Amazing experience with Mo!
Mohamed (Mo), our guide during the 4D3N cruise, was an exceptional, compassionate, and knowledgeable companion. He effortlessly led us through the significant attractions in South Egypt, imparting valuable insights into the archaeology, purpose, rituals, and landscapes associated with each temple. At every site, we left with a deeper understanding and increased knowledge. Mo's attentiveness was remarkable, constantly ensuring our comfort throughout the trip. He would promptly provide water if we were dehydrated and even surprise us with an ice cream treat when needed.
With fluency in hieroglyphics, English, and Arabic, and backed by 17 years of experience, Mo was undoubtedly instrumental in making our Luxor/Aswan experience unforgettable. If I ever have the opportunity to return, I would undoubtedly seek Mo's guidance once more. I would give him more than five stars if possible, but unfortunately, that is the maximum rating!
Chickkiwow · iun. 2023 · prin Tripadvisor
Ask for Mo!!
"You have the best tour guide in Egypt!" was what a shopowner told me as we walked through a bazaar. And true enough, Mohamed (Mo) was the most outstanding, caring and knowledgable guides I have had the pleasure of having.
Through our 4D3N on the cruise, Mo show us around the salient sights in South Egypt, explaining the archaeology, purpose, ritual and landscape behind each temple. We left every sight feeling a little more knowledgable than before. He is also attentive and ensures you are comfortable throughout your stay — always on the lookout if you're dehydrated and need more water, or if you need an ice-cream perk me up along the way.
Fluent in hieroglyphics, English and Arabic; backed with 17 years of experience, Mo was certainly a cornerstone in making our Luxor/Aswan experience. If I ever do come back, I would engage with Mo again. More stars if I could but 5 is the max!!
ryankueh · iun. 2023 · prin Tripadvisor
Nile Cruise
Excellent experience. Lovely the Nile. The boat crew attentive and friendly. Good quality food. Debwn improve cocktails. Excellent our private guide... only this time of year is very hot
pilita12 · iun. 2023 · prin Tripadvisor · Tradusă
Amr is an amazing guide...plus a few tips to prepare for a Nile cruise experience.
To start with: level-set your expectations. I have been on multiple five-star Nile River cruises and none of them are the same five star that you can expect on-land. I like to think of it as over-glorified camping. Once you accept that, and prepare yourself accordingly, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see some of the richest historical sites in the world.
Remember, this a smaller river cruise ship...not a giant ocean liner. The cruise line will be adequate. It will be clean, have a sun deck and a working small bathroom. The staff will generally be friendly and attentive. Don't expect too much more. It's a clean place to sleep. At the end of the day, you will be so busy with activities and seeing the sites, that you won't really be spending all that much time on the boat, but for maybe an afternoon while in transit/sailing.
The food will leave something to be desired. It's not inedible or unclean, but it's certainly not gourmet. It's a buffet.
For us, the biggest negative was the other passengers during mealtime. They were pushing, shoving, and generally rude as soon as the meal time hit. This creates an arms race of people grabbing heaps of the good food because they didn't want to have to brave the buffet line twice. Honestly, my spouse and I felt like we were farm animals feeding from a trough because of this. We tried showing up later in the meal time, and got attitude from the staff (unacceptable). The meal services staff arbitrarily decides where you sit, which is common on any cruise as they want to keep people who booked with certain companies and speak certain languages together. Our issue was that they kept changing where they wanted us to sit...they even asked us to move arbitrarily after we sat down with our food from the same table we had sat at before to another table when we were there at the end of the meal time and nearly all the tables were empty. We didn't want to be 'those guys', but we picked up McDonald's and ate it in our cabin in peace for one meal because we simply didn't want to deal with the buffet onboard.
At the end of the cruise, the meal services director asked us to fill out a survey (which was only available in French). We filled it out and did not put our names, wanting to remain anonymous in the spirit of an accurate survey. The meal service director gave us attitude AGAIN for that.
You will have an exhausting experience. Your wake-ups will be 0430 or earlier and the days will be long...there is TONS to see and do. But, it is an amazingly rewarding and enriching experience to see the sites. Trust me on this, you do not want to opt out of anything during this cruise and it is absolutely worth the lack of sleep for a few days.
The absolute highlight of our experience was our guide, Amr. His passion for Ancient Egypt is contagious. To be honest, by the end of this kind of cruise, all of the temples and tombs tend to start blending together a bit...kind of variations on a theme. That and the lack of sleep can make it difficult to get excited about the sites sometimes. Amr kept us excited and attentive throughout...he was excited, piqued our curiosity, and answered our questions throughout. His love of Ancient Egypt and his ability to 'nerd out' (in the best way possible) and go off on tangents about all things Ancient Egypt absolutely made the trip for us. Remember, this is an educational experience...expect this to be like an interactive history lesson in the actual historical sites. If you are not expecting this, this kind of a cruise may not be for you.
