Nile cruises

[shoshona2]

Hi Pat,

 

Have a great trip to Antartica. Please email me at scorpiosheila at yahoo dot com when you return and tell me all about it. My husband still wants to see Antartica some day.

 

Sheila

[squarevanman]

Got back from Thompsons 4T Presidential Nile Cruise less than 12 hours ago. The ship was Nile Commodore and although a bit dated was (to me) full of character. No complaints whatsoever about any asppect of my holiday. Even my two sons (aged 20 and 19) were impressed and felt they would go back again.

[40yearcruiser]

Thanks to all for the wonderful advice. We are taking a pre-trip to Alexandria and post-trip to Jordan as part of our tour. Any suggestions for those destinations?

[grandridge]

We are thinking that our next river cruise (likely in 2011) will be on the Nile. What is the best time of year to sail?

 

Thanks!

 

Cindy

[squarevanman]

We are thinking that our next river cruise (likely in 2011) will be on the Nile. What is the best time of year to sail?

 

Thanks!

 

Cindy

 

The guide on my trip said she does not work June July or August due to the hot weather. November was great not over hot and not so crowded on board or at sites.

[travelite]

We are thinking that our next river cruise (likely in 2011) will be on the Nile. What is the best time of year to sail?

 

Thanks!

 

Cindy

We went mid-January. The weather was great...Spring like. You needed a light jacket in the mornings and evenings. The days were sunny, dry, and in the 70's.

[Ozjohnno]

As you will note this is my first post on these boards so please be gentle with me. I'm not sure if there is any company correlation between Uniworld and Insight Tours but we toured with Insight in April 2008 (great weather conditions) on their "Jewels of the Nile" trip that took us on Lake Nasser on the Prince Abbas and on the Nile on the Miriam. Abu Simbel was included in the price. Neither boat was "new" but we had no complaints and the food was very good and plentiful. I've recommended this trip and company (Insight) to many of my friends. Egypt is such a wonderful country and there are about 100 Wow's per day. Whoever you choose to travel with I'm sure you'll have an outstanding time.

[new salt]

I would echo the remarks above. We followed our Nile cruise with a Lake Nasser cruise on the Eugenie to Abu Simbal (or reverse). I would urge you, obviously subject to your budget and time restraints, to do the same. It was wonderful and unless you plan to visit Egypt again in the future it would be a great shame to miss it.

 

I believe the drive is quite bloody.

[pully8]

it is my understanding that insight, uniworld are part of the same group which also includes trafalgar and others.

if you google THE TRAVEL CORPORATION, the details of their group should be there.

regards.

[shoshona2]

We were in Cairo many years ago and didn't want to return. On our recent Egypt/Jordan cruise/tour, the highlights were Abu Simbel in Egypt and Petra in Jordan. If the tour to Abu Simbel is an extra, it is really well worth the cost since it was awesome. Before going, you must read about the history of who it took seven years to be cut up and moved locations so it wouldn't be underwater when the dam was built. Just Google Abu Simbel.

 

Sheila

[lovetosew]

This post is mostly for the gals; and IMPORTANT I am concerned about the many squat toilets and of course the cleanliness there of. Is there at least one western toilet at each site for those of us who can't squat no matter how hard we try . I intend to take some light medical gloves to use if I have to and of course the usual t.p. and handiwipes.

[daryleann]

Don't know if they are available - we leave next week. But in Asia, there was always one at the end - and about 25 women waiting to use it. I wore skirts and no purse so had an easier time squatting - but don't know how I will do on this trip - older and muscles not as great.:eek: I just bought a refill pkg of baby wipes and put them in a ziplock bag to carry in backpack... just in case. They didn't have that hand sanitizer when we went to Asia; - it would have been a great comfort.

[shoshona2]

We didn't have any trouble with the toilet situation -- tour guide took us to places where they were all western. On day one, our guide gave us a roll of Egyptian coins to give to the person "attending" the toilets. No coin -- you couldn't get in. Some wanted two coins. Before we left, I used my toilet paper down to the last fourth and folded the roll in half. I carried about six of these in a ziplock bag for use. The "attendant" will only give you one piece off her roll.

 

Sheila

[40yearcruiser]

Bumping this up for more input! I'm enjoying all the helpful comments--keep them coming. Anyone on this board been on the OAT Egypt tour?

[daryleann]

Returned safe and sound and just noticed you are still interested. We took the advice of taking half rolls of paper and had one in our backpack each day - used it once or twice. Everyplace was fine. Did have some on our group that gave US dollars to attendant as they never changed the money. We changed a larger bill for coins the first day and used almost all - about 15 coins. (one pound coins /bills = 18 cents so I didn't think that was bad.) One time I didn't take the paper but they still wanted the money so I went ahead and took her paper. :rolleyes:

BTW - dropped my roll the first day into the water on the floor. So be careful - we are all used to having that secured roll on the wall.:p

 

Have a wonderful trip!!

