Ramses Tours - New Email address

[Turtles06]

Unfortunately, our experience with Ramses was mixed, with some positive aspects but also some disappointing ones. Based on CC reviews, we'd booked a private, two-day overnight Cairo tour with them in connection with our recent cruise on the Jade. (Four people total.) The planned itinerary was fantastic.

 

We were on the same Jade sailing as MSPCUBS, above. As she reported, the Egyptian authorities held our ship hostage for five hours in Alexandria, which meant we did not get to disembark until noon on day one rather than at 7am, a loss of half a day in Egypt and a real disappointment. To his great credit, our Ramses guide waited for us the entire time, then, as did the guide MSPCUBS had, our guide did a good job revising our itinerary so that we were able to see almost everything we'd planned to see, though far more rushed (not the fault of the guide or Ramses, of course). This was all positive.

 

Our guide was punctual, met us when he said he would, took us to good places to eat, and kept us very well protected from the ubiquitous beggars. We felt safe during the entire tour. We never felt harassed or hassled (not the case with some other pax who went on ship's tours). After a camel ride, when our guide thought the driver was trying to get money from me to which he was not entitled, the guide rushed over to be sure this did not happen. Again, all these things were positive.

 

But there were a couple of significant aspects in which we found the guide lacking. First, he spoke much too fast and his English was not the best, so we could not always understand him. Plus, he was not always able to understand what we were saying to him. When we tried to discuss certain arrangements (for example, our desire to go inside the Great Pyramid instead of another pyramid he proposed) we had difficulty getting this worked out.

 

Second, while our guide always answered any questions we asked, he was not always forthcoming with information. In particular, he hardly spoke to us during the three-hour drive from Alexandria to Cairo, a time that other tour guides (according to what I've read on here) put to very good use by telling the clients about Egypt, about what they are seeing and are about to see. In contrast, our guide spent a good portion of that long trip talking to the driver (in Arabic) or chatting on his cell phone.

 

The guide told us he was a freelancer. I have no idea whether this is the case with all of the guides Ramses uses, or whether they have other guides who work for them full time.

 

After I returned home, Ramses sent me an email asking about the tour and our guide. I replied with the substance stated above, the good and the disappointing. Ramses apologized, but made excuses for the guide.

 

Our day and a half in Egypt was a fantastic adventure, but I think it could have been even better with a better guide.

[dabear]

turtles6: what was the name of your guide so that we can request to avoid him.

[CRUISERTN]

Turtles06-Our Ramses guide, Karim, was fantastic! He spoke excellent English but our driver did not speak English. Karim often spoke to the driver in Arabic regarding traffic and routes to take and locations to visit once we got to Cairo..... and was on his cell phone off and on during the tour, but it was to check with other guides to see what was the best route to take once in Cairo, were there any accidents, and if so to rearrange the order in which we visited the sites. Also, the guides networked this way and kept up with each other.... and if one site had too many people there at one time, they would take others to another site first and then reverse. We had a list of places we wanted to see, and the first thing Karim asked was if it mattered which order we saw them because it would be better to do certain ones first because of their proximity to each other, crowds at other locations and the fact that certain sites closed at certain times and he wanted to make sure we saw and did all we wanted to do. He was also on his cell several times checking in with George and George would call him to make sure all was going well with us. I don't understand Arabic, but he made sure he let us know what was going on all the time. On the way to the hotel, he called ahead to make sure everything was in order prior to our arrival. On the way back to the ship the second day, Karim was also on the phone with several other guides, both on private tours and on the ships tours to check location of the buses to make sure everyone would get back on time and to make sure a bus was available to pick up anyone if another's particular bus or van broke down. They take great pride in making sure no one misses the ship. Perhaps your guide was on the phone for the same reasons but just did not communicate with you as to what he was doing. The rest of the time we had great conversations with him. We felt sorry for the driver because I am sure he felt left out, but we often tried to include him by having Karim interpret for us. I am sure your guides did the best they could with a late arrival of the ship, and that could have had them communicating even more with others to make sure they covered as much as they could for everyone.

[Turtles06]

Turtles06-Our Ramses guide, Karim, was fantastic! He spoke excellent English but our driver did not speak English. Karim often spoke to the driver in Arabic regarding traffic and routes to take and locations to visit once we got to Cairo..... and was on his cell phone off and on during the tour, but it was to check with other guides to see what was the best route to take once in Cairo, were there any accidents, and if so to rearrange the order in which we visited the sites. Also, the guides networked this way and kept up with each other.... and if one site had too many people there at one time, they would take others to another site first and then reverse. We had a list of places we wanted to see, and the first thing Karim asked was if it mattered which order we saw them because it would be better to do certain ones first because of their proximity to each other, crowds at other locations and the fact that certain sites closed at certain times and he wanted to make sure we saw and did all we wanted to do. He was also on his cell several times checking in with George and George would call him to make sure all was going well with us. I don't understand Arabic, but he made sure he let us know what was going on all the time. On the way to the hotel, he called ahead to make sure everything was in order prior to our arrival. On the way back to the ship the second day, Karim was also on the phone with several other guides, both on private tours and on the ships tours to check location of the buses to make sure everyone would get back on time and to make sure a bus was available to pick up anyone if another's particular bus or van broke down. They take great pride in making sure no one misses the ship. Perhaps your guide was on the phone for the same reasons but just did not communicate with you as to what he was doing. The rest of the time we had great conversations with him. We felt sorry for the driver because I am sure he felt left out, but we often tried to include him by having Karim interpret for us. I am sure your guides did the best they could with a late arrival of the ship, and that could have had them communicating even more with others to make sure they covered as much as they could for everyone.

 

I'm very glad you had a great guide, but no one who wasn't in our van with our guide is really in a position to comment on our experience or speculate about what might or might not have been going on in our van with our guide. Our guide's ability to communicate in English was disappointing; he could not always be understood, nor could he always understand us. This was a problem, and it had nothing to do with the ship being held hostage for five hours. Likewise, he had that three hour drive from Alexandria to Cairo to tell us about Egypt and what we were seeing, yet he barely spoke to us. Given the loss of half a day, it was even more important that this drive time be put to good use (since we were pretty rushed once we got to Cairo and Giza), but it wasn't.

 

The bottom line is that some guides are great, and some less so.

Again, I'm glad you had a great guide. We had a fantastic time in Egypt, as I said, but it really could have been better.

[pjfarkel]

We will be touring with Ramses in October. The last decision to make is which hotel to stay at. The Oberoi is $50 more for the night - is it worth it for one night? Has anyone toured and had part of their group stay at the Oberoi and part at the Meridian - and what were your opinions of the hotel(s)...this info could really help us out. Did Ramses get you better rooms or rooms by the street (which I hear is very noisy) or way in the back of the hotel?, If you had a problem with your room, did you solve it with the front desk or did Ramses help you out? Finally, do you think the $20 to see the mummy's at the Egyptian museum was worth it? Any help on what to do on a Ramses tour or not to do is appreciated.