Cario, 2 day tour, skipping meals...suggestions?

[jgirvine2]

We are on RCL Brilliance in November, stopping for days in Alexandria.

 

We are considering telling the tour company that we are going to skip stopping for lunch on both days in order to try and see more.

 

Has anyone done this? If so, how did it go?

 

Suggestions for packing food in with us from the ship?

 

Thanks;

Ginny

[upontheCs]

We are on RCL Brilliance in November, stopping for days in Alexandria.

 

We are considering telling the tour company that we are going to skip stopping for lunch on both days in order to try and see more.

 

Has anyone done this? If so, how did it go?

 

Suggestions for packing food in with us from the ship?

 

Thanks;

Ginny

 

taking food off the ship could get you a stiff fine or possibly jail time. an egyptian prison is not where i want to be.

 

consider, too, that you are asking your guides to skip lunch.

[WeBeGone]

Instead of skipping - just have a quick lunch. Believe me, you'll need a little mid day rest. You are not allowed to take food off the ship.

[lambs2]

We skipped lunches on our 2 day Cairo tour so we could see just as many sights as possible. We had purposely brought packaged snacks, like granola bars, cheese crackers and trail mixes that we either brought from home or purchased at an earlier port - like Barcelona. We also brought our own bottled water. Our tour guide did make about a five minute stop at a "safe" convenience store in Giza where some members of our tour that must not have believed I was SERIOUS about no lunch stops purchased some food and bottled water. Since I set up the tour that was one of the stipulations for folks joining us and I kept telling them to be prepared... Noone on our tour took any prepared foods off the ship as we knew that was a no-no.

We did an incredible variety of activities for our two day tour. After the Sound & Light Show we took a Nile dinner cruise and ate food there - but only if it was thoroughly cooked - nothing uncooked. My posts describing all we did in our two days are here on the Africa board. It was AWESOME!:D

[jgirvine2]

We skipped lunches on our 2 day Cairo tour so we could see just as many sights as possible. We had purposely brought packaged snacks, like granola bars, cheese crackers and trail mixes that we either brought from home or purchased at an earlier port - like Barcelona. We also brought our own bottled water. Our tour guide did make about a five minute stop at a "safe" convenience store in Giza where some members of our tour that must not have believed I was SERIOUS about no lunch stops purchased some food and bottled water. Since I set up the tour that was one of the stipulations for folks joining us and I kept telling them to be prepared... Noone on our tour took any prepared foods off the ship as we knew that was a no-no.

We did an incredible variety of activities for our two day tour. After the Sound & Light Show we took a Nile dinner cruise and ate food there - but only if it was thoroughly cooked - nothing uncooked. My posts describing all we did in our two days are here on the Africa board. It was AWESOME!:D

 

Lambs2, yall are the post we got the idea from. So what sort of prepackaged snacks did you take?

Thanks

[cruisemom42]

You can take prepackaged foods off the ship.

 

However, you could also make your lunch stop part of your Egypt experience. There's a lovely restaurant right in the midst of the Khan el Khalili bazaar for example:

 

http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/africa/egypt/cairo/70032/naguib-mahfouz-cafe/restaurant-detail.html

 

It's named for a famous Cairo resident, Naguib Mahfouz, a novelist (his books are wonderful reading as background for any visit to Cairo, particularly his "Cairo Trilogy")

[whale-watcher]

We often skip sit down meals at lunchtime in order to get the most out our time, but will make a point of sampling some local fare in Egypt; agree that this is part of the touring experience in more "exotic" ports. Will do the same in Israel (plan to enjoy lunch at my favorite Falafel stand in Jerusalem; quick, but authentic).

[lambs2]

Lambs2, yall are the post we got the idea from. So what sort of prepackaged snacks did you take?

Thanks

 

 

Believe me, we did not build into our tour plans any extra time for any sit-down food stops, except like I said a 5 minute "safe" convenience store stop which would not have been necessary for DH and I, but some folks with us on our tour were not as prepared as DH and I were! We brought in my backpack: bottled water, granola bars, cheese crackers, trail mix and a couple sticks of beef jerky. We did not stop for a sit down lunch on day 2 either, but our last stop before returning to the ship was the Khan Kahilili Bazaar where some in our group tried native foods offered there. We had a dinner buffet on the Nile included in our tour, plus our overnight hotel (Le Meredien) had an extensive breakfast buffet. We were all very careful and no one ended up with any "mummy tummy" problems. :)

[Benita]

Right next to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo - different entrance, but same building as the museum, is a small coffee shop. They have sandwiches and burgers - safe to eat and inexpensive. We were in and out of there in 15 minutes and it felt good to sit down for a few minutes.

[simonv]

But eating a local food in a local restaurant is part of experience!!! Local restaurant scenes can tell me so much about their society and history. Each to its own, I suppose.

[skandls]

But eating a local food in a local restaurant is part of experience!!! Local restaurant scenes can tell me so much about their society and history. Each to its own, I suppose.

 

I so agree - for me part of travelling is eating in local places - even if its Italian in Germany. Food and restaurants represent a lot of local ambience.

[jgirvine2]

We skipped lunches on our 2 day Cairo tour so we could see just as many sights as possible. We had purposely brought packaged snacks, like granola bars, cheese crackers and trail mixes that we either brought from home or purchased at an earlier port - like Barcelona. We also brought our own bottled water. Our tour guide did make about a five minute stop at a "safe" convenience store in Giza where some members of our tour that must not have believed I was SERIOUS about no lunch stops purchased some food and bottled water. Since I set up the tour that was one of the stipulations for folks joining us and I kept telling them to be prepared... Noone on our tour took any prepared foods off the ship as we knew that was a no-no.

We did an incredible variety of activities for our two day tour. After the Sound & Light Show we took a Nile dinner cruise and ate food there - but only if it was thoroughly cooked - nothing uncooked. My posts describing all we did in our two days are here on the Africa board. It was AWESOME!:D

 

Lambs2, can you email, I would love to ask you some questions about you tour? ginnyirvine at gmail dot com.

Thanks

Ginny

[simonv]

It's so easy to get into an overload mode in a place like Cairo - Pyramid, Egyptian Museum, Muslim Cairo, Coptic Cairo, Ancient Dynasties, etc, etc. I personally don't want to get so overwhelmed with sights that I can't remember anything later unless I look at the photos. That's one reason I always insist on a good lunch break anywhere I go. But as I said, each on its own.