This is a seven day safari in Siwa Oasis between the months of April and Oct. If you don't like it hot, go and enjoy the rain in France. If you want some adventure in guaranteed warm sunny weather then read on. As we own
the Siwa Villa where you will be staying, we can keep
the costs for this trip low at the same time as providing
you with first-class accommodation within an all inclusive package of three meals a day including all transfers and costs of your trips out into the desert.
The new flights into Marsa Matruh from Gatwick and Manchester every tuesday have now made this remote part of Egypt accessible in a one week holiday. You can sun bathe during the day and drink your G&T's in the natural hot springs under the stars at night whilst experiencing the old Egyptian Berber and Bedouin ways of life that is all around you. Minimum
group size is two people at a cost of 3,500 EGP per person (currently 420 GBP), for groups larger than two people, discounts are available. See details for our singles week in June here if you are traveling on your own.
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 The drive through the desert to Siwa from Marsa Matruh is an experience. |
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Day 1 (Tuesday) Marsa Matruh– Siwa Your picked up from Marsa Matruh's International Airport in the evening and taken directly to Siwa.
You
flop into the 'Limousine' 14 seater people carrier
and after stopping at the bedouin tea house in the middle of nowhere, sleep most of the way through the desert or chill and read your book arriving
at the Siwa Villa around 11.30pm.
Mohammad,
the housekeeper and Ludmila will meet you outside the villa
and show you in. A light meal is provided when you arrive; you can stay up to see the sun rise over the Sarah
Desert with a bottle or two of duty free or get
to bed the moment you arrive, it's up to you.
Day 2 ( Wednesday) Siwa A lazy morning. Food is provided for you in the Siwa
Villa before you arrive, so you can make your
own breakfast of cereal or omelet as and when you
like. Mohammad will bring you fresh bread,
hanging it on the door so as to not wake you and
come back to do all the clearing up when you have
finished. You're staying in a villa, but you will
do no washing up or cleaning, that's Mohammad's job;). |
The kitchen is fully fitted
with a six ring hob, grill, oven, fridge etc |
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As it is summer and your in the Sahara Desert, do like the locals do, and take a Siesta. The weather in May and June is still OK to walk around in the sun, but by July it is only mad dogs and Englishmen who will be seen around the souk between 12.00 noon and 5.00pm. The villa bedrooms all have air conditioning and there is a quite area on the roof where you can keep reading that book you started on the drive down. Mohammad will come to the villa around 4.30pm and harnesses up Jack the resident
donkey to his cart or Ludmila will arrive in the jeep if there are two many of you for the donkey and an afternoon of exploring
the sites of Siwa begins. The Mountain of the Dead where you see pharonic tombs that the Siwan's hid from the Italian bombs in WW11 and the Orical where Alexandria the Great and Prince Charles both went to see if they would be king;)
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The Orical – One of seven in the word. |
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Just before sunset you arrive at Dakrur Mountain. There is a 10 minute climb to the top, but it is worth it. You see the whole Oasis and as the sun sets you see the colour's of the Sahara change from bright white/yellow to a deep red casting a shadow across the olive trees and palm groves. After the sun has gone down and the temperature drops to a nice 20 degrees you head of to Al Maza, Siwa's best kept secret. A restaurant next to a hot spring. You go swimming in the spring and look up at the stars. You can drink alcohol here (remember to bring it from the Villa) and swim with just your bikini on as there are no locals around apart from the staff who are too laid back to care about anything. Dinner is served after you have swam and you return to the villa around 9.00pm. |
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Days 3 (Thursday) Siwa - Sahara Safari Nasser your safari driver arrives at the Siwa Villa around 10.00am, Egyptian time. Mohammad packs the dinner, cold beers and fire wood for your trip out into the Great Sand Sea. If there's room, Mohammad will come with you to help with the cooking and making of the tea. You take the sand boards and off you go.
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The
biggest sand sea in the biggest desert in the world:
Right on your doorstep |
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The first stop is one of the three salt lakes in Siwa, it is as salty as the dead sea. Bring a book and get a picture of your floating, reading it. The view is great and your are the only people out on the lake. After your swim Mohammad will have a 20 litre gerry can of water to wash you down before you get changed so you don't get back in the jeep like a ready salted crisp, though the salt on your skin is great for you and helps exma and dry skin.
