National Geographic Traveller: Egypt

National Geographic Traveller: Egypt
2nd edition
(National Geographic: 2007)

READ: December 2010 - January 2011

I actually never read through the entire book, but dipped in and out, here and there, as one is wont to do with a travel guide. Lonely Planet's forte is getting you out and about, explaining the how and why to go places. I like them a lot. We didn't feel a need to purchase a Lonely Planet guide to Egypt, however, prior to our travels there this winter, as most of our trip was going to be spent with a tour group, and we had a fairly clear idea of what we were going to do while we were not on tour. We bought the National Geographic guide because it was so beautiful, and had such extensive entries on the various sites, both from an archaeological and a cultural viewpoint. It was absolutely fantastic for this purpose, and served us well on a number of occasions where we had to decide between visiting Optional Location A and Optional Location B. (The option to visit neither never even occurred to us; this is how we travel.) The guide was well-written, with a lot of detail but never too much, and, quite importantly, beautiful photos accompanying the text to illustrate exactly what was being discussed (some other guides do not have enough photos). My only regret was that I did not have time to read through the entire long section on visiting the Cairo Museum before we actually went there.