private tour in Alexandria, Egypt?

[pebbles99]

For anyone who has been on Costa cruise - Egypt, Turkey and Greece itinerary.

 

We have the opportunity to take a private tour with deCosta Tours. The have a very good reputation and have been in business for 50 years. The cost for 4 people is considerably less than the ship's tour and we like the convenience of a private guide. However, I have read that the ship's tour travels by convoy with armed guards so I am wondering if the safe thing to do is go with the ship.

 

Has anyone out there ever used a private company in Egypt?

 

Thanks,

Diana

[melbur]

Did you ever get a response to this? Did you use a private company? We are going on the NCL Jewel Sept 27th on the Greek Isles and Egypt cruise and thought we would like to have a private tour company also. We did the "private" thing in Russia two years ago and it was fabulous. Please let me know what you found out - thanks

[ScottWPB]

do you have a link to the decosta tours site?

I did a search and didn't see anything-

[stormysmom]

My 16 yr old daughter, mom-in-law and I did the cruise ship tour for Egypt in July 2005. Only in Egypt was there an arm-guard(very low key), not for Turkey, Greece etc. My mom-in-law had been to Egypt several years before she used a private tour group and did not want to go that route this time because she felt(she is a world traveler) that it would be safer with fifty other English speaking people, and the ship had some responsibility for the tour( making sure we were all back and on board before they left port) Plus the cruise line is then responsible to get you a visa to get off in Egypt. My Mother-in-law went to NYC to do it herself the prior time and it was a pain in the neck,and you have to give them your passport. Oh, the busses sort of stay together because each bus carries tourist by spoken language. So there is a Spanish bus, Italian bus, German bus, English bus (you get it). We were given very stricked instruction for walking around in Egypt. We were very careful, but were really harrassed by the merchants and our tour guide got into a shoving match with one merchant cause he would not leave us alone,.( Three American gals-what do you exxpect). I know of several incidents where the guides had to get involved in serious situation, and they were amazing.

I am sure if you check out the company and you feel it is safe and reliable then save some money, however I truely believed that I, being a 40+ year old "sophisticated" , well traveled New Yorker could handle the stuff that went on in Egypt- I was wrong.

 

There were people that took private tours(I do not know which company) I guess they made it back, without a problem.

 

Good luck. I just think that you need to consider your safety as a priority and figure out if you can get equal security for yourselves. As I said my mother in law did not feel comfortable going the private route this time.

Have a great time and let me know if I can help out.