Overseas Adventure Travel-Egypt/Nile River

[WisRiver]

We are considering a spring, 2020 Egypt Tour including a Nile river cruise with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT).  Reviews of OAT's Egypt cruises on different forums have been varied.  Some great reviews, and some scathing.  OAT offers a longer tour on a small ship at a comparable price to UniWorld and Viking.  I would appreciate any thoughts.  

[Barrheadlass]

Well, I’m taking that very trip in March of 2020.  But I’ve taken 13 trips with the company so know what to expect.  I’ve also cruised with Uniworld and considered Uniworld for Egypt.  I never did price Uniworld for the trip, though,  as I travel solo, and OAT does not charge extra for solos.  Uniworld is more luxurious, without a doubt, but I’ve not been disappointed with OAT, or with GCT river cruises.  There have been several excellent reviews of the trip on the OAT forum...have you checked that out?

[WisRiver]

I am not aware of an OAT forum.  However, and OAT agent told me today that all 2020 OAT Nile River Tours were booked.  We had been told by another OAT agent on Friday that there was space available for our group on March 20, 2020.  One of the criticisms of OAT has been that agents have provided inconsistent or incorrect information.  We are now looking at a Grand Circle Nile cruise.  We have never used GCT, so we do not know what to expect.  Hopefully, we can get knowledgeable, helpful service.  So far I am not impressed.  The 2020 OAT schedules are not listed on their web site, but we are now told all of the 2020 OAT Egypt trips are sold out.

[capriccio]

Poster Fred111 just posted a very interesting review of his Uniworld cruise in Egypt on this thread: 

 

[Texas Tillie]

12 hours ago, WisRiver said:

I am not aware of an OAT forum.  However, and OAT agent told me today that all 2020 OAT Nile River Tours were booked.  We had been told by another OAT agent on Friday that there was space available for our group on March 20, 2020.  One of the criticisms of OAT has been that agents have provided inconsistent or incorrect information.  We are now looking at a Grand Circle Nile cruise.  We have never used GCT, so we do not know what to expect.  Hopefully, we can get knowledgeable, helpful service.  So far I am not impressed.  The 2020 OAT schedules are not listed on their web site, but we are now told all of the 2020 OAT Egypt trips are sold out.

 

Are you aware that Grand Circle and Overseas Adventure are owned by the same people? I have a feeling (but don't know for sure) that it's the same people answering the phone, they can tell what to say by which 800 number the call comes in on.

[Barrheadlass]

10 hours ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

Are you aware that Grand Circle and Overseas Adventure are owned by the same people? I have a feeling (but don't know for sure) that it's the same people answering the phone, they can tell what to say by which 800 number the call comes in on.

Interesting!  I’m going to ask next time I call.

[MollieBee]

Hello! We just booked an Oat tour of Egypt with pre-trip to Jerusalem & Jordan for 1/14/21 to 2/5/21. Anyone else going??  Actually just canceled a similar Viking Egypt tour as it turns out, once OAT finally posted their dates, that Oat’s trip is around $10,00 less than what we’d already paid Viking! OAT actually includes Masada, which Viking doesn’t go to at all, & Abu Simbel at no extra cost ( Viking charged $700 more). We do love traveling with Viking but are looking forward to OAT. We know the level of luxury  isn’t the same but have read  excellent Reviews of OAT.

[CPT Trips]

The website shows availability for -

https://www.oattravel.com/trips/small-ship-adventures/middle-east/egypt-and-the-eternal-nile-by-private-classic-river-yacht/2020/datesandprices?icid=prnavsb_dandp

and

https://www.oattravel.com/trips/small-ship-adventures/middle-east/ancient-egypt-the-nile-river/2020/datesandprices?icid=prnavsb_dandp

 

If you dig a little in the specific trip pages, you can find traveler reviews.
 

Their forums are not very active but they may be helpful looking for info on trips.

https://www.oattravel.com/community/travel-forum?icid=global:whybrand:community:travelforum

or

https://www.gct.com/community/travel-forum?icid=global:whybrand:community:travelforum

 

The crew on their ships make up for any lack of aesthetic luxury. I have been uniformly impressed by the quality of their program directors/trip leaders. 

