Contact Admin. Aswan is far more relaxed and smaller than Cairo and Luxor. Aswan is the smallest of the three major tourist cities on the Nile.
Being the furthest south of the three, it has a large population of Nubian people, mostly resettled from their homeland in the area flooded by Lake Nasser. Aswan is the home of many granite quarries from which most of the Obelisks seen in Luxor were sourced. Aswan was the ancient Egyptians' gateway to Africa. Aswan International Airport is situated 25km SSW of the city, on the west bank and just south of the high dam and takes roughly minutes of travel time.
Public buses don't go to the airport and security on the approach road to the terminal is tight so keep your passport and proof of ticket handy. Taxis in Aswan are not metered, so you should agree to a price before the taxi starts moving.
Egypt's passenger train service runs along the Nile between Cairo and Aswan. More than five trains AC service arrives from Cairo each day, journey time to Cairo is around hours costing 75LE for second class, LE first class recommending booking in advance and avoid black market offers from the people around the station. In addition there are two sleeper trains, departing 8PM and 9: Technically foreigners are not allowed to buy tickets for non-sleeper trains from Cairo to Luxor or Aswan. This flawed security measure can easily be ignored by using a self service ticket machince or simply buying a ticket on the train.
The latter options includes an insignificant surcharge of a few LE but is perfectly legal, legitimate and common practice. You will not have a reserved seat if buying the ticket on the train however, so you may be moved around once or twice.
