This is not a joke, Egypt has the cheapest hotels I’ve seen. And partly because of that, there are ample opportunities to get free hotels.
$29 for the Sheraton in Luxor (one of the oldest cities on earth). $50 for the Marriotts, Hiltons, and Radisson in Sharm El Sheikh. It’s begging me to come BRG these hotels. Plus, many hotels in the country are category 1 awards for many brands. Begging me to burn my points.
I’m eager to talk about all kinds of strategies for getting free hotels.
And for me, it is the perfect time to go. Tourism is just now recovering. So it’s gotten safer, and yet prices are down and everything is less crowded. I’m looking at flights this week!
Last year there were many reports that Egypt’s tourism revenue dropped 95% due to the Arab Spring revolution.
Now there are reports of tourists trickling back to Egypt, but not to the “full recovery” Egyptian officials [naively] expected. So while they expected 2015 to be back 100%, I can’t imagine these prices will be back to normal for awhile.
Also, before I begin talking about deals, hotels, flights, and routes, I want to update everyone on the “No Fear Mongering Policy“… because it exists now. I have a mandatory “privacy policy” buried at the footer of this website (I won’t spam you).
Now I’ve added a “No Fear Mongering Policy”.
One thing this world isn’t lacking is fear. Thanks to popular news, paid by page views and therefore motivated by sensationalism… we’ve got plenty of fear. Before you want to point out the bad things happening on the news in another country, why don’t you watch the news happening in the US. Enough said.
What to do in Egypt?
I’m not trying to do a “top things to do” post, but I asked my friend Caleb (who is teaching in Cairo now) for some recommendations and here’s the list he/we (royal “we”) came up with.
Caleb also made this video of Egypt.
- Cairo and the Pyramids
- Alexandria
- Sharm El Sheikh, although he says Dahab is nearby but better and less touristy
- Mt. Sinai and St. Catherine’s monastery
- Luxor
- “Valley of the Kings” is supposed to be bangin’
- Aswan
- Most people visit Luxor and Aswan on the nile cruises. Many people have told him that this is their favorite part.
- Siwa Oasis – Looks cool, but way west of anything
When to go to Egypt? I’m not an expert on Egypt, but seems summer is the time to go to the beach, although it gets crazy hot. Although I’d rather be crazy hot on the beach than in the city. But spring/fall seems like a great time to me. Do the beach and then do the cities.
Hotels, Hotels, and Hotels
There are few ways of going about this.
Paid stays for EQMs
Most people aren’t quite as cheap as me and in this community at least, are worried about status.
For you SPG people:
In the beach areas, the prices can vary, but in Sharm El Sheikh, they are probably the lowest.
Points Hotels
I want to continue talking about paid hotels, but in the context of knowing the points options.
Sharm El Sheikh has a ton of points options.
- Hilton Sharm Waterfalls Resort – 5,000 Hilton points
- Hilton Sharm Dreams Resort – 5,000 Hilton points
- Hilton Sharm El Sheikh Fayrouz Resort – 10,000 Hilton points
- Hilton Sharks Bay Resort – 20,000 Hilton points
- Sharm El Sheikh Marriott Resort – 7,500 Marriott points
- Renaissance Sharm El Sheikh Golden View Beach Resort – 10,000 Marriott points
- Hyatt Regency Sharm El Sheikh Resort – 8,000 Hyatt points
- Radisson Blu Resort, Sharm El Sheikh – 15,000 Club Carlson points
- Park Inn By Radisson Sharm El Sheikh Resort – 15,000 Club Carlson points
- Sheraton Sharm Hotel, Resort, Villas & Spa – 2,000 to 3,000 SPG points
These are not all the points hotels in Egypt, but just in Sharm El Sheikh. And they are all category 1 or 2 hotels, except for the Hilton Sharks Bay.
The best rating of all the Hilton hotels is the Hilton Sharm Waterfalls Resort, which is convenient because it’s only 5,000 points. That’s pocket change in the Hilton world. As I’ve said many times, there are 15 credit cards that can earn Hilton HHonors points.
To put that in perspective the Virgin Atlantic card has a bonus of 75,000 points, or 93,000 points after the spend requirement. Then Virgin Atlantic miles transfer to Hilton 1:1.5 (in increments of 10,000). So 90,000 Virgin miles become 135,000 Hilton points.
That’s 27 nights from one credit card. Actually, with 5th night free (booking 5 nights in a row you only pay for 4), you could get 33 nights from one credit card!
As I’ll discuss more, 5,000 points is not only the price for the two Hiltons in Sharm El Sheikh, but in Hurghada, Alexandria and Cario.
