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Anyone Recently Used Ramses Tours?

CRUISERTN

By CRUISERTN,
in Africa & Middle East

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kismetique

kismetique

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Posted
4 hours ago, ducruiser01 said:

Both Viking Mars and Azamara Journey cruises make stops at different ports in Egypt.

I'll be on the NCL Dawn in November and we have 2 stops in Egypt as well. The stop in Safaga is an overnight!

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smackalips

smackalips

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Just booked with Ramses. They have been very communicative. Haitham that have dealt with has been responsive and has answered all my question. Nada has also been great! Two days I Egypt aboard the Celebrity Infinity in March 2024

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buck32

buck32

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I'm very excited. We just booked Ramses private tour for Nov 4 2023 in Alexandria and Nov 5 2023 from port ! I did a lot of research and choose Ramses. They respond quickly and had very good reviews. I'll keep you posted how everything went. We are on NCL Gem nov 1 to 11 2023

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Dididi

Dididi

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Another vote for Ramses Tours and Nada:

 

Three days before we boarded the Azamara Pursuit in April, our itinerary was changed due to security concerns.  From a four-day stay in Israel (two in Haifa, two in Ashdod),we ended up with an overnight stay in Alexandria and two new Greek ports of call.  We could have waited to board to find out what tours Azamara would offer us but wanted to make the most of this unexpected visit to Egypt -- our first.  I reached out to Ramses via online chat and then WhatsApp.  Nada put together the overnight tour we wanted (version #3 from Alexandria, customized) despite the tight turnaround.  

 

We walked a block beyond the port's entrance to meet our driver Mohammed.  With a longer lead time, there would have been time to request permission to pick us up inside the port.  Three hours later, we were standing in front of the pyramids in Giza with our licensed, professional guide Paula.  Wow!  We rode camels (a lot of fun), saw the pyramids and the sphinx up close, visited Sakkara and Memphis, ate lunch and went to a perfume/oil shop (ok, not my preference but it was a very hot day and needed a break indoors).  We stayed at the Hilton Cairo. It was amazing to see the Nile at sunset from the hotel pool.  Our dinner was at the pool level's grill, fantastic. On our second day we had buffet breakfast at the hotel -- superb mango juice -- before a long visit to the Archeological Museum.  Paula showed us the "must sees" and his personal favorites, before we saw King Tut's treasures.  We went to Mamluk to get cartouches (something we wanted to do) and then spent the afternoon in Old Cairo, visiting two Coptic churches with our guide who's a Copt.  We were back onboard in Alexandria with hours to spare.

 

In sum, yes, we would recommend Ramses Tours.  We saw everything on the schedule and felt safe throughout our stay in Egypt. Because of the three-hour drive each way, it made sense to us to spend the night in Cairo.  Our overnight tour (including the hotel stay) was $270pp while the one-day Cairo tour offered by the ship was $239pp.  That was a large bus tour unlike our private Ramses tour.  

 

Final tip: the Alexandria "cruise" port is not large so walking to the port exit only took approximately 15 minutes.  There's nothing to see nearby, no cultural places of interest. 

8F497830-8A0F-4C54-8E40-A5CF72C3444F.heic

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Cardinal Gal

Cardinal Gal

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We used Ramses in May on our Silver Spirit cruise. We were picked up in Alexandria and driven in a very clean van to Giza and Cairo. Our guide, Ayoub, was fantastic. We did the pyramids, a museum, lunch, boat ride, and visited several bazaars. It was a very long day, but Ayoub made it a great one. 
This was the second time we have used Ramses. The first was preCovid. We were picked up in Safaga and visited the Valley of the kings. Again, an excellent experience. 
Their office staff is very responsive when making arrangements. 

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DonSt

DonSt

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We have just booked private tours from Safaga to Luxor and from Alexandria to the pyramids for a group of 8 with Ramses Tours. We are on Virgin Voyages Resilient Lady in April/May 2024 so a long way off, but Ramses Tours were very responsive, easy to deal with and have a good selection of customisable tours. So far so good!

