Any recommendations for Egypt Tour/Nile Cruise?

[OBX Cruisers]

We are beginning to plan for a tour of Egypt and Nile Cruise late in 2007. Any recommendations for companies or specific boats would be really welcome. Good, bad experiences? Thanks!

[harrodsfan]

:( We had a very uncomfortable situation with Abercombie and Kent. Hard to believe as we had used them before for several trips and had wonderful expereinces. Their Nile Boat was not up to snuff and thie tour guide was the worst we have had in many many many trips. In fact the only bad tour guide we have ever had. Not worth the big $$$$$$. :(

[sallyjo]

I know every trip is different. We just came back from Egypt with A & K and had the best trip ever. We have traveled with them many times and this was the best!

 

We did the Signature Egypt (which means it was us and a private guide for the entire trip). Our guide was Mona and she was outstanding. We were on Sunboat III in the Presidental suite and we had windows facing both the side and the front. The Royal suite above us only had windows on the side.

 

I can not say enough good things about this trip. We had 3 nights in Cairo before the cruise and 2 nights after the 7 night cruise. We had our own van except once on the cruise. It is so much easier and faster to do things with 3 people instead of a group of 15. Every port except one there was a van waiting to take us where we were susposed to go. We decided which tombs to visit in the valley and how long we wanted to stay.

 

This was the BEST!!

[harrodsfan]

I agree every trip is different. Think that a private tour would have been better for us.. Also a really bad guide on an A &k tour is unususal. Our guide went off and left 6 of us at a church in Cairo. Never have had that happen before. The Sun Boat IV needed refurbishment..

[shoshona2]

Tauck Tours just launched their new Egypt/Nile Cruise/tour this year. You can go to their website and their Ask and Share board. We were thinking of doing it in 2007 also.

[donmimi]

Our TA has just booked us on a 2 week trip -- 1 week in Egypt and 1 week in Tanzania. We are scheduled to take the 4 nitght Nile cruise on the 6 month old Movenpick Royal Lotus which he claims is one of the best two ships on the route. The other is the Oberoi Philae. Anyone know anything about this ship? Thanks.

[mauimaui]

I too was with A & K Jan 04 on "Splendours of the Nile" and it was fabulous!! Well worth the money I spent since I was traveling single. It was 12 days and we had our private quide Hesham with us the entire trip as well as our bus driver and armed body guard. There were 14 in our group. The best personal service I've ever had. If I were to go back I would go with A & K again. It's hard to believe that someone that has traveled with them several times and got a bad taste with one trip only would be so down on A & K. I am sure if they contacted the Kents someone's head would roll.

[MercedMike]

We had a great time in Egypt on a Globus tour, including a four day Nile cruise on Oberoi Shehrayer. Our guide was amazing, a PhD candidate in Egyptology. We would recommend Globus and Oberoi wholeheartedly.

 

You can read our review and see our pics at

 

http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/egyptmain.html

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

 

Mike

[MercedMike]

OOOPS -- somehow my reply got buried deep in the threads so I am reposting -- sorry.

 

We had a wonderful trip on Globus with a Nile Cruise on Oberoi Shehrayer. I would thoroughly recommend them both. Our guide was a PhD candidate in Egyptology and very knowledgable.

 

You can read our review and see our pics at

http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/egyptmain.html

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

 

Mike

[Skeezics]

It has been about 10 years ago. But had American Express Platinum Travel do tour of Egypt. My husband and I had a private quide that met us at the airport, took us to our hotel. (The Mena House, which was wonderful. We awoke each morning to the view of the pyramids.). We had four days in Cairo to do all the sites with our private guide. We chose to get out early in the morning and come back in the afternoon instead of taking time out for lunch. We flew to Luxor where we picked up a Nile cruise on the Meridian boat (French Meridian Hotel Chain). We were very satisfied. Had a wonderful guide on the ship that accompanied our group throughout the cruise. We took an extra trip to Abu Simbul for the day, will worth the effort. Then flew back to Cairo, where again met by our guide and stayed another day. We have found that Platinum travel does an excellent job in planning trips. (Must have a Platinum card to use this service.) You will love your trip to Egypt. We much prefer the private guide mixed with the small groups on the ship. (Don't miss the light show at the pyramids.) Barbara

[paul929207]

in March we went with Grand Circle (GCT.COM) for two weeks in egypt with 6 nights before in Israel and 5 nights after in Jordan. It was a wonderful trip.