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You drive on through the desert, your next stop is on top of a sand dune where you will walk up to tombs above the lake in search of mummies and skulls like in Scooby Doo. Don't tell your group what is here, let them discover it for themselves. You then walk across the top of the tombs the the jeep and look for fossils in the sand that are over 28 million years old. |
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| The tombs are over 2,000 years old and the mummies are just lying there, not another person in sight for miles. |
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You then head out into the desert stopping at one of the big dunes for some sand boarding. It's not hard and its definitely worth doing just for the pictures and video to show your friends when you get home. If your a good snow boarder, we have a ramp and boots if you want to do it properly and some very big dunes!
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After popping some dunes on a board you then head off to do the same but in your jeep. Nasser knows what he is doing but the first big dune you go down, you think twice. |
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| There are many interesting rock formations out in the desert on the way to your lunch time destination. 'Cake Mountain' is no exception. |
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Shiata is an abandoned oasis last lived in around the time of the Romans. You can still see where they used to filter the salty water through a fern beds to make it drinkable. Nasser and Mohammad make lunch whilst you chill or go for another swim. The lake is salty but no where near as salty as the first lake.
After lunch you take your siesta in the shade of the palms on the edge of the lake and sleep or just take it all in.
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| Around 5.00pm you move on again, deeper into the Great Sand Sea for some of the most beautiful desert on the planet. |
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| The dunes change as you travel through them, some huge, some shaped like the curves of your body. |
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| This is a crescent dune, no clues as to why it is called that. |
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| Just before dusk, you reach mouse camp ( we saw a desert mouse here once). A dinner of barbequed chicken and vegetables or something you chose in the market the day before is prepared by
Nasser and Mohammad whilst you... |
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| ... go off to explore to find the perfect dune for sunset.You sleep out under the stars in the dunes without
a mosquito in sight, the temperature dropping just enough to need a blanket or sleeping bag. |
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| On the way back to Siwa in the morning you pass
by Bira Wahed to have a soak in the hot and cold
springs right out in the desert. |
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Bira Wahed gets
very busy in the afternoons so this is the best time to visit when
no one else is around. |
The
picture-postcard cold spring at Bira Wayed right out
in the Western Desert |
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Day 4 ( Friday) – Your back at the Villa after your big day out. You can rest or go to the Friday market, a five minute walk from the villa where you will mix with locals buying there vegetables or barseam for their donkeys.
Siesta in the villa after having lunch in one the local restaurants in town.
Friday is the day off in Arabic countries, so we suggest you do the same as Mohammad and take it easy today.
Dinner in the Bab en Shali restaurant in the evening over looking the Shali fort. |
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Friday market is a good place to meet locals and hang out with your camera |
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Day 5 ( Saturday) – Siwa Take a guided walk through the olives trees and date palm gardens, understand how the flood irrigation system of the oasis works that has not changed for thousands of years.
Lunch in your favorite restaurant in town and back to the villa for siesta. In the afternoon hire some bikes and cycle out to Fatnas Island for a swim and sunset. Dinner in Kenos Restaurant in the town. |
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Day 6 ( Sunday) – Siwa Donkey carts to Cleopatra's Spring for a morning of laid back swimming. Stay at the spring for siesta or come back into town for lunch and a sleep at the villa.
In the afternoon be taken off to meet the girls of our Siwan tribe at there home for a henna party (women only). |
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Day 7 (Monday) – Siwa As it's your last day in Siwa, you know your way around now, go and say goodbye to new friends you have made in the souk and some last minutes souvenir shopping.
Lunch in your favorite restaurant in town and back to the villa for siesta. As you have a long day tomorrow, and early dinner and do your own thing before retiring for the evening to reflect on your week of living somewhere different. |
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Day 8 ( Tuesday) – Siwa - Marsa Matruh Breakfast in the villa and off to Marsa Matruh in the people carrier or car depending on your group size for your flights home. A snap or two of the camels grazing on the road to Marsa Matruh that you did not see on your way down.
This tour includes all costs for transport including tipping. Three meals a day are provided at any restaurant of your choice in town along with any alcohol you wish to have whilst staying in the Villa (within limits, no large louts please;). The costs for this tour do not compare to other adventure tour companies as you will see in their small print, a lot of things are not included. Apart from you souvenirs and any snacking between meals, all entrance fees, guides, alcohol, meals, and even tipping costs are included. If you are a group of two or three people the costs is 3,500 EGP per person. If you are a family or a group of friends of four or more the cost drops to 3,000 EGP per person - 2,700EGP for children ( group size must be four or more to get the child discount ). If you are a single traveler and would like to come on this tour we have a singles week in June you can join that costs 3,000 EPG per person. To make an enquiry for this tour or the singles tour and to check availability, please go to the All Inclusive Holiday to Siwa form and get in contact.
We look forward to seeing you in Siwa and showing you around.
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