Al-Alamein and Alexandria (start in Cairo)

A Four Day Private Tour
Start in Cairo

Entrance of Abu el-Abbas el-Mursi Mosque in Alexandria, Egypt.
By Leonard J. DeFrancisci (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

You’ll be escorted by your private guide, in addition to your private chauffeur.

Combine With your Princess Cruise, Oceanic Cruise, Crystal Cruise, Royal Caribbean or other Mediterranean cruises. If you have only a short time, this is the perfect way. Your few hours in Egypt are filled with exotic sights, sounds, scenes and scents. Arrive on ANY cruise ship. This is the perfect add-on to your Mediterranean cruise. Extensions are available to Aswan, Alexandria, Sharm El Sheikh, Hurgada, Marsa Alam, and Nile Cruises. Check out our Private Luxor Tour: Flying from Cairo. More cruise Shore Excursions: Cairo, Greece, or Turkey, Luxor and Cairo.

Day 1: Full Day – CAIRO – ALEXANDRIA  (Lunch Included)
Today, our local tour escort and driver will meet you at your hotel in Cairo, and escort you in your private air-conditioned vehicle to the Railway station to board the EXPRESS FIRST CLASS train for Alexandria. First class seats, reserved. Tickets are of course included in our rate. In Alexandria (Sidi-Gaber station), our guide will be waiting for you on the platform with a sign in your name. Once again, you ‘ll have your own private air-conditioned vehicle and private chauffeur. If you are starting in Alexandria, please click here.

Conqueror of the Mediterranean Coast – Alexander the Great
In 332 BC, Egypt was laboring under Persian military control when Alexander the Great arrived to drive out the invaders without the shedding of a drop of blood. The Persian governor surrendered and the conquering hero was hailed as a liberator and given Egypt’s double crown symbolizing control of Upper and Lower Egypt. Alexander reinstated Egypt’s traditional government and founded the city of Alexandria at the country’s most important crossroads: where the Nile meets the Mediterranean.

We’ll get to known Alexandria in depth, as we visit the National Museum in Alexandria. The building was originally built in 1926 for the US consulate in Alexandria and is a masterpiece of 1920’s architecture and Mediterranean style buildings. The Roman Amphitheater; the Koum El Shougafa Catacombs; Eliahou Halevi (or Hanabi) synagogue (Nabi Daniel Street) –  a 150-year-old synagogue, it is the only active synagogue in Alexandria, and houses the treasurers of the seven other older and / or closed Alexandrian synagogues –  and an afternoon horse-drawn carriage ride on the water front, and inspect the exterior of the mosque of the Alexandrine local “saint” Morsi Abu-Al-Abbas; a leisurely walk through the local souks and Zanket-El Setat to get a feel for this charming old part of Alexandria; followed by lunch which is included in an Alexandrine restaurant.

Later in the day we check-in at the legendary deluxe Helnan Palestine Hotel, overlooking the Mediterranean, and Al-Montazah Royal Palace of the former Royal Family of Egypt.

Al-Alamein WWII Commonwealth Cemetery. The battle’s sad human cost.

Day Two: From Alexandria to Al-Alamein (BLD)
Full Breakfast is included at your hotel. Private air-conditioned sedan or private deluxe mini-coach. Today we head west and on to Al-Alamein, and Rommel’s territory.

To really enjoy the day and avoid the heat, we suggest that you start your day no later than 7 AM leaving from your hotel.

We’ll cross into another era of history today as we motor westward through the dunes along the Mediterranean coast following the route of Field Marshall Montgomery to El Alamein. Here we’ll visit the fields of battle where Rommel’s advance on Cairo was finally halted. We’ll visit the museum. Lunch included at el Alamein, before we head back to Alexandria.

We will tour the Military Museum, the Allied, Italian and German memorials. Before we head to Al-Alamein we will go to the Charm Hotel for lunch (tea, coffee, and bottled water included with your meal).

The local war museum has on display collectibles from “the civil war” and other North American battles. You will visit also the Italian and German Military Cemetery on Tel el-Eisa Hill just outside the tiny town. The German cemetery is actually an ossuary containing the remains of 4200 German soldiers which is built in the style of a medieval fortress. The Italian cemetery is a mausoleum containing many galleries of tombs. Wherever possible, each tomb bears the soldier’s name, but many are simply marked “IGNOTO” – “Unknown”.

