinerary for a trip, my forms of research always include opinions from friends/family that have been there, travel blogs, a guide book, and tour company sites. This gives me a good idea of the most recommended itineraries. We decided to to allocate 8 days in Egypt and 4 in Israel. We knew that 4 days was not nearly enough time for Israel but that’s one of those places that we know we’ll go back to some day. In Egypt, we wanted to hit up most of the main sites and enjoy a Nile River cruise.

The one advantage of planning a DIY trip is the ability to spread out costs. Since I started booking everything back in October and didn’t finish until December, I was able to spread out the expense of the trip over 10 weeks. If you book a tour, you have to pay for everything up front.

Prepaid Trip Costs

Here is a list of everything I booked and pre-paid before departure.

•          Round Trip flights booked with frequent flyer miles- $260 in taxes/fees

•          Layover in London: Roundtrip train tickets from airport to city- $72

•          Flight from Tel Aviv to Cairo- $55 in taxes/fees

•          Full Day Private Tour of Pyramids (including lunch and entrance fees)- $117

•         4 Day / 3 Night Nile Cruise (including meals, guides, and entrance fees)- $630

•          Guided excursion to Abu Simbel- $170

•          Overnight Train from Luxor to Cairo- $160

•          Day trip to Alexandria (including lunch and entrance fees)- $180

•          Hotel in Jerusalem (2 nights) and Giza (1 night)- $120

•          Hotels in Tel Aviv (1 night), Aswan (2 nights), and Cairo (2 nights) booked with points- FREE

Total Prepaid Costs- $1,769 / 2 = $885 per person

Daily Breakdown

Here’s a daily breakdown of our itinerary and total costs incurred. Prices are in USD for two people.

Day 1 & 2: Travel Day and a Stopover in London

For the flight over to Israel, I used my American Airlines miles. Most of them came from credit card bonuses. Last year, I signed up for the American Airlines Aviator card and was awarded 60k miles after making only 1 purchase. Most cards require a minimum spend of a few thousand dollars within the first few months so I jumped on this card when I saw that only one purchase was required. (Note: the annual card fee of $95 isn’t waived but it’s well worth paying for 60k miles.) Additionally, when you use the Aviator card miles to book a flight, you get 10% of your redeemed miles back (up to 10,000 each year). The flights were 40,000 miles each (80,000 total) so I got 8,000 miles back.

With that mileage discount, our flights from Moline, IL to Tel Aviv, Israel were only 36,000 miles and $49.70 in taxes and fees per person! Another perk with the card is free checked baggage for you and up to 4 companions. We definitely got our money’s worth with the annual fee and I cancelled the card a few weeks ago so I wouldn’t have to pay the annual fee for the second year.

We purposefully booked a flight with a long layover in London. Why not take advantage of an extra stop?! We had 12 hours which would leave us plenty of time to see the city a bit. I booked roundtrip tickets on the Heathrow Express Train for $36 per person. The further in advance you buy the tickets, the cheaper they are. It gets you to the city in just 15 minutes.

We had an English breakfast and spent the day walking around some of the main sites. We headed back to the airport somewhat early in order to take advantage of the Priority Pass Lounge. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you get a free Priority Pass membership. We ate and slept before our final flight over to Tel Aviv.

Day 3: Tel Aviv

We landed at 3:45 in the morning and found the cheapest cab possible for $40. The train wasn’t running yet and we were exhausted. We arrived at our hotel at 5:30 AM, hoping they would let us check in a bit early. To our surprise they said we could check in at 7! We hung out in the lobby since nothing was open yet and then crashed for the rest of the morning. Tip: always pack snacks! Our granola bars and trail mix came in handy for breakfast.

We spent the afternoon and evening walking around the city, eating, and drinking.

We spent one night at the Renaissance Hotel Tel Aviv. I have the SPG  Amex card and you get one free night a year. The card has a $95 annual fee but the free night and airline transfer program (more on that later) makes it worthwhile. The hotel was in a great location on the beach and within walking distance to a lot of the main areas.

Day 4: Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

The next morning, we rented some bikes and rode them along the coast to the old town. There is a $4.50 daily access fee but the bikes are free for the first 30 minutes. The bike ride was only 15 minutes each way. We ate breakfast, walked around, and then checked out of our hotel.

