Spend a wondrous day in Cairo

There are a number of ways to get to the pyramid complex of Giza. Cheapest is to hop bus 335/337, which makes a stop under the overpass a Midan Abdel Moniem Road, but can also be hailed from nearly anywhere along the Midan Tahrir. It runs approximately every 20 minutes during the daylight hours and costs about .20 cents. Minibuses leaving from the Midan Abdel Moniem Riad bus station (you’ll see them near the Ramses Hilton Hotel, just ask for “Haram”), will also get you to Giza; these don’t run quite as frequently, but cost on .10 cents. If you decide a taxi is more your speed, expect to pay about $3.50 one way from Central Cairo to the entrance to the Pyramids (you can catch a cab back in front of the Mena House Oberoi Hotel in Giza).

The pyramid complex is open to the public daily from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. The entry fee to the Great Pyramid of Khufu is about $26; there are separate entrance fees for the other pyramids, as well as the on-site museum.

Saqqara is located about 25 km south of Central Cairo and most visit it by taxi, combining a visit here with one to nearby Memphis and Dahsur. If you only have the morning, however, concentrate on just Saqqara. A taxi will cost about $4. It is possible to get here via cheaper public transportation, but it’s time consuming and requires changing from a train to a bus and then walking a distance. The complex is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from October through the end of March, closing an hour earlier the rest of the year and two hours earlier during Ramadan. Admission via the North Saqqara entryway is approximately $6.

Most of the shops in the Khan el Kalili Bazaar close on Sundays, with some also closing up on Friday afternoons. Other than that you can expect to find them open from about relatively early in the morning until sundown.

Egyptian Museum, Tahrir Square, Downtown, phone 202/575-4319; www.egyptianmuseum.gov.eg/. Admission is roughly $2.50 and the museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6:45 p.m.

Official guides can be hired at the museum and charge approximately $9 an hour.

To rent a felucca head to either the Dok Dok landing stage (Garden City, near the Royal Nile Tower) or the mooring stage at the southeast end of Gezira near the Qasr el-Nil Bridge. If you haggle well (do your best), you should be charged about $6 an hour for the boat ride for your group (it doesn’t matter how many are with you).

Abu el Sid, 157 Sharia 26^th of July, phone 202/735-9640; www.abuelsid.com/

Casablanca Club, in the Cairo Sheraton, Midan al-Galaa, Doqqi, phone 202/336-9700.

Pauline Frommer is the creator of the new Pauline Frommer guides in bookstores now. Her book, Pauline Frommer's New York, was named Best Guidebook of the Year by the North American Travel Journalists Association.

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