Your tour guide will ultimately be the biggest variable in your experience. Your group's relationship with your guide should be a two-way street. Given that, Amr adapted and changed the itinerary for us based on our interests and desires. Amr was super kind to us, really showing us the famous Egyptian Hospitality at its finest...he even went the extra mile to come with us to the airport at the end when we were running late to make sure we didn't miss our flight. If you are lucky enough to get Amr as your guide, I promise you that you will have an amazing cruise...he made the grin-and-bear-it elements mentioned above more than worth it.
In summation, go into this cruise prepared both mentally and physically. Your guide and your own mindset will determine your level of enjoyment. And ask for Amr as your guide!
Joshua_L · mai 2023 · prin Viator
Cruise experience
The cruise experience was ok, but the whole experience was definitely an A+ because of our tour guide Ahmed Salama, very patient, extremely knowledgeable and very charismatic!
Paula T · mai 2023 · prin Tripadvisor
Great tour guide
I had a nice experience on my first river cruise. The food was really good, but what I enjoyed the most was the tour and all the temples we visited. We had our private tour guide Ahmed Salama who is an excellent guide, very informative, he took his time to explained us all about the temples, and some other places. He was very patient with us, and he always gave us enough time to go around, to take photos and to rest. He also gave us some information about how the cruise was working and how much we could tip.
Mario F · mai 2023 · prin Tripadvisor
Amazing trip
We enjoyed our trip. We had a great guide ,Salama, who was very knowledgeable, accommodating, organized, and gave us great information and suggestions on additional activities. It was an experience of a life time
aqui123 · mai 2023 · prin Tripadvisor
Wonderful
We had a wonderful time. Our Guide Emad was very courteous and knowledgeable. Emad spoke great English and explained everything in detail. Best experience. I would recommend this without hesitation. Very polite and above expectation. Please try this you will not regret.
Q4202JJdant · mai 2023 · prin Tripadvisor
Nile Story: a small tall tale
If you understand that everything about tourism, especially in Egypt, has been monetized then some of the irritants here will not inflame you. But maybe you will agree that 5 stars is a bit too high if you have any actual 5 star context.
The excellent: Mostafa our guide was superb. Five stars for Mostafa for sure. He arranged things last minute and bought us ice cream when we were light headed and also gave us fivers for the toilet when we only had hundos. He knew an immense amount about the sites we visited and was kind and funny. All the drivers were also excellent and professional.
Excursions: you definitely see what they advertise and can pay more for additional excursions (eg Abu Simbel, Nubian village, balloon ride). We had plenty of time too because we aren’t dawdlers who read every sign, and it is extremely helpful to have a guide. The 430am departure hot air balloon ride is a must.
Now, the “needs improvement”.
First, the boat: it’s a get-what-you-get situation. They must have taken pictures of the best boats back in the 90s or something because… no. The boat we stayed on did not sink. I think that’s about the best we can say about it. The boat alone is a 2 star boat on a scale of dinghy to yacht.
Amenities: there is a massage parlor peddled by a friendly but absolutely unrelenting person who obviously intends to profit from friendship. This is the same with the store which sells t-shirt merch for 10x the street price. The only path to our room was past these perennial hecklers and we actually found ourselves slinking past and trying to dodge them on our “luxury” experience, which probably doesn’t need further highlighting of how much a detractor that is.
The food: Meh. I mean it’s fine. There are some tourist groups who seem to have never eaten before and they cause mass devastation as their plates are piled high. If you want any of the food you should get there at opening. There are loosely assigned tables and they seem upset if you don’t sit there even if there are no seats or no cutlery. Also, every drink will cost you money and they have no chill about charging you. They write you a receipt immediately and make you sign it to the room. There is no waiting to the end even if you are planning to order more drinks. The staff and chefs were nice and friendly but the whole dining room was just sort of chaotic vibes.
The tone of this review would probably be different if we didn’t basically get swindled at the end. We had a three hour wait in the lobby from tour end to airport transport and we got hungry. We were talking about lunch and they said yes please join us downstairs. We had already checked out but nobody said anything about paying or anything and since we had just tipped and had been pretty generous all around we went down for lunch. We ate half a plate each and were there for a total of 15 minutes, had a nice chat on our way out with people who had seen us everyday and then were presented with a 500LE bill after witnessing a heated exchange between the man “running” the restaurant and front desk with a lot of angry glances at us from the former.
The bottom line is that it would be hard to see so many things so efficiently but the pictures and descriptions of the boat are misleading and everyone who handles you is constantly trying to extract money out of you all day, everyday, and especially when you are leaving. That is not consistent with a five star experience.
82tiar · mai 2023 · prin Tripadvisor
Sayed is the best!
Me and my friends did a private tour from Aswan to Luxor and we had the best of the best tour guide. Sayed is our man. He took care of us so well. Very informative, caring, helpful and have a great energy. We did and lot of activities and visited every temples. I recommend this tour. You will have an amazing time in Egypt.
Jp J · mai 2023 · prin Tripadvisor