 

Oh - ships: there are hundreds! We ate all meals buffet - so lines. I talked to guide and he said even the large ships did, We had 70 people and it was a long line., I can imagine the lines with 140 persons! So, if you are looking, you might want to see the capacity of each ship, for reference.

[40yearcruiser]

We've also been to Asia so I'm familiar with the "squat" toilets and the necessity of always carrying tissue. I take some with me from home, and replenish my supply if necessary from the hotel bathrooms as we travel.

 

Since we are traveling with OAT there will only be 32 passengers on their private ship. We are divided into two small groups for sightseeing. This will be our fourth OAT tour and we have found that we are spoiled by having the small groups to travel with.

 

A question for those who have been on the Nile: is the river smooth or can we expect some bouncing around? I'm wondering if I need to plan to take some motion-sickness medication.

[daryleann]

River cruises have no motion. However, if you are traveling on Egyptair to Egypt- I felt like a shaken coke can - and expected to explode! Never have bounced so much!!! (but also near the back, as husband keeps reminding me!)

Air to Abu Simbel and Cairo was also very smooth.

[1char]

We toured Egypt with Grand Circle and sailed on the River Anuket. It was a wonderful trip.

 

Hi Paul,

Just saw your message and would like to ask you some questions about your trip to Egypt with GCT.

 

We are taking the GCT trip to Egypt, with the pre-trip to Israel and the post-trip to Jordan. We are leaving this Sat. March 6th. Hopefully you will see this message and have time to respond.

 

Thanks.

[1char]

Sorry, posted twice.

[1char]

We toured Egypt with Grand Circle and sailed on the River Anuket. It was a wonderful trip.

 

We are leaving this Sat. March 6th for the GCT Egypt river cruise. Would like to ask you some questions about your trip.

 

What time of the year did you go, what type of clothing? Thanks.

[daryleann]

I am going to answer as we went to Israel last March and to Petra. Take a coat for Jerusalem... it's in the 'mountains' and was raw a couple days. Petra we were told to dress warm as they had snow. I had layers and was glad as it was very warm, and we carried light jacket and it was still warm in the short sleeved tops. Then a wind storm came up and we were almost to the bus. Those behind us really got blasted and it was miserable on the bus - sand very strong, altho they are used to it.

 

Hope I caught you in time. Tel Aviv was warm for us, then the next day it was drizzly and windy in Jaffa. So always dress in layers or take a coat on the bus.

 

Have a great time!

[travelite]

Any recommendations for Nile cruise ships ?

 

I used SmaTours (http://www.smartours.com). I've taken "many" tours as well as cruises and found them to be excellent. They offer a Nile cruise/tour. I did the add on for Abu Simbel with flights in both directions. I found them reviewed in one of the Frommer Newsletters....positive reviews. They seem to limit adverising and pass the savings on to the traveler.

[daryleann]

travelite: we have always traveled with Smartours - done 8 or so. Love them! However, when we went to Israel, we were contracted out to Gate1 and when I called they said they also did Gate1 in Egypt. Thus, when the sale for Gate1 came up, we canceled the Smartours trip we had booked and taking the Smartours itinerary, we knew which 'optionals' to book! :DWould not do it any other way!

Look forward to several more of Smartours, but if it comes up again, and we can save money by Gate1, I will again use the 'advice' from Smartours ;)

Of course, with new people who discover ST, it is getting harder and harder to book their trips!!:(

[buie]

Has anyone done Gate 1 Egypt on MS Neptune? Any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

 

Stephanie

[cormike1]

We are just back from 2 weeks in Egypt which included 7 days on the Nile. There is lots of security at the Ramses Hilton, the Cairo Museum, on the boat and at the various temples and tombs; evident but not oppressive. We did not have a guard on any of our bus trips which included a full day to Alexandria.

 

We wore long pants and slacks in Cairo and shorts while on the Nile and visiting the sites. We drank bottled water which was also used for brushing teeth, no signs of Pharaoh’s Revenge. Recommend that you obtain Egyptian 1 Pound coins ( worth about 18 cents US) as soon as you arrive in Cairo. They are ideal for paying backsheesh at bathroom breaks.

 

The trip to Abu Simbel was the highlight of journey. We arrived just as the sun was rising, an awesome sight.

 

Let me know if can answer any other questions.

 

Don

Hi Neepawa-Don,

 

If you don't mind could you e-mail me so that I could ask you some questions about your Nile cruise. We live in Brockville so we are just South of Ottawa. We are looking at Insight Tours for next Feb. My e-mail is m.c.bissonnette@sympatico.ca Thanks so much for your help.

 

Corinne