Choosing Between Egypt in August or India in November—Need Advice for Our Family Trip!

[flawless29]

We are planning a holiday—my partner, our 18-month-old son, and I. It will be our first trip since I was pregnant. I’ve gone through numerous brochures and read lots of online reviews. We’ve stumbled upon a fantastic deal in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt that looks incredible and has good reviews, all at a reasonable price. However, I’m a bit worried about the heat in August being too intense for my son. Additionally, I’ve read a few posts online about harassment towards women, which adds to my concerns. We’re torn between visiting Egypt in August or perhaps waiting to travel to India in November. Is India a far better for young family ? Could anyone share their experiences or advice on which might be a better option? Thanks in advance!

Sorry, just saw your post - if you want to do a Golden Triangle Tour in Northern India - great, but I don’t know why you’d bother at this time with an 18 month old. It will be a lot of time in crowds at the sites, a lot if time in coaches and transferring between hotels - your toddler would not get much out if it. Honestly, kids that age only notice a swimming pool and a mini playground or stuff like that. The history and sights of Jaipur - incredible though they are - are best left until your child is a bit older. My DH is British Indian and we didn’t take our kids over there as babies / toddlers. Just the thought of it is exhausting. Any city tours anywhere would be.

The Golden Triangle is fantastic.

It's a lot of distance to travel.
We were advised to take Malaria tablets that couldn't be taken under 8 years old.
The attractions won't be of any interest to your dc.
Goa maybe or Sri Lanka?

Definitely not Sharm, it's not the greatest in general, and in August you couldn't pay me enough. I can handle Israeli summer in general but I wouldn't be taking a trip to Eilat (as a point of comparison with similar weather)

India: I think the amount of internal travel would be an issue for a toddler, and I believe November is when they burn the fields in Punjab and UP to get rid of stubble and prepare them for the winter crops. It turns air quality in north India (never amazing) to absolute shite.

Sri Lanka would have loads to see and be easier on a small child.

What is it with non-aibu topics in the aibu thread at the moment?
But as you are here, why take an 18 month old on a long-haul holiday anyway? It won't remember, and it will be hard work for you

This. Sri Lanka is much more toddler friendly.

How about Egypt in November? That will be a better temperature.

We didn’t get D&V in India. I work there 2-3 times a year and have a pretty robust digestive system. But we did have to call an emergency doctor in Delhi for DH when we travelled round Rajasthan for a lung infection so severe he needed antibiotics and we came home early. This was in the November (it was also consistently above 30C then too.) Indian cities are famous for their low air quality. We are often advised at work not to leave the hotel and to keep windows closed and aircon on.

We’d arrived in Delhi on a late evening flight and used an official airport taxi to take us to our pre booked hotel, but the driver took us to ‘a better hotel’ he knew and then argued with us when we wouldn’t go in. We eventually got to our booked hotel, but it was our first taste of being treated like idiot tourists, a theme which continued through the trip. We’d used a phone shop (this was about 20 years ago) to call to change our flights when it became clear we would have to go home early because DH was getting quite ill, and were charged over £100 to make the call from Agra to Delhi. The boy working in the phone shop was quite shameless in admitting he had placed a couple of zeros on the end of the price because European tourists are rich and normally pay whatever he tells them it is.

My other memory of travelling round the Golden Triangle is just how long it took to drive between stops. Eg it’s about 6 hours drive from Jaipur to Jodhpur. Endless driving to get from place to place. I remember it as a trip of fascinating places, but also one which was quite hard work. We went with a reputable tour company and had a driver and guide for the duration, but even a great guide cannot mitigate the pollution, the traffic jams, the kids who follow you everywhere and shout insults at you when you won’t give them cash, the rubbish in the street. The time I spend in India now is just quick dashes in and out, only 1-2 nights at a time, but there’s nothing I see which makes me think it’s a better place now than 20 years ago. I stay in good quality hotels but it’s still dirty, noisy and busier than you can imagine outside the gates, and I’ve been taken back to the wrong hotel again since, and had more than a few tuk tuk rides that feel like being in my own stunt sequence!

