Location:

Alexandria, Egypt

How to get there:

From outside Egypt
International flights to Cairo, then an internal flight or travel by rail, bus or private transport (see below).
Contact your travel agent for details.

From Cairo
Overland and rail
Alexandria
Trains (including the express "Turbini" service) from Ramses Station. Buses (Superjet, West Delta Bus Co. or Golden Arrow) from Abdel Mouneem Riyad terminal near the Ramses Hilton Hotel. Some buses also depart directly from Cairo Airport. Service taxis from in front of the Nile Hilton Hotel, near Ramses Station or the Ahmed Helmi terminal. There are two good roads direct from Cairo to Alexandria for those with private transport.

Mersa Matrouh
Trains, direct or via Alexandria, from Ramses Station. In the summer there are also wagons-lits direct to Mersa Matrouh. Contact Wagons-lits on 2-3492365.
Buses (Superjet, West Delta Bus Co. or Golden Arrow) from Abdel Mouneem Riyad terminal near the Ramses Hilton Hotel. The West Delta Bus Co. buses leave Alexandria from Ramleh. Service taxis also run from Alexandria

Al Alamein
By bus, train or service taxi from Alexandria.

By air
EgyptAir flies daily to Alexandria throughout the year and to Mersa Matrouh in the summer months. Tel: 2-5750600 (Cairo).

Description

The Corniche is lined with beaches, with full tourist facilities, from the city centre outwards. In town try the Stanley beach, further east Montazah Beach and Ma'amoura are two of the best. At Abu Qir, a small fishing town, you can sunbathe, fish, swim and eat fresh seafood. To the west of the city, try the resorts of Agami or Hannoville.

In spite of miles of white sand beaches and azure sea, Egypt's Med is still undeveloped and relatively unpopulated. There are fine beaches all along the coast from Alex to Mersa Matrouh, including the resort of Sidi Abd al Rahman, a secluded bay with dear waters and a selection of villas and hotels. At Mersa Matrouh itself, the natural bay and long white beach make for good sunbathing and swimming in calm transparent waters. Hired bicycles, carettas or open-sided tuf-tuf buses will take you to other good bathing spots nearby including the outstar beach at Al-Abyad and Ageebah cove, surrounded by beautiful scenery. As well as beaches there are other attractions in the Mersa Matrouh area: Cleopatra's Bath, a rock-hewn whirlpool bath off- shore which was supposedly used by Antony and Cleopatra, a ruined temple fort built by Ramses II, an early Coptic chapel and "Rommel's Hideout", a cave where the general planned his military campaigns and which has now been tumed into a military museum.

ALEXADRIA "The Pearl of the Mediterranean"
The second largest city in Egypt, Alexandria has an atmosphere that is more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern ; its ambience and cultural heritage distance it from the rest of the country although it is actually only 225 km. from Cairo.

Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, Alexandria became the capital of Graeco-Roman Egypt, its status as a beacon of culture symbolised by Pharos, the legendary lighthouse that was one of the Seven Wonders of the World The setting for the stormy relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony, Alexandria was also the center of learning in the ancient world. But ancient Alexandria declined, and when Napoleon landed, he found a sparsely populated fishing village.

From the 19th century Alexandria took a new role, as a focus for Egypt's commercial and maritime expansion. This Alexandria has been immortalised by writers such as E-M- Forster and Cavafy. Generations of immigrants from Greece, Italy and the Levant settled here and made the city synonymous with commerce, cosmopolitanism and bohemian culture; Lawrence Durrell described it as 'the capital city of Asiatic Europe, if such a thing could exist".