For the sake of time, we grabbed a cab to the bus station. Shared taxi’s, called sherut’s, are very common all over Israel. We found a sherut at the bus station that was headed to Jerusalem. It was only $6 per person and dropped us off just blocks from our hotel. 

Jerusalem hotels are pretty expensive but I had a free night through hotels.com. They have one of my favorite programs. If you sign up for an account, you get access to secret prices and frequent 10% off coupons. Additionally, after booking 10 nights through their site, you get a free night that is worth an average of your 10 nights combined. My free night was worth about $73. I found a budget hotel in Jerusalem (the Palatin Hotel) for about $75 per night and booked two nights. After applying my discount, it felt like I was getting two nights for the price one. The hotel was old, but clean, and the breakfast was included in the price.

We spent the afternoon walking from the Mount of Olives to the Old City and started taking in all the sites. We had dinner and then spent the evening at the Mahane Yehuda Market for drinks and people watching.

Day 5: Bethlehem

Breakfast was free at our hotel and then we set out for a day trip to Bethlehem. We were going to take an organized tour since we were a bit intimidated to cross the border into Palestine, but the tour was booked. The tour representative told us it was super easy to get there and we could easily go on our own. I’m glad we did because we saved $83! The tour would have been $104 (total for two). Our transportation there and back was only $21. We probably missed out on some valuable information from a guide, but we had our Lonely Planet book and were able to visit Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel, which wasn’t included in the tour.

We finished the day with dinner and drinks back at the Mahane Yehuda Market.

Day 6: Jerusalem to Cairo

On our last day in Israel, we spent the morning walking around, grabbing souvenirs, and eating lunch. We gathered our luggage and took the light rail to the train/bus station. We thought we would have enough time to catch a sherut or a bus to the airport. We arrived around 2:30 and must have just missed the last bus and there weren’t any sherut’s available. On Friday, Shabbat, everything closes and stops running mid-afternoon. We were stuck and had to take a taxi to the airport. That one hurt… it was $67!

We checked in for our flight and took advantage of the Priority Pass lounge for some food and drinks. For our flight to Cairo, we used Blake’s American Airlines miles. Blake signed up for the Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select card last year and was awarded 60k miles after meeting the minimum spend. (Note: the normal reward is 50k miles but we took advantage of a bonus they had going on.) The flights were 17,500 each (35,000 total) and again we received 10% back, (or 3,500 miles). I assume the Citi card has the same perk as the Aviator card. The flight from Tel Aviv to Cairo was 15,750 miles and $27.92 in taxes and fees per person.

We arrived in Cairo at midnight. Everything I read said the airport was super crazy, you had to watch out for scams, and haggling with the taxi drivers took a lot of work. Most blogs said to skip the hassle and book a transfer through your hotel, especially if you were arriving late at night. We took that advice and had our hotel pick us up for $20. That seemed like a reasonable price since we’d be driving almost an hour to Giza where the pyramids are located. I quickly picked up a SIM card for my phone and we were on our way.

Our hotel (Pyramids View Inn Bed & Breakfast) was situated right in front of the pyramids and was only $40.49 for the night. Breakfast was included in the price and we sat on the roof of the hotel with an awesome view of the pyramids the next morning! If you don’t need anything fancy, I would definitely recommend this hotel! The staff was super nice and everything was clean.

A note about tipping in Egypt:

The tipping culture is huge in Egypt and it’s important that you know what’s customary before you arrive. The average Egyptian only makes $6,700 a year and a lot of the workforce relies on tourism to make a living. You will tip for meals, drivers, guides, hotel staff, temple guards, and even bathroom attendants. The tips are small so don’t stress about the amount.

Also, it’s a cash heavy country and we read that small bills are hard to come by. Several blogs suggested that we bring a bunch of US $1 bills. Most of the time they are fine with you paying or tipping in USD. We always asked to make sure.

Day 7: Giza Pyramids

After breakfast at the hotel, we were picked up by EMO Tours for a full day tour of the pyramids. We visited the Giza Pyramids, Memphis City, Dahshur and Saqqara Pyramids. It was $117 and included a private guide and driver, all entrance fees, lunch, water, and snacks. Plus, our guide was amazing and basically acted like a private photographer all day.

