Advertisement
Published: March 28th 2012
Edit Blog Post
My wife and myself visited Egypt and Jordon as part of a 13 day package tour with Egypt last minute in December 2011.
From the beginning, our tour opertor was very prompt in responding to our many questions, thanks to Yousry, Kareem and later Mr. Attar. We were very concerned about the situation in Egypt at the time of our visit. However, Egypt last minute always provided us with an honest picture of the local situation before our trip and promised that they would inform us if we should cancel our trip if need be.
We relied upon them entirely and finally made it to Egypt, based on their assurances. Once there, we were very well received at the airport and escorted to our hotel in Giza (quite far from the hub of unrest in Cairo) on time. Throughout our trip we have always had private chauffeured comfortable vehicles at our disposal with very knowledgeable, English speaking guides and drivers, that made our entire journey very easy and stress-free We had opted for 4 star accommodation everywhere on bed and breakfast basis and got what we wanted. Though hotel in Giza was a bit noisy, thanks to the chaotic
never ending traffic, it was clean and service was good as was the buffet breakfast.
Our guides were very punctual and always arrived ahead of time to take us to the various places in our schedule every day. This was a good package if one is interested in ancient Egyptian history as it covers a lot more than other tours. For example, our trip started with a visit to Dahshour, Saqqara andMemphis on day one, followed by the pyramids of Giza on subsequent days (with the light and sound show and camel ride included, a must see and must do) We could also go inside the pyramids at Dahshour and Saqqara at no added cost. Also included was a guided trip inside the Egyptian museum where we had ample time to see the antiquities, especially king Tut’s treasures (free of charge) and the mummies in Mummy room (at an added cost of 100 LE). We had a taste of Coptic and Islamic Cairo as well with our visits to several old churches and mosques in the city.
This was followed by a flight to Aswan arranged by
www.egyptlastminute.com where we boarded the Nile cruise ship for 3 nights
and 4 days. Before boarding the vessel, we visited the Temple of Isis at Philae, the Aswan dam and a Nubian village (40 min boat ride from Aswan). Once onboard, the ship stops at Kom Ombo and edfu before making a final stop at luxor(Luxor temple, Karnak temple, valley of kings with entry into three tombs included, deir-el-bahri on west bank, colossi of Memnon). We disembarked at each place, accompanied by guides, who were excellent in explaining and interpreting the ancient Egyptian carvings and hieroglyphics on temple pylons to us.
I especially recommend to ask for Mr. Emad at Edfu and Mr. Abdul at Luxor. They have worked as archaeologists before and have thorough knowledge about the subject. Some of our guides also took us to extra places to visit with a reasonable added cost, such as Abu Simbel, 3 hrs drive from Aswan. It was really worth making this visit, having travelled so far.
The tour manager at Luxor, Mr. Ehab, was extraordinarily kind and helpful. He arranged the two days of our sightseeing at Luxor very efficiently and also arranged a free hotel room in Luxor for us to relax for few hours before we could
catch our flight to Jordan.
The Nile cruise is very scenic, food on board is excellent and so is the traditional entertainment in the evening. Highly recommended.
The Jordanian portion included visits to Petra, Jerash, wadi Rum and the Dead .As an added bonus, our driver, Mr. Mohammed, took us to other places to sight see on our way to Petra, such as Mt Nebo, Karak and madaba. I wish we could spend some more time at Dead Sea though. The accomodation in Petra i Grand View hotel and at dead sea spa hotel at dead sea was awesome. The Dead sea spa hotel has its own private beach opening out to the sea, with free dead sea mud to apply available at the beach. There is also a Dead sea medical centre attached to it, if someone is interested.
Overall the service provided by our tour company was excellent in terms of assistance at airport and catching connecting flights, transportation, vehicle quality, hotel, food, drivers and guides. We never felt unattended or unsafe in the entire trip. People were very hospitable and generous and also warned us of vendors trying to sell cheap and fake souvenirs. They took us to authentic, government run establishments in case we wanted to purchase Egyptian goods such as papyrus, perfumes or cotton fabric. Our guide in Cairo also got us pendants made with our names engraved in a cartouche for a reasonable price. Also, we were always provided with bottled mineral water throughout our journey. Mr. Ehab and Mr. Attar kept in touch with us via messages and email even after we had crossed over to the Jordanian side and ensured that everything was functioning smoothly.
In summary, it was worth all the money we spent.
www.egyptlastminute.com Highly recommended!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.08s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0423s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Whitby
Whitby
nice
first time to blog