Travel Review: Anniversary Vacation in Egypt, Cairo, Aswan, Nile Cruise

Review by traveler

Joel B.

9.22.2017

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Egypt

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

The trip was good and the tour company was good. My wife has special dietary restrictions (No Gluten, No Dairy, etc.) and Egypt is a country that does not understand those restrictions. Our travel agency did a great job working with our Nile cruise staff to make sure those things were easily dealt with. They even celebrated our wedding anniversary with sweets she can eat.

The hotel in Aswan was beautiful, we would have stayed more days there if we could have.

We did not like the Amarante Pyramids Hotel. I said I didn't care about the hotel, just a safe clean place to sleep, but I should have spent a few extra dollars to go some place else. Half the staff was short or even rude and one day we didn't even get towels to take a shower, we kept asking for them, but after an hour I had to go down to the front desk to request them.

They day we drove to Alexandria, I wanted to see the Quitbay Citadel, but our guide showed me the first itinerary that he was planning our trip around and did not have to finial version that I worked out with the agency after I stressed that I wanted that to be part of our tour. The guide did his best and took us to see it from the outside, and even asked if they would let us in, but they had closed. I don't know were the miscommunication was, but I am disappointed that I missed it.

Their culture is to go all day with out eating. There were many days we had to ask to stop for food after 8 hours of not eating. If you eat small meals regularly, bring lots of snacks to help hold you over on those long days.

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

Seeing so much of Ancient Egypt.

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

Do more research on places to eat and bring snacks.

Travel Company Comments:

Hello Joel,

It was such a pleasure working with you. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to plan this very special trip for you and your wife. As you have mentioned, we did our best to accommodate the special dietary restrictions for your wife. I personally communicated with the Nile cruise, your hotel in Luxor, your hotel in Aswan, and your hotel in Cairo to make sure they will accommodate you.

I’m really glad you enjoyed the hotel in Aswan. As you may
remember, this was not part of your original itinerary but we included this free upgrade as an anniversary gift for you and your wife to ensure that you would have a memorable trip.

When we initially discussed the hotel in Cairo, you choose tthis hotel. You explained that you didn’t care about the hotel in Cairo, and you wanted to choose a budget option. We gave you two upgrade options to replace this hotel, but you wanted to go to this hotel and declined our offers. I totally understand your frustration with the service at this particular hotel but budget hotels don’t always come with the best service.

We also offered to include lunch meals during the tours to make it convenient for you and your wife. This way the drivers would accommodate you and plan their stops to include it in their daily schedules. However, you declined this offer and decided to take care of your lunches during the tours. Based on this, we expected that you would let the drivers know where and when you were ready to eat.

Last but not least, I’m sorry about the confusion in Alexandria and missing the Citadel tour. Taking into consideration that Alexandria is three hours away from Cairo made it difficult to fit everything into one day, including traveling back to Cairo that night. You were able to visit Pompey Pillar, Catacombs, the Library, and the Museum. We suggested starting early to be able to see everything including the Citadel, but unfortunately due to time constraints, we were unable to fit it in.

I’m glad that your overall experience with us was great and you enjoyed your trip.Thank you for traveling with our company and we can’t wait to plan your next adventure.

Thank you

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