Guided tour or on your own — what changes in Egypt

We sell guided trips, so take what follows with that in mind — and here is the honest version anyway: most of Egypt can be done independently, several parts of it are better done independently, and there are perhaps four situations where a guide changes the day so completely that going without is a false economy.

Where independent is genuinely better

• Cairo's Islamic and Coptic quarters. These are walking neighbourhoods. A guide can unlock the history, but the pleasure is in wandering, stopping for tea, and turning down an alley because it looked interesting. A schedule spoils that.
• Khan el-Khalili and any market. Going with a guide changes the prices you are quoted, and not downwards. Some guides have arrangements with shops. Go alone, haggle badly, enjoy it.
• The Red Sea beach and hotel days. Obviously. Nobody needs help lying down.
• Luxor's east bank. Luxor Temple and the corniche are a fifteen-minute walk apart and entirely manageable alone.

The lanes of Khan el-Khalili

Where a guide changes the day

These are the four we would argue for even against our own sales interest being questioned.

The Valley of the Kings. Guides are not permitted to lecture inside the tombs. What a good one does is the twenty minutes outside beforehand — which tomb is open today, which of the extra tickets is worth it this week, what you are about to be looking at — and then leaves you to walk in alone. Without that you are in a painted corridor with no idea what the pictures are saying.

The Valley of the Kings

Karnak. Two square kilometres built over 1,300 years by thirty pharaohs. Alone, it is very large and very confusing. With someone who can say "this bit is 500 years older than that bit, and here is how you can tell", it becomes legible.

The hypostyle hall at Karnak

Anywhere with a language barrier and a time limit. A fly-in day to Cairo has no slack in it. Somebody who knows which entrance has the shorter queue is worth more than the fee.

Abydos and Dendera, and anything off the standard route. Getting there alone is possible and takes most of the day in logistics. That is the day you were going to spend looking at things.