At the end of the day, they dropped us back at our hotel and we gathered our luggage for the airport. After a day in Egypt, I was feeling confident and decided to try Uber. All the travel blogs said Uber is widely used and the cheapest way to get around. I had bought a SIM card for my phone at the airport for only $8 and was ready to give Uber a try. A driver arrived within minutes and we were on our way. The ride back to the airport was over an hour long and cost $11. Amazing!

It was a quick day in Giza, but we’d back to see more of Cairo the following weekend. We had to get to Aswan, Egypt to see Abu Simbel before our Nile cruise left on the 24th.

For the flights, I used our Citi Thank You points. I have had the Citi Premier card for almost 3 years. The sign up bonus was 60k points (normally 50k, but I took advantage of a limited time offer) and you get 3x points on gas and 2x points on dining out and entertainment. I use the Chase Reserve card for dining out but this card is great for gas and entertainment. The annual fee of $95 is waived the first year. I may look to cancel this card before paying the annual fee again. But first, I need to use my remaining points or transfer them to an airline partner.

Back to the flight. I used 21,264 total points for both flights. When you book flights through the Citi travel portal, the points are worth 25% more. I believe the flights were about $130 USD each if we had paid cash.

We stayed in Aswan, Egypt for two nights and I used our Citi Thank You points again to book The Basma Hotel. It was 13,812 points for two nights and I believe the hotel usually goes for $80-100 a night.

Uber doesn’t exist in Aswan so we were left trying to negotiate a fair price with the cab drivers once we arrived at the airport. We were one of the last flights of the night and it was late so the best we could do was $20.

Day 8: Abu Simbel

The next day, we ate a large buffet breakfast at the hotel (included in the price) and were picked up for a day trip to Abu Simbel. It’s a temple in southern Egypt about three hours away. It was an expensive tour, but Abu Simbel is easily one of the top sites in Egypt. I think the tour companies can charge so much because they have to get permission in advance and show your passports ahead of time. There are various security checkpoints the whole way and it’s close to the border of Sudan.

The cheapest tour I could find was with Get Your Guide for $152 (for both of us). The price included a private driver, a guide, some water and a couple cokes. It did not include entrance fees, camera fees, or lunch. Since our breakfast was big, we supplemented lunch with a granola bar. We were starving by the time we got back and opted for dinner at our hotel.

Day 9: Aswan and Day 1 on the Nile

After reading some travel blogs, I learned that a Nile Cruise doesn’t have to be super expensive. If you’re willing to go through a local tour agency and settle for some unknowns, then it’s very affordable. When I say “unknowns”, I mean the exact boat and accommodations…the website is a bit vague.

We booked our cruise through EMO Tours. A 4 day/3 night cruise from Aswan to Luxor was $315 per person. (This price included a 10% discount they were offering with the code “Savethisway”.) The price included transportation, accommodations, meals, entrance fees, and a personal guide. Out of pocket expenses were drinks and tips.

Our driver and tour guide picked us up after breakfast and we were off to see the sites in Aswan. We visited the High Dam, went by boat to the Philae Temple, and took a ride on a Felucca (a type of sailboat). Lunch, dinner, and entrance fees were included so we only had to pay some small tips to the boat captains.

Before dinner, we had a few hours to kill so we left the boat and wandered around town on our own. We bought a crepe and some apples from some street vendors and then sat at a local café for some tea and shisha. All of that was only $6! Egypt is cheap when you get away from the hotels and tourist sites!

Day 10: Nile Cruising Day 2

We spent the second day on the boat until around 5 PM when we finally docked for a visit to the Temple of Kom Ombo. We didn’t incur any extras costs.

Day 11: Nile Cruising Day 3

On the third day, we had an early morning wake-up call to visit the Temple of Edfu. Everyone took carriage rides to and from the temple and we tipped our driver. The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent sailing to Luxor.

Since we were assigned a specific table for our meals on the boat, we had gotten to know the other people at our table. We were all getting sick of the food on the boat and feeling a little restless so we decided to head into town once we arrived in Luxor that evening. One of our new friends was an Iraqi-American that spoke Arabic. He was able to negotiate a fair cab price for the night so we all packed in the car and headed to town.

We stopped for some sugar cane juice on our way to the Luxor Museum. We wandered around the museum for about an hour and then our friend asked the driver to take us somewhere for some good Egyptian food. We ended up at a barbecue restaurant where we had an abundance of food. Blake even ordered stuffed pigeon, an Egyptian specialty! After another quick stop to check out a local street festival, we were headed back to the boat.