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shadow10

shadow10

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I had used Ramasside to book small group shore excursions in Egypt back in 2020. When we had to unfortunately cancel due to the world shutting down, I was extremely impressed by the way Haitham Masoud handled the the cancellation of all the tours booked.

We are now finally are doing our dream trip through the Suez Canal in 2024,so I had no hesitation in contacting Haitham again to organise some small group tours from Safaga and Ain El Sokhna ports.

Once again, the process has been seamless, questions answered in a timely manner and deposit process (overnight trip) for multiple nationalities was stress free.

I am certain we will have a wonderful time and will come back to post our experience after our cruise in 2024

Lesley 😀 

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ladylurkalot

ladylurkalot

Posted
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On 6/4/2023 at 11:44 PM, buck32 said:

I'm very excited. We just booked Ramses private tour for Nov 4 2023 in Alexandria and Nov 5 2023 from port ! I did a lot of research and choose Ramses. They respond quickly and had very good reviews. I'll keep you posted how everything went. We are on NCL Gem nov 1 to 11 2023

Hi Buck

We are sailing on the NCL Gem just after you, departing Istanbul 22 Nov, and have also been looking at arranging an overnight tour from Alexandria

However, someone in our Roll Call group said they checked with NCL, and were told this wasn't possible?  I wondered if you had any information on this please?  I'm wondering if we'd need additional visas?  

 

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ladylurkalot

ladylurkalot

Posted
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On 6/5/2023 at 10:39 PM, Dididi said:

Another vote for Ramses Tours and Nada:

 

Three days before we boarded the Azamara Pursuit in April, our itinerary was changed due to security concerns.  From a four-day stay in Israel (two in Haifa, two in Ashdod),we ended up with an overnight stay in Alexandria and two new Greek ports of call.  We could have waited to board to find out what tours Azamara would offer us but wanted to make the most of this unexpected visit to Egypt -- our first.  I reached out to Ramses via online chat and then WhatsApp.  Nada put together the overnight tour we wanted (version #3 from Alexandria, customized) despite the tight turnaround.  

 

We walked a block beyond the port's entrance to meet our driver Mohammed.  With a longer lead time, there would have been time to request permission to pick us up inside the port.  Three hours later, we were standing in front of the pyramids in Giza with our licensed, professional guide Paula.  Wow!  We rode camels (a lot of fun), saw the pyramids and the sphinx up close, visited Sakkara and Memphis, ate lunch and went to a perfume/oil shop (ok, not my preference but it was a very hot day and needed a break indoors).  We stayed at the Hilton Cairo. It was amazing to see the Nile at sunset from the hotel pool.  Our dinner was at the pool level's grill, fantastic. On our second day we had buffet breakfast at the hotel -- superb mango juice -- before a long visit to the Archeological Museum.  Paula showed us the "must sees" and his personal favorites, before we saw King Tut's treasures.  We went to Mamluk to get cartouches (something we wanted to do) and then spent the afternoon in Old Cairo, visiting two Coptic churches with our guide who's a Copt.  We were back onboard in Alexandria with hours to spare.

 

In sum, yes, we would recommend Ramses Tours.  We saw everything on the schedule and felt safe throughout our stay in Egypt. Because of the three-hour drive each way, it made sense to us to spend the night in Cairo.  Our overnight tour (including the hotel stay) was $270pp while the one-day Cairo tour offered by the ship was $239pp.  That was a large bus tour unlike our private Ramses tour.  

 

Final tip: the Alexandria "cruise" port is not large so walking to the port exit only took approximately 15 minutes.  There's nothing to see nearby, no cultural places of interest. 

8F497830-8A0F-4C54-8E40-A5CF72C3444F.heic 2.29 MB · 13 downloads

 

Hi Diddi

 

Your tour with Ramses sounds great, and I love your photos!