It’s definitely a place that will make you sit up and take notice, and the history is fascinating (but be prepared to feel distinctly uncomfortable at some of the descriptions of the British in some places,) but would I go with a baby? Not a cat in hell’s chance. But if the OP is one of those people who really want to push the boat out in terms of exotic, fill your boots, I don’t think you are listening to anyone here anyway.

And Sharm in August? What the heck for? Its main charm (if you could describe anything at all about the place as charming) is the excellent scuba diving. Which is fun when you are 18 months old. Otherwise it’s just a very very very hot dry place.

Have you considered Japan? It’s a bit easier to get around with road safety/public transport and less hot if you go near the coast but still exotic and in Asia. Its also a little less chaotic than Egypt/India

There are so many other places to visit in the world. Doing anything cultural with a toddler will be challenging - whilst you would like it, a toddler wants to play and explore, which isn’t feasible in places such as temples, deserts or jungles.
Have you considered the Caribbean? The weather is perfect in November (start of dry season), places such as Barbados offer all meal boards, not just all inclusive. So much to do and see that won’t restrict you with your son but also enable him to be a bit more involved.

I've been to both and would 100% not go to either with a young child. Egypt will be horribly hot, India is amazing but full on! Every time I got in a car I thought I was going to die, almost everyone gets sick.

I would maybe consider India when my youngest is about 8. Hope you have a lovely time wherever you end up. ♥️

Also, I'd say you can't go wrong with Thailand! We took our eldest when she was 22 months and it was (mostly) dreamy.

I've never liked the sound of sharm el sheikh, but I love other part of Egypt and have been to Luxor, Aswan, and Cairo a number of times in July and August. Whilst it is very very hot, it's a very dry heat, which makes it far more bearable. I find it much more pleasant in temperatures of 45 degrees in Egypt than 30 degrees in Europe or the far east.

In all our visits to Egypt, none of us has ever had a bad stomach upset, including my daughter who lived in Cairo for a year. We've always been scrupulous about using hand sanitiser every time we've touched Egyptian money without fail, which I think is a major source of contamination, rather than food. We've always felt extremely safe in Egypt, and while people do harass you, we've never felt intimidated and have always been friendly but firm with people who have been a bit persistent. Luxor is one of the only cities where I would walk alone, or just with my daughter, at night.

I definitely wouldn't be put off going to Egypt on the basis of heat

Oops i posted too soon. I was going to say that I definitely wouldn't. E put off going to Egypt on the basis of heat,hygiene, or safety, but I would consider Luxor rather than Sharm el Sheikh.

Frankly speaking, I never thought of Japan as a feasible option for me because I always assumed it would be too expensive and possibly out of my budget. Maybe at a later stage, we might consider it

Don't know. I wouldn't go to either if I had a choice.

I've been to Kerala and Goa in India, Came back and whole family had severe food poisoning and was I was hospitalised for 2 weeks. Was not a fun time.

If I was choosing a holiday I would do either,
Japan, Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand or Morocco

We thought about the Caribbean and briefly considered Cancun. However, I can see that people are rightly advising against Egypt or India. Some have mentioned the Canary Islands, but since we've already been to Lanzarote and Tenerife, we're thinking of exploring a new place. I'm aware that traveling with a toddler is going to be tough, especially since I'm BF, which means we're not looking for long-haul flights. But after looking again, it seems flights to India would easily take around 8-9 hours, so we might drop India from our list. It looks like I might have to find another option that's a bit closer and cooler.

