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Thomas Cook Travelers Egypt/Passport's Illustrated Guide to Egypt

Despite the different titles, these two books are identical -- I at first thought that I'd picked up an early edition (Travelers Egypt) and then a later version (Passport's version), but a close examination reveals they have similar publishing schedules. Both are produced by Thomas Cook, so it must just be a marketing thing. eBay is a wonderful resource, but I did end up with a duplicate.

These slim books are well illustrated and designed as an a-z encyclopedic view of the major sites. They are surprisingly complete for such small books, even if the mention is only a paragraph describing the more out-of-the-way sites. The major sites are covered quite well in an organized fashion, but the detail level is such that this book would be useful only to someone on a guided tour.

Not surprising, I guess, considering that Thomas Cook has been guiding tours in Egypt for well over a century. You would need to fill in the gaps of this book with a good reference tourist guide (like Rough Guide, or Footprint) in order to do you your own travel planning. The few pages of logistics and travel tips are almost an afterthought.

I enjoyed the writing, which is succinct. Most of the photos seem to be stock, however, and I found the exact same photographs in a number of other books (not just these twins).

I won't buy either of these published guides for other trips. They were interesting enough to page through, but I found a better source for nearly all the information elsewhere.