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Dec 2023 update- I’m so surprised no one seems to have posted about a big change for tourist travel from Luxor to Marsa Alam. Late December 2023 my partner and I decided last minute to skip Aswan and head straight from Luxor to Marsa Alam. We were first quoted $250 USD by a private transport company and told we’d have to go first from Luxor to Hurghada and only then circle back down to Marsa Alam. That seemed totally weird so we went with a private taxi driver who assured us he could do it, for $100 USD. Turns out, about 6 months prior, the Egyptian government had restricted tourists from traveling the direct route from Edfu to Marsa Alam - one local said because a Bedouin had shot an Egyptian cop, another local said because the Egyptian government was trying to seize gold mines from Bedouins and Bedouins had retaliated by kidnapping tourists along that route. Anyway, after 2 hours from Luxor, we got to a police checkpoint and the military/police wouldn’t let him take us through. After a chaotic and language-barrier-filled half hour, our taxi driver decided to take us to a dirt road and circumvent that check point. Wtf and maybe hurray? But half hour later there was a 2nd checkpoint. He said “sleep sleep” and motioned for us to lay down on the seat. We miraculously got through. An hour later at a third checkpoint we were discovered and detained by the military/police for maybe 2 hours and took our passports. They were really polite and just explained that tourists weren’t allowed on that road. They eventually had a military vehicle escort us (machine guns visible) at a super slow pace to a spot maybe 1.5 hours towards Marsa Alam and returned our passports. Another 2ish hours later we arrived at our hotel. Think it was 1am by then. So beware- tourists have to be pre-approved to travel that route from Luxor to Edfu to Marsa Alam.