We booked the "Taste of Egypt with Jordan" with Avalon Waterways as it was a great balance between the uber expensive Viking and low-budget operators. It should be clear that this 14 Day itinerary is only 4 nights of actual cruise. It's more of an land-based tour with a cruise portion. The trip has 2 distinct parts, Egypt & Jordan. Arriving at 2am in Cairo, it was wonderful to have an agent of the line meet us before we reached immigration and customs officers.
For the 1st part of the trip, we stayed at the Marriott Mena House in the shadow of the Pyramids. It was a nice hotel with good restaurants and a great place to have breakfast overlooking the pyramids. The first day, we visited the pyramids of giza, Sphinx, and Djoser's step pyramid. We were introduced to our Egyptologist, Ahmed, who stayed with us throughout our time in Egypt. The 2nd day in Cairo, we went to the Egyptian Museum, Churches, and the Alabaster Mosque. My strongest complaint about the entire trip was that we didn't have enough time at the Egyptian Museum. We spent less that 1.5 hours there. After our guide showed us a few items that he felt were important, he only gave us 30 mins to see the rest (including King Tut).
Day 3 we flew to Luxor on Air Cairo. Our flight was delayed by about 45 minutes. It wasn't luxurious, but less than 45 mins long. Upon arrival in Luxor, we went to the Temples of Karnak and it was AMAZING. After that, we arrived our ship, Farah docked along the Nile. Nile ships are really different than other ships I've traveled on, but Farah was in good condition and our cabin was nice. The restaurant had good food, some really nice seafood options. Occasionally there would be some strange flavor combinations, but overall it was good. As the ship was less than 1/2 full, we got great service in the dining room, but it could sometimes seem like overkill or them hovering to assist. The next few days, the ship would stay docked in ports as we would visit sites and only a few times that we are actually sailing. We saw the temples of Luxor and Karnak, the valley of the kings, Edfu, Kom Ombo, and sites in Aswan. We opted for the $400 pp additional trip to Abu Simbel. I highly recommend this as it's an amazing sight to see. Much larger scale than statues we had seen. Another quick flight down and back to Aswan. In Aswan, the visit to the Unfinished Obelisk was less than thrilling. We flew back to Cairo for another few days of sightseeing before leaving for Jordan.
We took a flight to Amman on Royal Jordanian. We were met at the really nice airport by an Avalon rep who took us to the Marriott in Amman. We had a lot of free time and we took an Uber to the Jordan Museum. Uber's are REALLY cheap in Egypt and Jordan. Like less than $5 anywhere. On our 1st full day in Jordan, we met Osama, our local guide and he was incredible. Friendly and knowledgeable, he was great. Of the 20 people that we were with in Egypt, only 7 of us did Jordan so it made the experience much more intimate. 2nd day in Jordan, we drove to Mt. Nebo and then 3 hours further to Petra. The hotel called Hayat Zaman was amazing. The best hotel of our whole trip. Such an lovely place. The next day, we scheduled 6 hours at the archeological site and it was amazing. It was hot and a huge place to explore. We hiked the 900 step to the Monastery. I only recommend doing this if you are in shape and capable. We're moderately capable and it was pretty strenuous. After the visit, we drove a scary road over the mountain to the Dead Sea resort where we spent the last 3 nights. It was a nice resort with great pools. We swam in the Dead Sea which was kinda unpleasant but very floaty. The last day we went to the ruins at Jerash and spent the rest of the day at the pool.
Things about the trip:
I wish we had more free time at the sites in Egypt. Our guide in Egypt wouldn't tell us up front the amount of time we had at several sites and after he showed some highlights, only then he would tell us we had 20, 30, or 45 minutes at stellar historical sites. Towards the end of the trip, we started wondering from the group so we could experience the sites in their fullest.
In Jordan, the Avalon crew let us know that all our tips for bag handling was included and that the porters were "Taken care of." We didn't get this information in Egypt.
Egypt was dirty, crowded, and at times felt unsafe. Our group always had an armed guard with us as we toured around. Jordan was clean and felt very safe. The water from the tap isn't drinkable. We experienced a few days of intestinal discomfort despite following all the rules.
Going in June/July means its HOT HOT HOT. Being from Texas, it wasn't actually much different from home. But, being out in the heat can really zap you. But, it's the low season and we didn't experience terrible crowds.
Overall, it was a bucket list trip for us and we enjoyed this once in a lifetime experience.