 

In Egypt, we spent 6 nights in Cairo at the Marriot. Then flew to Luxor for a 7 night cruise to Aswan.

 

I highly recommend it.

 

Paul

[Mrs007]

donmimi: were the rates comparable between A&K and Cultural Travel? Cultural Travel has a package we are very interested in taking. We received a quote from an agency in Egypt, but they don't provide air. We would much rather have "group air" than pay the high independent traveler cost for air.

 

Let me know if you had anyone referr you to Cultural. Its always nice to have a recommendation from someone.

[WooKeef]

I saw this topic and just had to throw my two cents in. I hope this info helps. We went on a Nile Cruise in 2003 and it was fantastic. Small cabins like you wouldn;t believe, but clean and the Egyptians are kind, warm helpful people.

We booked through Misr travel which is an Egyptian travel agency and I highly recommend using them. We found them in Budget Travel magazine of all places. They are first class all the way...we stayed in a hotel at the base of the great pyramid.

Enjoy!

[donmimi]

Hi Mrs007 -- actually we happened on Cultural Travel rather than had a direct recommendation, but I am a hard traveler to please. . .and so far so good. Roger (the owner) is always accessible, answers all my questions -- he is remarkabley knowledgable about both Egypt and Tanzania (the two places we are going) and has been to both several times. His pricing is not cheap, but I think compares very favorable to A&K -- it is hard to do a direct comparison but just as an FYI, our tour runs from January 27 - Feb 13th (land portion excluding travel to and from the US), includes a land tour of Cairo (Overoi Mena Hotel), plus 4 day trip up the Nile (Movenpick Royal Lotus), two day hotels for flights, flight from Cairo to Nairobi, R/t from Nairobi to Tanzania, interanal Tanzania flight from Serengeti to Arusha and a full week of private tented camps to view the lesser migration. We have a private driver/guide the entire trip except for the Nile cruise. Cost is $7614pp for our customized version.

 

So far so good! We can let you know how pleased we are after the trip.

 

PS Roger is also taking care of the visas for us -- I don't have any way to check pricing but it is certainly comparable with other visa services we have used. According to him, a private agent will meet us prior to immigration in Cairo, escort us to the visa window and take care of everything and get us through immigration; our Tanzania visas will be taken care of in advance -- we'll send him our passports, our pics and he will return completed 3+ weeks before our trip.

 

Please let us know if you have any other questions about your proposed trip -- we did a lot of research before decideing on Roger and feel like we have made a really good choice.

 

Donmimi

[roscoe39]

Ive got 5 trips to Egypt under my belt so couldnt resist adding my two cents either. Yes Mena House Oboroi at Giza is fantastic., also Marriott Cairo, both are Palaces from King Farouks time. The Cataract Hotel and also the Winter Palace if its offered on any of your pre or post cruises are worth staying at as well.

The best advice I can give you with Egypt is to travel to the best standard you can possibly afford., it is an incredibly fascinating and incredible country and you dont want to have any of it spoilt by eating in the wrong establishments and spending a period being put out of action or being disappointed by staying in a hotel and finding out that for a few more dollars you could have been pampered like an old pharaoh.

 

Can i also add that obtaining a visa in cairo is simply a matter of walking off the plane, walking up to the bank window which is situated right before the imigration line and handing across $us10 and receiving a stamp. There is no need to get a guide to do this,

 

Have a wonderful trip....

[ajilimojil]

We just returned from our Egypt trip with Grand Circle Travel and must say, they did an excellent job! There were 3 groups traveling "together but separately" (one of them being from Vantage Travel) and all 3 guides were wonderful. Both knowledgeable and friendly; always managing our time in an efficient manner.

 

The Ship, MS Stephanie is beautiful and I couldn't believe how big the staterooms are, we even had a tub in our bathroom and a modern "bowl on top of cabinet" style of sink. The food was excellent 99% of the times and the service couldn't have been friendlier.

Also, their Hotel in Cairo was the Ramses Hilton, we had a corner suite with a great view of the Nile.

For the customary "Home Hosted" dinner we went to a lovely egyptian family's home; the food was delicious and their sons were a terrific source of information on local life.

 

P.S. Agree with Roscoe39 about Visas in Cairo, it took us about 5 minutes in line and $10pp to get our stamps before proceeding to get our luggage.