Egypt -private tour?

[Luckycruising]

Is there any other option than the ship tour for Egypt? I can't find anything. Any recommendations?

[Reijo]

You might do a search on the internet for Egyptian tours. Try to find one that others have recommended. My husband and I along with my brother and his wife spent some type in Egypt back in 2000. We had two WONDERFUL tour guides. Mohammed was connected with the "Marriott Palace" in Cairo and was excellent. He invited us all to his home for lunch which we later found out was quite an honor to be invited to the home of your guide. I'm sure that there are MANY Mohammed's that are tour guides though. Hala was our guide in Luxor and she was a lovely young woman who had a degree from Cairo University with a world of knowledge. We stayed at the Sherator in Luxor so she MIGHT have been connected with them.

 

Be prepared for them to stop several times during the day to pray. They will usually find a place such as the Mohammed Ali Mosque for you to spend some time at while they pray. They also take you to many places of their "friends" so you can buy a few things.

 

I would be careful though of who I went with in Egypt. Make sure they are either connected with the ship or come with recommendations.

 

It's a great place, wish we had spent more time there.

[CAT GIRL]

We used DeCastro Tours. It was a private tour with just me and

my husband in the van and it cost less than the cruise ship. The cost

included a driver and an egyptologist who accompanied us in the

Egyption Museum which was very helpful. We were back before the

ship's tour buses came in but got a much more personal tour.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

[eh2zed]

We used Memphis Tours www.memphistours.com Very pleased. Saw more for less than Shorex.

[whale-watcher]

Our cc group is planning to use nile blue tours... have read positive reviews of them as well.

[Spikesgirl]

We have friends that are doing a Grand Circle Tour of Egypt in March and we are booking R. Crusoe & sons for our trip next year. Just a couple more for you to check out. For us, the selling point were the sites visited and length of stay in various spots, as well as accomodations. You might want to decide first what is and isn't important to you to do or see before you start looking, as well as how much you want to spend - there are a lot of companies out there!

 

Charlie

[WeBeGone]

We used Nile Blue and they were just great!

[MercedMike]

Is there any other option than the ship tour for Egypt? I can't find anything. Any recommendations?

 

UMMM -- welcome to the board. You know, if you scroll down just the first page there are about five or six threads on this subject there. I guess we can go all over it again but a whole lot has been said already.

 

We loved Egyptian Express. Check out our review and pics at http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/holyland2.html

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

[msboo18]

We just returned and used Nile Blue Tours to arrange a private tour for 9 - we had a driver, an escort, and a husband/wife tour guide team - they were WONDERFUL!! Very informative and protective of our group. Met us at the pier with a sign, headed straight to the pyramids, then they took us to a great restaurant with an awesome view of the pyramids (they ordered ahead to save time!), then off to the gov't approved shopping area (no real good bargins, better bargains at the pier), but we were able to order our cartouches ahead of time so we picked them up - beautiful at reasonable prices - a must buy item! Then off to the museum where they walked thru with us and were very informative! WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE - we felt very safe with them and were back to the ship with plenty of time. You can email them and ask for a quote - the price was very reasonable and we didn't have to wait for 60 people to board the bus at each stop so we enjoyed our time even more!

[msboo18]

We just returned and used Nile Blue Tours to arrange a private tour for 9 - we had a driver, an escort, and a husband/wife tour guide team - they were WONDERFUL!! Very informative and protective of our group. Met us at the pier with a sign, headed straight to the pyramids, then they took us to a great restaurant with an awesome view of the pyramids (they ordered ahead to save time!), then off to the gov't approved shopping area (no real good bargins, better bargains at the pier), but we were able to order our cartouches ahead of time so we picked them up - beautiful at reasonable prices - a must buy item! Then off to the museum where they walked thru with us and were very informative! WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE - we felt very safe with them and were back to the ship with plenty of time. You can email them and ask for a quote - the price was very reasonable and we didn't have to wait for 60 people to board the bus at each stop so we enjoyed our time even more!

[Andiamo!]

We just returned and used Nile Blue Tours to arrange a private tour for 9 - we had a driver, an escort, and a husband/wife tour guide team - they were WONDERFUL!! Very informative and protective of our group. Met us at the pier with a sign, headed straight to the pyramids, then they took us to a great restaurant with an awesome view of the pyramids (they ordered ahead to save time!), then off to the gov't approved shopping area (no real good bargins, better bargains at the pier), but we were able to order our cartouches ahead of time so we picked them up - beautiful at reasonable prices - a must buy item! Then off to the museum where they walked thru with us and were very informative! WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE - we felt very safe with them and were back to the ship with plenty of time. You can email them and ask for a quote - the price was very reasonable and we didn't have to wait for 60 people to board the bus at each stop so we enjoyed our time even more!

 

Ditto everything you said about Nile Blue Tours. You can't go wrong with them.

[whale-watcher]

Thanks for the feedback on Nile Blue and Egypt in general... we are really excited about this cruise, and it's great to read such positive reviews!

[Toto2Kansas]

We just returned and used Nile Blue Tours to arrange a private tour for 9 - we had a driver, an escort, and a husband/wife tour guide team - they were WONDERFUL!! Very informative and protective of our group. Met us at the pier with a sign, headed straight to the pyramids, then they took us to a great restaurant with an awesome view of the pyramids (they ordered ahead to save time!), then off to the gov't approved shopping area (no real good bargins, better bargains at the pier), but we were able to order our cartouches ahead of time so we picked them up - beautiful at reasonable prices - a must buy item! Then off to the museum where they walked thru with us and were very informative! WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE - we felt very safe with them and were back to the ship with plenty of time. You can email them and ask for a quote - the price was very reasonable and we didn't have to wait for 60 people to board the bus at each stop so we enjoyed our time even more!

 

I couldn't agree more. Did this same thing in November, although there were a lot more than 9 of us. :) Nile Blue Tours and Hazem did a fantastic job showing us the most of Cairo in the day and a half we had there.

Even with a bus load everything couldn't have gone smoother. It was a great introduction to Egypt.

Next time, I will probably try Nile Blue Tours with a smaller group as it would mean more time at the places that interested us most. And I would skip the state approved shopping, we have our cartouches (which we also pre-ordered and they were ready and waiting for us), so shopping at the Bazzar would be more to my liking. It was great though, and I can't wait to return someday soon. Thank you Hazem and Nile Blue Tours, it was the very best of the best!