Customer Reviews

Egypt (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been highly satisfied with the Eyewitness Travel Guide series, and this Egypt edition does not disappoint. Maps are clear and helpful, photos help to explain all of the rich history and culture of Egypt. We brought the Lonely Planet Egypt book with us as well, but we found the Eyewitness Travel Guide to be clearer and simpler to use.

The only issue that we found with the book was viewing a performance of the whirling dervishes in Cairo. The book directs us to a place near the bazaar, but the mosque where they normally perform is under renovation. As a result, the performances were being held at the Citadel during the time of our visit. This isn't the book's fault, as this was new and even the conceirge directed us to the wrong place.

That being said, the book guided us to the right places many other times. We especially appreciated the tip on the Egyptian Pancake place in the bazaar!

Excellent, detailed information re: sites. Plenty of tourist maps to help get you oriented. Illustrations of major sites to show multiple views and overview. Only drawback is hotel listings - they leave out important hotels, sometimes even the best bet in the city. All else, is terrific.

In this guide, Egypt is divided into: Cairo, Around Cairo, The Nile Valley, Sinai & the Red Sea Coast, The Delta & The North Coast, The Western Desert.

There is a portrait of Egypt which explains Daily Life, Religion (Islam is explained in more depth on two pages later in the book) and Culture, Politics and Economics, Egypt Today. Then there is a section on the history of Ancient Egypt, Hieroglyphics, Temples and Religious life, Mythology, Burial Traditions and Daily Life.

The Egyptian Calendar is crowded with Muslim, Christian, national and local festivals and these holidays are listed. Next you find The History of Egypt in a Timeline format.

Cairo is divided into: Central Cairo, Islamic Cairo, Rhoda Island & Old Cairo and Giza & Heliopolis.

You will also find cutaways and floor plans of major sights, easy-to-use maps and plans, advice on exploring the pyramids and ancient tombs, information on boat tours on the nile and diving in the red sea. With 1,000 full color photographs in all, this is a beautiful guide you will enjoy looking at long after your trip.

Where to Stay - hotels divided into areas and price categories.
Where to Eat - Interesting information on Sugar Cane juice.
Shopping - Fun shopping rituals, have tea and bargin for items.

Entertainment - Belly Dancing, Opera and Ballet, Cinema, Coffee House Culture, Golf, Snorkeling, Horse and Camel Riding, Hiking and Hot-air balloon rides.

Practical Information - Passports and Visas, Customs and Duty-Free Allowances, Language, Public Conveniences, Electrical adaptor information, currency, communications and conversion chars. Some useful phrases you will want to know.

Travel Information - The cruise option sounds interesting and can you just imagine floating down the Nile river, now that is romantic! They also mention things like taking sterilizing tablets for water and they also say you shouldn't swim in the Nile. So these types of things are really important to read about before leaving on your journey.

A short section on phrases completes this book.

The Best Travel Guide for Egypt I've seen so far!

~The Rebecca Review

This is a beautiful book filled with interesting articles and photos. I found it most useful in getting around the various sights and orienting myself in the towns and cities - thanks to its clear maps and diagrams.

It isn't perfect - I would recommend using it in conjunction with the Lonely Planet/Rough Guide book which has a wider range of hotels, restaurants and nightlife, but it is excellent for the sights. The history and ancient egypt sections are fascinating.

Best of all it can be read over and over again after your holidays as the pictures are so evocative. The practical sections are also useful.

The claim on the book, 'The guide that shows what others only tell you' is 100% true! As with all of the DK books, the pictures are wonderful and information not too indebth but enough to be informative. It divides Egypt up in to several different sections and provides maps and pictures for all. I've been planning my trip to Egypt for a long time and this book has helped me narrow down the sites that I 'must see' when I'm there. It also has a very handy travelers section providing information on currency, post offices, phone services, and a hotel and restaraunt listing that summarizes the faculities and amenities. I thought it was cool too that it actually shows pictures of the egyptian food dishes because I can get a better idea of what it actually is! The arabic phrases listed in the back are handy too. And I like how the front and back covers are the folded flip kind, both fold out to show maps and I like to use the flaps as 'bookmarks' to mark my place. I will probably put this in my carry on bag when I get to go on my trip ;) A must have for those who want to go to Egypt!

My trip to Egypt is still in the planning stages but this book provided me with all the information I had been trying to find on the net, yet nice and compact and all in one spot. The phrase 'The Guides that show you what others only tell you' that this book has listed on it is right on. The pictures are great, the maps EXTREMELY handy! I have used this book to fine tune the destinations in my tour, something I couldnt do on the net w/o jumping around website to website. The book also has some great travel information such as hotel listings, a food reference guide(even pictures), information on postal and phone services in country, and a small section on Arabic phrases. I gave this book 5 stars w/o a second thought!

I enjoyed this book tremendously. It is an excellent travel guide which includes brief and thorough reviews of places of interest throughout Egypt. I also enjoyed the many beautiful and interesting photos in this book.

This book is written somewhat in depth starting from ancient Egypt and ending with shopping in Egypt. If I were going to stay longer than 3 days in Cairo and do a lot of sightseeing on my own, this book in my opinion would be a good book to read.

Whenever we traveled Eyewitness Travel Guides is as important to us to bring to our trips as our passports. We were a little dissapointed when we wanted to find one about Peru and Ecuador/Galapagos last year, but couldn't. Thank goodness we found one for our trip to Egypt. Due to Egypt's vast amount of Temples, Tombs and cities we had to get another book, The Rough Guides, to tell us more about the logistics of navigating the country, however ETG was in our backpack all the time. The pics are very helpful, as well as to the point info about them. The guide shows how the temple was supposed to look at the time of construction, and it shows you pics of what to expect inside their chambers. This way you can better assess what places to skip and what is a must see. We've saved a lot of time this way, because we are able to spend more time examining what we like without feeling like we would be missing on something.
This is how we picked what tombs to see in the Valley of Kings.
The guide also tells you useful words and phrases in Arabic (with English pronunciation). It also tells you what are good buys in the country and it shows you pictures and the names of dishes which we tried and wouldn't be able to know.

Hope you enjoy it too.

I bought this book for my tour of Egypt in October 2007. I bought it along on the trip with me. It provides a great overview of Egypt and even maps of what the major attractions look like. Fabulous photos too.