Cairo Travel Forum

hi, i would like to ask how could i we visit al faiyum by public transport?
we have a 20 months old baby with us. do you reccomend?
will we be able to visit the town/lake in our own? please help. thank you.

U can take service taxis from Midan Giza (Giza Sq.) or buses from the Ahmed Helmi or Giza terminals. And also u can take train from Ramses or Giza stations.

As it was suggested you can take the bus from Ahmed Helmi but it is far better to take a bus from Al muneeb. the bus station is next to Al Muneeb Metro station. Taking a bus from Ahmed Helmi will force you to go through the bad traffic of Giza to get to Al Fayyoum. You can avoid this by going to Al muneeb by metro and taking the bus from there.

I haven't use the train but I was told that they are infrequesnt and incomvienent

good luck

In theory, you cannot visit Al Fayum on public buses. The police won't let you go. You're supposed to be escorted by soldiers, and to travel only with a tour agency. In reality there is no real danger. To be honest, it's not the most beautiful part of the country.

the easiest thing to do is rent a car and driver. Fayoum's not far from Cairo but is difficult to get to on public transport apart from the microbuses, which I certainly wouldn't let my children get on as they're very dangerous. You can get a car to take you there and back for about LE 300 a day

heres a bit of light reading on certain health issues within egypt currently

http://pandemicinformationnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/two-new-suspected-bird-flu-in-fayoum.html you may also find much more information on the following link http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=1276 its worth reading material and suspect the problem is larger then they publicly admit.

also fayoum is the only area where maliria is still a very very limited risk.