That’s a tour right there. You’re welcome. :-p
Cash vs Points
While 8,000 Hyatt points isn’t a lot, it’s hard to use my precious Hyatt points when there are hotels for $50. But if you want that quality and have the points it’s probably a steal.
I prefer to use Hilton points because Hilton points are cheaper than water. But at the rates above, everything is tempting.
Although, I get the cash appeal for someone who wants to save points (unless they’re Hilton points, no saving there) and get in elite night credit, Sharm El Sheikh and Luxor are the cheapest places to do so.
Best Rate Guarantees
If you’re looking to maximize a paid stay you could do a best rate guarantee. Sure, save 25% on Marriott. But also, see the Complete Guide to Best Rate Guarantees and you’ll notice that many booking sites have one as well. This could potentially give you a $50 coupon per stay, or more with Orbitz.
Hilton BRGs
If you’re really into the BRGing you could file a BRG with Hilton and get $50 off your stay. So a $55 Hilton (not unrealistic in Sharm) would be $5. I have done this other places and while check out always stumps the front desk charging your card, it’s a legit process.
Luxor
Luxor has limited points options but at least one good one.
The Sheraton Luxor is 2,000 to 3,000 points. However, on many dates I found the Sheraton for $27 if staying at least 3 nights. That is a steal. I know people that would pay $27 for the EQNs. I know nothing about the quality of the hotel, but I almost don’t care.
Even better if there is a good SPG promotion. If you can BRG the hotel you’d get 2,000 SPG points as well.
The only other points hotel (besides Accor hotels) is the Hilton which goes for 20,000 to 30,000 Hilton points. Compared to the other Hilton options in the country and the price of the other hotels in Luxor, I’m going to pass.
Orbitz points? Expedia points? Bank points?
The hotels are so cheaper in Luxor that I’m considering using points from Orbitz. Unfortunately it’s not letting me use points for the Sheraton, so I may use them for the similarly price Mercure (ex-Sofitel).
Whatever you do, you can hardly have any regrets for $30 worth of points or cash.
Radisson Blu El Quseir
On paper, this is the best deal in Egypt. I try not to fall into the “value” trap, as I’ve said before, but this is one where the points price is particularly low and the cash price is particularly high!
The best flexible rate is $130 (which is a lot in Egypt) and the points rate is 9,000 points.
9,000 points is the lowest award category for Club Carlson points. And to put it in perspective, the Club Carlson credit card has an 85,000 point signup bonus. That’s at least 9 nights. Plus the card earns 5 points per dollar, so you’d earn a free night for every $1,800 you put on the card.
Anyways, the hotel has a very high tripadvisor rating and has peaked my interests.
As someone who lives out of hotels and has a bit of Club Carlson points… I feel obligated to check it out.
Alexandria
Alexandria has a 5,000 point Hilton, actually three, but the Corniche one seems like a better location. It also has a category 2 Sheraton (3,000 to 4,000 SPG points), and a category 2 Radisson (15,000 Club Carlson points) but the Radisson is pretty far out as far as I can tell. Hilton Corniche is the winner in my book.
I’ve been wanting to go to Alexandria for historical interests, but lounging around the city itself doesn’t have any appeal to me. So I’m leaning towards skipping it. Not sure. Thoughts?
Cairo and the Pyramids
Obviously you’re not going to Cairo or even Egypt and not seeing the Pyramids.
Again, there’s a Hilton Pyramids Golf Resort that’s a bit out of Cairo but closer to the Pyramids, and it’s only 5,000 points. There’s a Hilton Ramses which is downtown and 10,000 points.
The other great deals are the Cairo Marriott for 10,000 Marriott points and Sheraton Cairo for 3,000 – 4,000 SPG points. If you’re burning SPG points and would rather be right next to the Pyramids instead of downtown Cairo, there is a Le Meriden as well for 3,000 to 4,000 points.
Flights
I was going to go over flight options but it’s all pretty basic. You can use the miles calculator thingy, or you can check out my post Cheapest Miles to Africa and Cheapest Miles to the Middle East.
Although I did think of one tip that’s pretty specific to this corner of Africa that is Egypt- discount airlines from Europe.
I was shocked when I did “Egypt” to “Everywhere” for different whole months and found tickets to Geneva Switzerland for €29 ($32).
I looked and found more cheap flights to and from Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, United Kingdom and Hungary.
In order to find this you can either search Skyscanner.com for “Egypt” to “Everywhere” (or blank), or do specific countries to “Egypt”, and choose whatever timeframe you want but I usually search by the month.