[EllaDuChien]

14 hours ago, MollieBee said:

Hello! We just booked an Oat tour of Egypt with pre-trip to Jerusalem & Jordan for 1/14/21 to 2/5/21. Anyone else going??  Actually just canceled a similar Viking Egypt tour as it turns out, once OAT finally posted their dates, that Oat’s trip is around $10,00 less than what we’d already paid Viking! OAT actually includes Masada, which Viking doesn’t go to at all, & Abu Simbel at no extra cost ( Viking charged $700 more). We do love traveling with Viking but are looking forward to OAT. We know the level of luxury  isn’t the same but have read  excellent Reviews of OAT.

 

I did the OAT Egypt& the Eternal Nile in September with the Jordan Pre-Trip extension.  I can tell you that to date, it is the most amazing trip I have ever been on.  The trip leaders were the best I have ever had and the small group size (16 on our tour), and small ship (10 cabin private dahabeya) meant that we could stop at places that the larger ships could not.  We watched the big Nile boats (including the Viking ship Ra) and I have to say, I was very glad we did not choose Viking for this trip.  We had so many cool experiences that we were only able to do as a small group.  We were also able to get to the big sites at different times than the larger tours so we were hardly ever crowded, even at the pyramids and Abu Simbal. 

 

I loved that trip so much, I am planning to do it again with my adult kids in the future.   

[MollieBee]

On 1/6/2020 at 1:30 AM, PatriciaF said:

We did the Dead Sea on the Jordan portion of the trip.  But most Masada excursions include it..we just didn’t have a towel to bring and one wasn’t available to rent at the beach we stopped at on the Israel side.  Not too much downtown time...we did the market tour and dinner in Cairo and the Coptic Quarter tour on the return day.  The first day in Luxor we spent the time after lunch on the ship unpacking and checking out the ship.  After dinner we went to the Luxor Temple..that was stunning with the lights.  But..we had a couple of people that felt exhausted Due to the time change and after the flight to Luxor, the visits before lunch. Checking in on board and doing the evening tour, they couldn’t do the Valley of the Kings...if you are feeling tired, skip the Luxor Temp,e and do the Valley of the Kings

5 minutes ago, EllaDuChien said:

 

I did the OAT Egypt& the Eternal Nile in September with the Jordan Pre-Trip extension.  I can tell you that to date, it is the most amazing trip I have ever been on.  The trip leaders were the best I have ever had and the small group size (16 on our tour), and small ship (10 cabin private dahabeya) meant that we could stop at places that the larger ships could not.  We watched the big Nile boats (including the Viking ship Ra) and I have to say, I was very glad we did not choose Viking for this trip.  We had so many cool experiences that we were only able to do as a small group.  We were also able to get to the big sites at different times than the larger tours so we were hardly ever crowded, even at the pyramids and Abu Simbal. 

 

I loved that trip so much, I am planning to do it again with my adult kids in the future.   

Thank you very much for your feedback, your experience sounded wonderful. However, we are going on one of the larger ships with OAT, the Nefertiti. 

[EllaDuChien]

@MollieBee I am sure you will have a great time!  The OAT tour guides are some of the best in the industry, and I have sailed Viking and others before, and enjoyed them as well but the OAT guides were incredible!

You are going at the perfect time as well.  In September it was sometimes over 110 degrees on our walks!

[MollieBee]

I appreciate your comments re: OAT. You’ve given me first hand confirmation on what other travelers have written. We’ll be flying into Jerusalem a few days earlier so that will be fun to explore. Now to wait 1 year to leave!!

[Barrheadlass]

I’m leaving in less than 5 weeks for the Eternal Nile trip with OAT, with the pretrip to Jordan.  It’ll be my 17th trip with the company, so I know I won’t be disappointed, but it is so great to read your comments, Ella!

[MollieBee]

17 hours ago, Barrheadlass said:

I’m leaving in less than 5 weeks for the Eternal Nile trip with OAT, with the pretrip to Jordan.  It’ll be my 17th trip with the company, so I know I won’t be disappointed, but it is so great to read your comments, Ella!

Please share your impressions  when you return- Safe Travels!!