Egypt has been one of those bucket list places living in my head space for what seems like my whole life. I never thought I’d get to go for many reasons (the distance, money, safety), but when I found a cruise that stopped there, I immediately booked it for our 10-year-anniversary trip.

We had two days in port at Alexandria with the option of a full day excursion on one of those days to Cairo. Our half-day excursion around Alexandria was fun, but not exactly what I thought we were getting with our tour. It mentioned stops at the library (which was a must for me) and yes, we did stop across the road to look at it and take a photo, but I thought we’d be able to go in and that was not the case because it had already closed for the day. So that was a little disappointing.

The scenic driving was really pretty along the coast and we got to see the city streets and markets up close, which was really cool but overall, this Norwegian excursion wasn’t really one I would recommend simply because you really only saw the sights from a distance. I think the all day city tour probably would have been the way to go, but from the descriptions, I thought we were getting the same tour, just not as long.

The full day excursion to Cairo though – the best tour of the trip! We hit all the sites you would want to see and had a lunch cruise on the Nile, so we also got to try some local cuisine.

While I hadn’t planned on riding a camel, our tour guide recommended it, so for $10 USD, I thought why not. It was really fun and yes, touristy, but the pictures are fantastic and I’m probably never going to get the opportunity to ride through the desert on a camel with the pyramids in the background!

We also spent some time at the nearby Sphinx, then saw a demonstration on how paper was made using papyrus. After that it was off to lunch on a Nile River cruise!

Several tour groups at once ate lunch in the same place and the food was served buffet style. There were a variety of things to try, including baba ganoush, hummus, kefta, Egyptian tea and more. It was a great meal that also included some entertainment and you could spent a little time out on the deck of the boat as we floated down the Nile.

Then, we had a couple hours in the The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities where we saw all kinds of ancient artifacts, mummies and King Tut’s treasures (no photos allowed in there). I spend a little time shopping for souvenirs, then we boarded the bus for the drive back to Alexandria.

I vlogged the day, so be sure to check out YouTube for the video version of our day in Cairo!