The reason I thought this was worth mentioning is that most of the time miles tickets to Egypt are going to be from 42,500 miles to 47,500 miles.
But flights to Europe are often 30,000 miles or less. Or with AA and Alaska Miles, half the year the miles price is 20,000 miles.
In other words, you could spend 40,000 AA miles to go to Europe, instead of 90,000 AA miles to go to Egypt. Then you pay an extra $100 or so to get a roundtrip from Europe. In this case you’d pay $100 to save 50,000 miles.
Also, you can book two different oneways with your AA miles. So you could fly to Switzerland with AA miles, then Egypt with cash. Then you could fly to Italy on cash, and the return from Italy with AA miles.
Just went to Egypt in June. It was stinking hot, but get up early and see everything, then go back to your hotel and chill by the pool and you will be set. When we went to Luxor temple, we were the only tourists there. Karnak had a few more, but probably a dozen vehicles in a parking lot set up for hundreds. We stayed at the Hilton in Luxor; it is the best rated hotel I have ever seen on tripadvisor. The service is fantastic, even though I am pretty sure they were below 10% occupancy. A hefty price tag for Egypt at 12,000 points and $50 per night (it is always 30,000 points), but I would happily pay it again (for a short stay).
On the other hand, stayed at Le Meridien Pyramids, just for the novelty of having the pyramids out our window. Took nearly 40 minutes to check us in. Booked two suites but they downgraded one to a regular room with a view of the pyramids and told me they were doing me a favor. For a 1000 points or so, I didn’t bother to argue, but that whole thing pretty much set the stage for our stay. They treated us like they were just barely tolerating our presence. After the royal treatment at the Hilton in Luxor, it was a major let down.
What about cost of food?
Many of the hotels are in resort towns and looking at Hilton Sharm Waterfalls Resort you are in the middle of nowhere (tip of the Sinai Peninsula).
I’ll find out.
Yeah, food is a tradeoff. If you stay at hotels like the ones that we stayed at, then you can be pretty sure the food is safe for NA stomachs, but you definitely pay more than anywhere else. Even though you pay more than elsewhere, hotel food is still pretty reasonably priced compared to NA prices. While we had no problem with the food outside the hotels and it is very inexpensive, some with more delicate stomachs might have some issues.
One other thing we found odd. Both when we landed and when we departed at Luxor, ours was the only aircraft on the entire tarmac. I have never seen such an empty airport anywhere at any time. And of course, they had to park it about half a mile from the terminal and bus is in!
Note that every other person I talk to gets a pretty serious stomach bug there. NO FEAR MONGERING, just wash/sanitize your hand after handling money. Be careful or avoid street vendors.
Like Delhi belly? Well, I’m liberal about what I eat, so consider me a human test. Which probably means I just will get sick. I’ll let you know :-p
This is true. My first couple of weeks had me going to the toilet more often than normal. But we have some good meds for that 🙂 One word, “Antinal”. This stuff was made for Mummy Tummy.
*piqued
Nice overview Drew, and I’m looking forward to reports of your journey(s) there. Glad also you picked up that cheapest way to get to North Africa/ME may be to fly with miles to Europe, then super cheap regional Mediterranean fares.
Of course, the one HUGE unmentioned in your post…. the reason WHY resorts are so cheap in Egypt now…. and that’s the fallout from all the severe political nightmares…. Unless one is a apologist for dictators, Egypt is now in many worse than pre-2011, with dissent in any and all forms being severely crushed…. and that we must factor in…
a dicey situation to be sure…. yet on the other hand, the widespread fears present opportunities for the adventurous. Just don’t go with eyes wide shut. What’s Caleb’s take on the security situation/climate for tourists? (“in the now” )
Hi, thanks for your comment! Egypt is incredible, beautiful, and most importantly SAFE. In the last year of living here, I have felt a “total instances of unsafe” 0 times! And I don’t live in a compound or heavily foreign community either. My neighborhood is very much Egyptian. Egyptians would all agree that the situation has improved since 2013 and that president Sisi is doing an overall “good job”. We, my wife and I, both feel very comfortable in our surroundings and have no problem telling strangers that we are both American and Christian. My wife feels very safe there and has experienced little to no harassment due to her being a white female foreigner. Cairo is a massive city, so naturally is does have big city problems. On the large, Egypt should not be feared. Now is the time to visit!
