Andy60

Andy - thanks for the great feedback on your tour. Sounds like you had an awesome time and that EPE lived up to expectations.

 

It was great that everyone was so helpful and friendly (except those hawkers.....I guess their incomes have taken a dive too in the recent months so it makes them more pushy)

 

Mohem is a fantastic guide!

Thank you, Hazel, for organizing the tour and I'm glad to hear you will be getting there soon after having to cancel on our trip. Linda did a great job after taking over for you and we much enjoyed getting to know her and Franz as well as others on the tour.

One person that I know of was ill about the third day after Egypt. She was not on our EPE tour with us, however, and I don't know what she did while we were in port in Alexandria. We had visited Istanbul between our Egypt port call and the day she was sick, so she could have picked up something there and not Egypt. Anyway, that's the only instance of illness after Egypt that I was aware of.

We just got back from our cruise on Star Princess and took two days of tours in Egypt with EPP. Everything was handled very well--extremely knowledgeable guide, great driver, clean bus, itinerary as described plus more.

Our guide, whose name sounds like Mohman (but I was never sure I got it right) was very cheerful, helpful, patient and knew Egyptian history very well. Our itineray called for the first day to drive to Cairo, see the museum, then to Giza for the pyramids and camel ride, and finally a stop at a perfumery. We elected to bring lunches so we didn't have to stop anywhere for lunch. At the end of the day we drove back to Alexandria for night on the ship, and then the next day toured Alexandria with the same guide and driver. There were 24 of us who signed up on Cruise Critic roll call for our cruise, so we had a full sized bus.

The only complaint I had on the first day was the persistence of the vendors at the pyramids. They would insist that you take whatever it was they were selling, even putting in on you if it was a scarf or whatever, saying it was a gift. Despite vigorous protests, they would persist. And then, of course, they wanted compensation--much more than the item was worth. They were very hard to ignore and, for me, really detracted from the experience of seeing the pyramids. I wish Mohman would have helped us in dealing with the worst of them. The camel drivers, also, insisted on payment, even though EPP was paying them for our rides. Mohman did deal with them after some tense moments for some of our group. At the end of the day, Mohman said we could stay for the light show if we wanted, but we were all tired and elected to head back.

The second day we visited the Alexandria Library, a beautiful mosque, the catacombs of Kom El Shuquafa, the Montaza gardens and palace, and the Quaitbey fort, built on the site of the ancient lighthouse. We drove the length of the cornish, also. Some of the sites we visited were just photo stops of a few minutes length, but we toured inside the library, climbed down and through the catacombs and went inside the mosque.

The things about both days that impressed me were the friendliness of the people, the unbelievable traffic, and the litter or trash found everywhere. Everyone we saw would smile and wave, especially if you did the same to them and often would go out of their way to help if they thought we needed it. Except for those pesky vendors at the pyramids, Egyptians seemed so kind and genuinely nice. The roads of two lanes often had three or four lanes of cars and the traffic system seemed to be one of "fill in the gaps." Those dashed lines on the highways and pretty red lights--they're just decoration. Horns, on the other hand, are an indispensable accessory and much used. But our bus driver handled it all with aplomb. And as far as the trash littering the roads, you must simply look beyond that at the history, culture, and friendly people that are Egypt.

I highly recommend Egypt Private Excursions and will certainly deal with them again if I ever return to Egypt. Email me at

slwriska-misc<at>yahoo.com if you want more info. (Replace <at> with @ in my email address, of course.

Andy