El Alamein is on the Mediterranean Sea (see map). You will tour as well the Commonwealth war cemetery with graves of soldiers from various countries who fought on the British side. This has monuments commemorating Greek, New Zealand, Australian and South African forces. The Commonwealth cemetery, consists of parallel rows of gravestones, each one bearing an engraving of the deceased soldier’s unit emblem, his name and an epitaph from his family. Rows upon rows of gravestones stand witness to the battles’ human cost.

Lunch is included at the new Charm Al-Alamein Hotel and then we head back to Alexandria (about 70 kilometers to the east). Back at your hotel to enjoy the siesta. In the evening we drive to Mahatet El-Raml and hit town and a leisurely walk through the medina. We can stop, if you wish, at one of the local street cafes for tea or coffee with sweets. Dinner is included back at the hotel.

Octavious visiting Alexander the Great’s Tomb in Alexandria.
Octavious had just defeated Cleopatra and Marc Anthony armies. He left his coat at Alexander the Great’s tomb as a token of respect. The search continues for Alexander the Great’s Tomb.

Day Three: From Alexandria to Wadi El-Natroun and Cairo ( B, Lunch Box)
Full Breakfast is included at your hotel. Lunch Box prepared by your hotel. Private air-conditioned sedan or private deluxe mini-coach, always private chauffeur and private Egyptologist. Today we suggest that we start no later than 8 AM to avoid the heat. Tour of the Qayet Bey Fortress which is built on the same site of the ancient wonder of the world, the famous Alexandria Light House. Pompey’s Pillar and the Serapeum which houses the huge mummified Bulls that were were worshipped by Ancient Egyptians. Then a brief stop at “El Selsela,” the site of the Underwater reserve where Cleopatra Place was discovered, as well as Caesar Kiosk. Then it’s off to the new site of the Alexandria Library.

Video by ACG Travel Videos

We head south and on to Wadi El-Natroun, deep in early Egyptian Church territory and early Christianity in Egypt. Wadi El Natroun is almost half way between Alexandria and Cairo. We tour the Coptic Monasteries where early Egyptian Coptic monks and Popes used to seek refuge as Egypt fell finally under Rome’s influence and the Vatican aggressive effort to bring the Egyptian Church into the fold.

Reach Cairo late afternoon and your hotel: The Four Seasons standard room or the Grand Hyatt (club level room).
Always a room with a view of the Nile.

Day Four: Departure From Cairo (B)
Full Breakfast at the hotel. Private air-conditioned sedan or private deluxe mini-coach and private chauffeur.
As well as private tour escort. Off to Cairo Airport. Bon Voyage!

You may wish to consider upgrading to the Four Seasons in Alexandria – Based on Standard Room:
The Four Seasons Hotel Alexandria at San Stefano, Egypt. Edging the Mediterranean in a setting of legendary glamour, discover an intimate enclave within the stately Grand Plaza shopping and residential complex. Indulge in classically elegant accommodations, European spa treatments and terraced restaurants with fresh sea breezes. Four Seasons care outshines all else in Alexandria.

Included:

• Private air conditioned deluxe sedan, private chauffeur.
• All transfers as per itinerary.
• One way, first class seats on the Express train Cairo Alexandria
• Private English ( or other language of your preference) speaking guide
• All tours, guided sightseeing with admissions, taxes, service charges as per itinerary.
• Lunch – Pre-set menu during your full days of tours, yet decent number of choices is available.
• Two nights hotel accommodation in Alexandria at the Helnan deluxe Palestine (sea-view room) Hotel or similar with tax breakfast, and pre-set menu dinner daily.
• One night hotel accommodation in Cairo at The Four Seasons standard room or the Grand Hyatt (club level room). Always Nile view room

Rate doesn’t include:

• Any International air fare.
• Any visa Fee
• Trip/travel insurance
• Tips
• Personal Expenses
• Any Beverages
  

There were two battles of El Alamein, both of them during 1942. The Battles occurred in Egypt in and around an area named after a Railway Stop called El Alamein. During the Battles, Allied (primarily British Empire) forces were lead by British Field Marshall Claude Auchinleck during the first Battle and Bernard Montgomery during the second Battle. The first Battle ended in a stalemate in which the British finally stopped the eastward advance of the Germans and Italians who were under the command of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. These two battles are considered by many World War II historians to be the turning point in the war against Germany and the Axis Powers. Although much fighting remained in Africa and the European Continent, the importance of these battles might best be summed up in the words of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who in November 1942 stated that:

“The Germans have received back again that measure of fire and steel which they have so often meted out to others. Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

First Battle of El Alamein – 1-27 July 1942
Second Battle of El Alamein – 23 October-4 November 1942

Map of El Alamein, Egypt