From my perspective, sounds like asking to choose between having your fingernails pulled out or your toe nails pulled out. Both sound like dreadful choices and you seem to have missed the memo where you do the adventurous travel BEFORE you have children and the more relaxed, safe travel afterwards. That does not have to mean dull, I have had really fabulous trips with mine to the Italian and Austrian lakes, all over Scandanavia, to Eastern Europe and loads of other places. It seems like budget more than care for safety (I'm talking about heat and the potential for stomach upsets rather than other kinds of safety) are dictating your choices. If you can't afford exotic and safe then you should choose not exotic and safe in my opinion. Because whatever you spend will seem like a collosal waste of money if heatstroke, illness etc befall some or all of you.

Sharm in August is a bad idea. Too hot.

The only way I would do this is fly into Delhi, drive straight to Agra if possible. Go to Taj mahal at dawn. Have breakfast, go to Agra fort, then drive straight back to delhi. Take the first available flight to Goa and chill for a week. Stay in the nicest hotels you can afford.
Would give Rajasthan etc a miss with such a small child.

You’d be better off leaving your dc with his granny and travelling alone! It sounds like you've over indulged on instagram!
At that age, holidays should be geared towards being suitable for the child, not the parent’s bucket list.

Go to Egypt on November. Egypt is currently 48° and getting hotter. We go in October as it's about 30 then.

Cancun is mostly just resorts. You can do day trips to some of the maya sites but overall not really worth the trip from the UK in my opinion.

Japan might be too far flight wise but possibly not for price once there. The yen is extremely weak right now. It’s lost a third of its value against the pound in the past couple of years.

@knitnerd90 I suspect from your throwaway sentence about Cancun that you don’t really know much about that part of Mexico! It is fabulous. My first tip though would be to get straight out of Cancun. After that, you’ve got the archaeological sites of Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Tulum, Coba (and more if you are prepared to travel further afield.) You’ve got old colonial towns like Valladolid and Merida - which is worth a couple of nights on its own, and from there you can make the trip out to Celestun to see the flamingos on a boat trip round the lagoons and mangroves. Or you can head south from Tulum into the Si’an Kaan Biosphere and see wild dolphins and manatees, crocodiles if you want to go looking for big things with teeth, eagles and other bird life, and then take the boat out into the sea and look for eagle rays and turtles. We saw turtles hatching on the beach while we were having dinner at a beachfront restaurant one night. And if theme parks and eco parks are more your thing, you can go to Xel ha for the snorkelling and lazy rivers, zipwiring at Xplor, to the native animal zoo at Xcaret. Then there are the cenotes, a different one for every day of the year, and all a different vibe from each other - one might have a zip wire, another might have terrapins swimming in it, another you might be able to swim into a cave and see fossils in the rock ceiling. And there’s a monkey sanctuary, islands to sail to, reefs to snorkel on, whale shark spotting boat trips, the vast underwater art museum. And the local food, and nightclubs if that’s your thing. Only someone who had either never been or really didn’t make the effort would think Cancun is just resorts and not worth the effort from the U.K.!

But anyway, it’s a 10.5hr LH flight away for the OP, so probably not as good an option as somewhere else. Also a lot of the attractions above are really only worth it with an older child, although I know a lot of people who’ve just enjoyed the resorts with the odd day trip out.

@flawless29 if you are looking for somewhere with a bit of culture that’s not too long a flight away and you haven’t been to Greece or Italy yet, I can highly recommend them while you children are young. Shorter flights, sea still lovely and warm, baby friendly people, and loads to see and do. If you are really after some more exotic culture but don’t want to flight too far, and you have a slightly more robust approach to the state of the world (and I’m assuming you do given your first suggestions of Egypt or India) have a look at Jordan, but November not August (will be baking in August.) Lots of culture and natural spectacle there. When I went we flew into Amman and saw the sights up there (Jerash, Dead Sea - don’t take your baby in that! Various crusader castles, etc) then headed down to Aqaba (3 hours away, but taxis cheap enough for air conditioned private car each way) for a few days on the beach, we stayed in Tala Bay Movenpick. Cheap and civilised, and very family friendly. From there you can scuba, or take trips out to Petra and Wadi Rum.