Travel Review: Luxury Egypt Tour, Cairo, Nile River Cruise

Review by traveler

Robert R.

12.10.2017

General Info

Traveler Review

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

Egypt

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

Here is the email that I wrote direct to this travel company:

Thank you for arranging our trip to Egypt. I would give the trip an overall B.

The PROS:
The airport transfers were smooth
The ground transportation was clean and always on time
The drivers were safe and knowledgeable about the areas
Some hotels were excellent
The tour guides were very informative and accommodating
The tours that you recommended were exactly what I was looking for
You and your staff responded and addressed the hotel situation in Luxor immediately and professionally

The CONS:
The hotel in Luxor is not a luxury hotel. This hotel should not be recommended for anything but budget travel.
The pacing of the tours could have been a little better for American guests. It took a few days to figure out that ‘lunch time’ in Egypt means 2 or 3 pm, not 12 or 1 as it does to Americans. A mid day break for food would have been welcomed.
It felt like we were outsourced to another tour company in Cairo - a lot of our reservations were under another tour company instead of our travel company and it showed.
Our guide rode with us on several occasions and had us drop him off at a different destination. The first time was during rush hour and it added 30 minutes to our drive. The second time seemed to be on our way back to the hotel, but I can’t be sure. From my perspective, he should have arranged alternate transportation or rode with us to our destination before continuing his travels. On it’s own, this is just a nuisance, but it was compounded by the fact that we asked to make minor changes to our itinerary in Cairo and were told that we would have to pay extra mileage charges for the van. On one occasion, we had made plans and our guide agreed with the changes before telling us it would cost extra. Ten or twenty USD isn’t that big a deal, but after already spending close to $8k with your company, it was irritating and felt like we were being ’nickeled and dimed’ by our guide.
Another minor frustration was that the itinerary indicated that we would have bottled water provided for each day that we were touring. There was no water provided for any of the Cairo tours. Once again, a minor thing, but it simply added to the sense that we weren’t getting the full service that I initially requested.
Thanks,
Rob

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

There were so many things about Egypt that were amazing, but I would say that the Nile cruise was my favorite part of the trip

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

l would make sure that lunch breaks were built into the tour schedule

Travel Company Comments:

Hi Rob,

Thank you for your reply. I’m glad you enjoyed your trip with us.

I would like to clarify few things, please:

-Regarding Luxor hotel: thank you for your feedback about the hotel in Luxor. We gave you more than one option for the hotel in Luxor but you choose the hotel. However, as you have mentioned, once you told us that you were not happy with this hotel, we immediately changed it for you at no extra cost. I also talked to the hotel and got you a full refund, as I mentioned on our phone call before. We have been working with the hotel in Luxor for years and we never got any negative feedback. But we already stopped recommending this hotel to any of our clients based on your feedback.

-All your hotels and Nile cruise reservations were made by my company, all the historical guides were booked by my company as well. The tour company is our partner and only provide the ground services for us such as transportations and airport meet and greet plus they take care of the paper work in Egypt. According to the rules by Egyptian government, we have to partner with a local agency there to deal with local authorities for us.

- Regarding Cairo Driving Time and Lunch : we will take your notes about the lunch break into considerations. Please note that due to the crazy traffic in Cairo and the tours scheduled, it is a bit hard to set up the lunch time at 12:00pm unless you start the tour super early.

-We will also take all your notes about the rep into considerations. I just called your driver in Cairo and he confirmed to me that he never got out of his way to drop off the rep. It was always on the way and you had to take the route regardless.

-Regarding the extra cost: my team in Cairo informed me that you wanted to add sound and light show by the Pyramids and dinner, which was not part of the plan. The sound and light show happens at night and we have to pay for entrance fees and extra car time and mileage, plus extra cost for the dinner. We have estimated the overall cost of the car and the driver to all the places as agreed and as per your itinerary. Whenever there are any changes or extra meals requested by you, there would have to be extra charge because this will mean extra time and mileage for the car to be with you.

Again, thank you for traveling with us and thank you for all your feedback.

Photos

Travel Review: Luxury Egypt Tour, Cairo, Nile River Cruise

General Info

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

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

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

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

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