To clarify…. yes, you mentioned the “Arab Spring” as a reason for the general low travel prices…. but I’m referring more to the intense and still festering unease since the July 2013 Sisi coup, and the brutal, bloody and recurrent crackdowns on any and all dissent since. (not just of Islamists) Sure, the “official” PR will be to predict the tourists will come back, when folks feel comfortable with “authority” restored. Alas, in fairness, it may now be even worse for tourism in Tunisia (where I hope to be in October)…. Democracy still survives there (barely)…. and they’ve had hellish recent terror attacks directly on tourist resorts. Sigh.
footnote…. realize you/some might think I’ve just engaged in “fear-mongering” or repeating myths/exaggerations from the nefarious popular press. I’d humbly counter that I prefer to think of it as questions being “reality” based…. Secondly, the US “popular media” has generally given Sisi’s Egypt a “free pass”… (ask any serious Egypt watcher — The rose colored glasses being back on so long as our favorite new pharaoh “keeps the peace” with a certain neighbor)….
I am with you on the “travel is free” ideal, that traveling internationally helps free the mind from regnant stereotypes & biases. In taking away unreasoned fears, new horizons are opened. Yet there are times when travel truly does involve calculated risk and the need for prudence. Be safe, be happy, be free. 🙂
What is the “reality based” method using that I’m missing? I’ll re-quote the statistics I gave to mike here too, but I want to say that I understand that Egypt is a less freedom driven country in many ways. This imposes more risks for some over others. But statistically speaking, are these risks greater than going to NYC, DC, or Chicago?
Here’s, what I said below:
3 tourists were killed in 2014 out of 15 million tourists. That is .02 per 100,000 tourists.
That’s just for tourists
vs.
In the USA the Homicide rate is 4.7 per 100,000. That is an 235 times increase in danger of homicide. This is you staying home vs being a tourist in Egypt. Part of the reason its so safe is probably the tourist areas are low conflict and real conflicts don’t involve tourist.
The homicide rate in general in Egypt is 3.4 per 100,000. The homicide rate for citizens is lower in Egypt than the USA. Period. And it’s way safer in Egypt for tourists, statistically speaking.
I don’t want to rain your parade, because I agree with your conclusion, but there is a flaw in your statistical analysis. The US homicide rate is for people who are, broadly speaking, in the US all year round. The statistic that you cited for Egypt would be for people who are only in Egypt for a week or two. Assuming an average one week stay (and even that might be high because of cruise ship passengers being counted in the total), you should multiply your 0.02 times 52 weeks to get a comparable stat to the US homicide rate. Still compares very favorably at about 1 in 100,000.
You are atypical in your travels for a hotel stayer, not so adventuresome as backpackers who can go off the beaten path, and that is why I like your blog. Different cheap travels but not cheap cheap or high adventure travels. But you are downplaying the dangers here. I have seen time and again, international backpackers who are traveling closer to the local scene than you, saying how safe things are and belittling the fear mongering or , for some, the risks of traveling alone (you do not fall within this category). But traveling in risk. But for a small number of them, the numbers catch up and something bad happens, then they completely reverse track. All of a sudden they recognize the reality of the State Dept warnings, etc. and the world. Duh. There is risk in visiting Egypt greater than most other places in the world and I would not downplay that risk.
3 tourists were killed in 2014 out of 15 million tourists. That is .02 per 100,000 tourists.
That’s just for tourists
vs.
In the USA the Homicide rate is 4.7 per 100,000. That is an 235 times increase in danger of homicide. This is you staying home vs being a tourist in Egypt. Part of the reason its so safe is probably the tourist areas are low conflict and real conflicts don’t involve tourist.
The homicide rate in general in Egypt is 3.4 per 100,000. The homicide rate for citizens is lower in Egypt than the USA. Period. And it’s way safer in Egypt for tourists, statistically speaking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
Should I not downplay the risk of living in the US?
Also,
1) Did you read my post on Fear of Travel already? Because…
2) What makes you say the danger is more real in Egypt than staying home?
Is it the news? Or facts, like the data above?
As noted above, I was just in Egypt in June, with my wife and four daughters. The only danger we felt was the very real possibility that I would snap when harassed by the eight thousandth vendor that day! That was the only real downside to going right now, there are very few tourist targets for the many, many merchants trying to make a living. Also true, although less so because of more tourists, at Petra.
Off topic, but Egyptians also had an odd fascination with our mixed race family. My wife and I are Canadian and two of our daughters are Ethiopian. Reactions ranged from curiosity to fascination to one fellow who clapped and laughed and was genuinely joyous at our little family. I think we made his day and we have no idea why!
My wife and I have lived in Cairo a year now. We complain from time to time about a handful of issues, but safety is never one of those issues. We really like living in Egypt and find it as safe if not more safe than other American cities we’ve lived in. Feel free to read our blog and see what life is like for us there. You might be surprised how ordinary it really is.
https://calebandbecca.wordpress.com/
The Hilton Sharks Bay Resort which is 20,000 points is an all-inclusive hotel so it’s perhaps slightly misleading to simply list it with the other hotels?