Day 12: Luxor

We left a tip for the boat staff after checkout and departed early for a full day of sightseeing with our guide. We visited The Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Colossi of Memnon, Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple. Entrance fees were included but we had to pay a photography fee at the Valley of the Kings. Lunch also wasn’t included and our guide kept proposing ridiculous places that cost $20-30 per person. We ate some of our snacks and decided to go for an early dinner on our own. We tipped our guide for the duration of the cruise (he had been with us since the beginning) and our driver for the day.

That night we were supposed to be taking the Sleeper Train back to Cairo. We tried booking the train tickets ourselves several weeks earlier but the website wouldn’t take any of our American credit cards. We booked the tickets through EMO Tours with a 10% commission rate tacked on, but I was able to use the “Savethisway” coupon code again so it took care of the price increase. Our tickets were $165.60 total.

Unfortunately, the tour company failed to buy us our tickets. We were upset about this but what could we do? You have to accept that things might go wrong, especially when you’re in a third world country. It took us a few weeks, but eventually we got a refund for our train tickets.

Luckily, I had booked us a cheap hotel so we would have a place to leave our luggage, take a shower, and hang out until going to the train station at 10 pm. Since the train was no longer going to happen, we ended up staying at the hotel for the night. And luck was on our side again as I was able to purchase last minutes flights back to Cairo for the morning ($241.88).  

Day 13: Cairo

Our early morning flight put us back in Cairo at 9 AM. We took an Uber to our hotel and had breakfast while we waited until our room was ready.

I booked two nights at the Cairo Marriott Hotel, which is a former palace! Blake has the Chase Marriott card and you get 1 free night each year. It’s well worth the annual fee of $95 since Marriott hotels cost much more than that. Additionally, when we first signed up for the card we got an 80,000 point sign up bonus after hitting the minimum spend. Our second night at the hotel was only 25,000 points.

After checking in, we took an Uber to the Egyptian Museum. We bought an Inclusive Ticket so we could enter the Mummy Rooms. We also purchased a photography ticket, which was much more affordable compared to the previous photography fees we’d seen.

We spent the late afternoon walking around our hotel neighborhood. We picked up some fresh fruit, replenished our water supply, and grabbed dinner.

Later that night, we were alerted to a tourist bus bombing in Giza. We messaged our friends from the cruise that were at the pyramids that day to make sure they were okay. Then, we got to work researching what had happened. We debated what to do for a good two hours. We felt like it was probably just an isolated incident but you never know how quickly things can escalate in the Middle East. We knew our parents would be worried and we also knew that tourist attacks are more prevalent around the holiday season. We decided to call our airline and see if we had any options to return home early. There happened to be an identical flight to the one we’d booked the next morning. The airline said they would waive the change fees, no problem. So that settled it.

Day 14/15: Heading Home Early

On our last day in Egypt, we were supposed to take a day trip to Alexandria with EMO Tours. I knew I couldn’t get a refund for the tour, but I am still working on getting some points back from the hotel. We’ll see… 

For the flight home from Cairo, I really wanted to use United Airlines miles since there were better flight options that would get us to Chicago in only 16 hours. (Shout out to my Mom and Dad for picking us up!) The only problem was, it didn’t appear that I had enough miles. After looking at my spreadsheet of miscellaneous miles and points balances, I realized that I had a ton of SPG miles from my SPG credit card. The SPG program didn’t used to have a great transfer rate with United but I knew that it recently merged with Marriott so I decided to double check. It turns out that since the merge, the transfer rate to United is now very favorable! I could transfer my miles at a 3 to 1.1 rate and they even give you a 5,000 mile bonus for every 60,000 points you transfer to airlines.

After the transfer, I was still short about 30k miles. We use a lot of Chase credit cards so I was able to transfer some Chase Ultimate Rewards points that I had been saving up. Our flight from Cairo to Chicago was 42,500 miles and $78.81 in taxes and fees per person.

Total Trip Cost= $2,797.67 (Per Person $1,398.84)

Now, subtract what you would have spent on gas, groceries, coffee, eating out, and entertainment for those two weeks if you had stayed home instead. The trip becomes even more affordable. :) Happy Travel Hacking!