We drove Cairo-Luxor-AlQusayr a few years ago, then up along the coast to Suez and across the peninsula to Mt Sinai. When we did it (though check with others for more up-to-date info!!), the road down to Luxor had lots of checkpoints, and at each they tried to insist on sending a guide along and we talked them out of it (full car :-)). However, we weren't able to talk our way out of an "escort" across the desert from Luxor to AlQusayr - apparently (at least at that point) they were most worried about tourists breaking down, getting stranded and dying in the desert, because (again, at that point) the road didn't have much traffic. That being said, the rest stop halfway from Luxor to AlQusayr (brand new) had 35 restroom stalls, so clearly they were expecting increased traffic. (In the end, however, the "escort" was in his own vehicle and drove more slowly than we did, and we simply left him behind.)
There were no checkpoints on the red sea road up to Suez. There were a couple down near the camel market on the Sudan border, as you'd expect ...
Again, though, the info above is a couple of years old.
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