 

We are sailing on NCL Gem in Nov, and have 2 days in Alexandria, so I am thinking of booking an overnight tour with Ramses. 

 

I note you were on Azamara, did you have any problems with them regarding staying ashore overnight?  Did you have to get a special visa ?

 

 

 

  

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buck32

buck32

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, ladylurkalot said:

Hi Buck

We are sailing on the NCL Gem just after you, departing Istanbul 22 Nov, and have also been looking at arranging an overnight tour from Alexandria

However, someone in our Roll Call group said they checked with NCL, and were told this wasn't possible?  I wondered if you had any information on this please?  I'm wondering if we'd need additional visas?  

 

we are not doing an overnight tour  Two separate day tours

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monzmom79

monzmom79

Posted
Posted
On 7/6/2023 at 1:04 PM, ladylurkalot said:

Ah, OK ! 

Thanks for replying 😊

I'm on the same cruise @ladylurkalot. My party of 4 and two other parties of 2 have booked the overnight. At this point, I know my party of 4 is doing the overnight and will be back to Alexandria in time for the ship to depart on the 30th.

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monzmom79

monzmom79

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I will be on the NCL Gem November 22-December 4. The ship is scheduled to spend 2 days docked at Alexandria. We have booked Ramses' Tours Cairo Overnight 1 from Alexandria and made the required deposit for our 11/29/23 overnight. Sarah has been great to work with to book the overnight excursion. We're looking forward to this excursion with Ramses Tours.

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sstepson

sstepson

Posted
Posted

Hi guys,

 

New to this thread, but we just booked a RCCL trip for next summer with an overnight in Alexandria. We were originally going to stick to a cruise line excursion, but perusing this thread has made me consider a tour with Ramses. 
 

Just a couple question for those who have used them. I see they have a few “pre-packaged” tours that all do Giza and the Sphinx, coupled with one more activity. (Grand Egyptian Museum, a boat ride on the Nile, etc…)

 

I guess my question is are these tours “customizable”? Could we reach out to them and request a tour that does Giza, the GEM, AND a Nile boat ride? Also, I’m a bit confused about the tour sizes…obviously they get cheaper the more people you have, but there’s also a mention of joining a group tour of 2-35 people. How does that all work?

 

Looking forward to some feedback. Based on this thread and other reviews I’ve seen online, they appear to be a very reputable tour company. 

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Food nut

Food nut

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We booked with them. They are so easy to get along with and much less expensive than ship excursions. 
we are also doing a group of 6 only which I’m looking forward to. 
I don’t know if the customize but it worth a shot. 

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Dididi

Dididi

Posted
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Ladyturkalot,

 

Sorry about the late reply.  Before we went ashore in Alexandria, Egyptian authorities stamped our passports with a "short visit" stamp. That was arranged by Azamara.  All passengers regardless of their plans during our overnight stay (7am arrival, left around 7pm the next day) in Alexandria got the same stamp.  We picked up our passports at reception before leaving the ship that morning. Didn't have to meet with the immigration officers.

 

Other posters,

 

We reached out to Ramses Tours via its chat feature and then communicated with Nada via WhatsApp.  We looked at the several overnight tour options offered and told Nada our preferences.  It was very easy.  

 

As far as group size is concerned, ours was a private tour because there was no time to get together a large group. We learned that the cruise was going to Alexandria on Wednesday night and arrived to Alexandria on Monday.  Because there might be others on your ship who have contacted Ramses Tours, they might have a "large group" tour set up.  You can ask.  Our private overnight tour was only $30pp more than the one-day tour to Cairo offered by the ship.

 

Looking back, the visit to Sakkar (the pyramid with the "steps") was more interesting that we anticipated. In addition to the history (excellent explanation by our guide), you can see the Giza and Dahshur pyramids from a distance and also onsite archeological digs.  

 

I hope all of you have a wonderful cruise.

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