Red Sea Cruise

Holiday Ratings
Recommended days	7
Budget	££
Difficulty	Easy

Why cruise the Red Sea?

A Red Sea Cruise offers a fantastic mix of sightseeing and laziness. Combine different attractions with on board activities, relaxation and great food.

This booking was totally unexpected, I’d gone into the Travel Agents (remember them?!) to book a week somewhere warm with the kids and this was on offer at a bargain price. We ended up with an upgraded balcony room, full board, flights and a 7 day Red Sea cruise for the 3 of us for about £800! Thank you Thomsons!

The cruise

This was our first (and only, so far) cruise so we had no idea what to expect. As this was in 2008 the kids were very young and didn’t have the world weary cynicism that comes with age so this was a great adventure for them.

We flew to Hurghada and then were transferred to the docks. The ship looked huge to us and we went onboard and to our cabin. It was all very well organised and there was a surprising amount of space. After settling in the kids went off exploring and discovered the gym, pool and cinema.

Food onboard was amazing. The staff were incredibly helpful and literally catered for whatever food the kids asked for. There was plenty of choice for me too and as it was all buffet there was no waiting around.

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Excursions were expensive, especially for 3 of us and we actually didn’t do one of the trips (Abu Simbel) as it would have cost almost as much as the whole cruise! We did two trips though, Petra (again) and Cairo and the Pyramids.

As this was 12 years ago I have no notes and the photos are rubbish so this post will be quite a short one!

Petra

Petra is a fabulous place to visit. Although in February be aware that it is damned cold there – something we learned to our cost! I didn’t have a proper coat with us for Sofia so she had to borrow one from one of the other passengers. Also, Sofia didn’t travel well, so she was sick on the coach, in the drivers lunch bag! An eventful trip!

The city itself is incredible. It is well geared for tourism and offers horse and traps, camel rides and donkey rides for those less able or willing to walk. The kids had a lovely time looking at the ancient buildings that they recognised from Indiana Jones, which helped.

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Cairo

After a day of doing nothing and just enjoy chilled time together with abundant food, our next trip was to Cairo. I have to say, the kids weren’t impressed. It was their first experience of a non Western city and it was dirty, noisy, dusty and smelly and typically chaotic.

I won’t lie, I don’t remember a huge amount of what we saw in the city. I think it was very much a whistle stop tour to get a couple of photos of each place and then leave. We saw the Mosque of Muhammed Ali and Saladin’s Citadel but there is so much more to the city I’d have liked to have seen. The Nilometer, Al Azhar Mosque and the Coptic area would all be on my list for a second visit, as well as the world famous Egyptian Museum.

We did a Nile cruise but it wasn’t exactly a romantic or memorable experience as it took us through a modern and heavily polluted part of the city. Something different though and the kids got some shade while we watched a belly dancer perform inside the boat.

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The Pyramids of Giza

Let’s face it, if you come to Cairo the one must see is the Pyramids at Giza. After our delightful cruise we were taken by coach to the Pyramids and then had a decent amount of time to wander around. As soon as we left the coaches we were swarmed by touts offering camel rides etc.

As a good little tourist, we fell for it and probably paid the guy a months wages to show us around. To be fair to him, he did a good job and took us to see some of the carvings and inscriptions we wouldn’t have noticed around the Sphinx and the kids had a full dose of camel riding. All the guides seemed pretty terrified of the Egyptian Tourist Police so they were keen to offer a kind of value for money service.

This was my first visit here and it certainly made the whole day worthwhile. The sheer scale of the Pyramids is amazing and even 5,000 years after they were built they are an awe inspiring sight.

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Conclusion

This was a fantastic holiday. The Red Sea cruise was a superb way to experience some of the key sights of the area and enjoy some relaxing time together. The crew were incredibly helpful and there was plenty to do onboard, even though it was too cold to sunbathe or use the pool. Definitely a worthwhile experience.