I've also read that given the economic instability in Cairo, it's just a royal PITA to visit. Tourists get aggressively hassled to buy stuff, camel rides, tours, etc.
I've been to New Grange and Stonehenge. While it's pretty neat to go there, it's just a structure. The real value and interest for me is reading up on what the researchers have found out. Let the plinths for Stonehendge were quarried 150 miles away in what is now Wales.
After I met a well educated Nigerian fellow earlier this year who described how he studied in Cairo and was raped by a gang of Egyptians who pulled a knife on him before entering the subway, I concluded it probably wasn't worth it to visit.
Full disclosure because interesting: He claimed to have returned a couple of days later, preparing by filling his backpack full of stones as a defense mechanism, and killed one of them when they attempted to attack him again. I didn't doubt the story, because he really had no reason to impress anyone, didn't seem the type, seemed genuinely shaken by the memory, and the subject of Egypt came up tangentially.
Hire a driver/guide. He'll navigate around any hassle -- you'll be left in peace -- and he'll sort all the tickets for you. It's probably a one in a lifetime visit, after all.
We lucked out. Our driver turned out to be a Coptic Christian, and he had much to say about (what was then) the recent Arab Spring from a different angle.
One hundred times this. Most taxi drivers will be happy to "adopt" you for a few days, and arrange for you tickets, hostel, restaurants, and anything else that you need. He'll pay the local price and get a kickback, and you'll still come out far ahead. Plus you will get to see real Cairo, not tourist Cairo, if you ask him.
Yeah... I've been there shortly after arab spring when there was next to one there. Camel ride people tried to steal from me, had to tell them I was going straight to the tourist police over there before they gave me back the extra money they took straight from my hands...
I doubt that the current political situation in Egypt is to blame for the hassles the Egyptians give tourists. I was last in Cairo in 1999, and even then I was routinely aggressively hassled to buy stuff, camel rides, tours, etc.
You haven't been in front of it, right? Not being there once, needing to spend your time and energy, standing there and thinking how old it is, seeing how big it is, makes easier to say something like that.
I've been to New Grange and Stonehenge. While it's pretty neat to go there, it's just a structure. The real value and interest for me is reading up on what the researchers have found out. Let the plinths for Stonehendge were quarried 150 miles away in what is now Wales.
Just think about that, mind blowing.