Drew – great post as usual. Thanks for the oodles of work you put in for your readers. Question – Egypt has been on top of my bucket list for a long time. Do you think Egypt is safe for a mom and two kids in tow – age 18 and 10?
My wife and I were just there with our 15, 12, 11, and 9 year old daughters and did not find it any less safe in Cairo and Luxor than we did in Athens, Amman, or Istanbul, which we visited on the same trip. We did hire a guide, but that was mostly to get around the announced and then cancelled requirement to get visas in advance.
Thanks for the info. Would you have felt okay with your wife going with the just the kiddies? I’m a pretty independent traveler, and taken the kids to lots of countries but want to be prudent too. Thanks. (Sorry if taking over the comment section.)
Tough question to answer because my wife and children have never travelled anywhere without me, but I think I would be as okay with them going without me to Egypt as to any of the other countries we visited on that trip (Jordan, Turkey, Greece). Maybe not quite as comfortable as UK, France or Germany, for example, but I think it is safer in Egypt than in Miami, for example.
Thanks again. I’ll get in touch with Memphis Tours. I guess if I took the kids to New York and Beijing subway by myself, then we will be okay in Egypt.
Suzy, if you’re at all worried, I recommend reading the UK’s travel advice page on Egypt. They talk about the areas they view as safe and less safe. https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/egypt
Could you please recommend a guide?
Thanks
We used Memphis Tours, they are pretty much the largest and most established. We would highly recommend them, however, if you value independence in your travels to Egypt, they may not be best for you, as they take very good care of you and rarely let you out of their sight! That worked for us, but we were there to see the major tourist sites, not to get a feel for Egyptians’ everyday lives (we spent only 4 days in Egypt).
I can highly recommend my friend, Ramez Salama. Email at: ramezsalama@gmail.com
I traveled there alone as a young female traveler last January, basically shortly after the UK state department indicated that in their opinion the touristy areas were safe again for travel, and the Nile cruises started up again. I had a great time, it was so insanely quiet that I can’t even imagine how awful it would have been to go to Luxor, Abu Simbel, or the pyramids when there were 1000x the number of people. I second Memphis Tours. I never unsafe, the Memphis Tour guides were great, very friendly, and babysat me all the time. I took the train down to Aswan, and since I was on a late train and the tours had finished for the day, they had a guy who literally accompanied me and for hours at the train station. Their prices were very reasonable from what I recall.
Drew, I am planning a trip to Egypt next year. I was thinking also to take a tour to Petra. Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks
Hi Mark, we also went to Petra on our trip that included Egypt. We also got a guide in Jordan, primarily to save on visa fees, because we were a group of more than 5 and stayed in Jordan two nights and used a guide. From our experience, if we could not have saved the visa fees (and maybe even if we could), we probably would have gone without the guide. The guide that we used did not add much to the experience and traffic and road conditions are quite good in Jordan; hugely better than in Egypt. I would recommend that you stay near Petra so that you can get there early in the morning. We did not, we stayed in Amman, and we did not get to spend as much time in Petra as we would have liked and it was wicked hot by time we got there. There are at least one or two points hotels in Petra or Wadi Rum.
Thanks Trader
Last year we went to Israel and there were tour from Israel for one or two days to Petra. I am thinking to do something like that from Cairo. We are not looking to spend more than two days in Jordan. Thanks for the advise.
By the way…I am a farsouthtrader :0)
I am probably just succumbing to “fear mongering”, but I was not willing to travel overland through the Sinai nor through the Israeli border with Egypt, however, there are still tours that travel by ferry to Aqaba and on to Petra from Sharm el Sheikh. I think you might be able to avoid the visa fees if you go that way as well.
I hope we don’t see Drew in one of those orange jumpsuits!! LOL
great article, but I am not clear on two of your recommendations so I will elaborate
1)I live in Austin, Tx, what’s the best routing for me to get to Egypt to save miles?
2) I am an SPG Plat member – does the BRG work with them , and if so how does that work, believe it or not , never heard of BRG before (:
Thanks for enlightening me.. hope to use this for a trip early next year
Andrew
I’d recommend either AA or United miles on their saver awards.
Nice overview, it helped to clarify many things. Also the insights about transports were really cool.
I strongly suggest to check also all the contest that are spread all over the web in these days. I participated to this one: http://www.tourradar.com/win-a-tour but for sure there are also other options.
Hopefully I’ll be able to see the pyramides for free! 😉