“
Nader was an excellent guide. He was knowledgeable and able to answer all our questions. He was professional and friendly throughout the trip and took excellent care of the group - I would highly recommend him as a guide to any future travellers.
However, the overall tour had some room for improvement in terms of logistics, communication and information provided. For example, when we landed at the airport the local representative rushed us through the airport without sufficient communication and we didn't have time to withdraw cash or buy sim cards. While we were aware there would be a tip kitty, the amount required for the kitty wasn't communicated before we arrived in the country. We had to withdraw 21,000 EGP (for 3 people) from an ATM which had a 3,000 EGP withdrawal limit as soon as we arrived at the hotel as the staff member waiting there insisted on sorting out the tip kitty. This was very poor communication and timing (right after a very long haul journey) and there were no other ATMs nearby. The advice provided beforehand could have reasonably included a rough estimate of the kitty amount and advice to have EGP before we landed.
The arrival briefing was quite long and scheduled over dinner time. We would suggest reducing this to 30 minutes max and scheduling it for jsut before or after dinner. The detailed trip notes were provided to us during the arrival briefing, however these should have been emailed to us ahead of the trip to help us better prepare (e.g. required amount of cash for the tip kitty and add-ons). The tour was already quite expensive, but the number of additional site entries we had to pay for were a significant additional cost which we weren't aware of before the trip.
At the end of the tour when we took the overnight train to Cairo, we were verbally told that we would arrive in Cairo mid-morning and check into our hotel. However, we arrived at the hotel by 7am and were told by the local representative that rooms would not be available until between 10am-11am. All of us were extremely tired after the overnight train ride and had no alternative but to wait in the hotel lobby. We were fortunately able to check-in to rooms around 8am, however this meant paying a USD30 fee per room, which we also had not been warned about. We were extremely disappointed with the communication and lack of consideration for tired travellers in this instance.
Overall, the tour guide and itinerary were excellent, but given the difficulty with logistics and communication we are unlikely to recommend this tour to other friends unless these are fixed.”