Lady Egypt Tour Guides
 

I have been working with a few different tour agencies, and I am trying to decide which one to use for our trip to Egypt and Jordan next February. I know which hotels I want to stay in throughout and have narrowed the cruises down to two companies that work well with my itinerary.

Lady Egypt has been very easy to communicate with and their price is very good. My only concern is the quality of the tour guide (Egyptologist) in Cairo and the guide for our three days in Jordan. The rest of our trip will be on a Nile Cruise ship, either the Alexander the Great or the M.S. Nile Adventurer, and I know the guides and tours are good from these ships.

I have also spoken to Abercrombie and Kent and Cox and King and their prices are higher, but I have a good comfort level regarding the quality of the guides they provide. I would like to pay less if I could, but I do not want to sacrifice quality.

So does anyone want to comment on the quality of the guides Lady Egypt provides in Cairo and Jordan/Petra.

Thanks so much for any help.

I haven't been on my Lady Egypt tour yet so cannot tell you about the quality. I did enquire with them about the fact of not liking a tour guide. I was told that being a tour guide is considered a prestigious job so they all work hard, and yes, if I was not happy I could change guides. Thanks.

I went to both Egypt and Jordan with Lady Egypt and the guides were superb!! They had extensive knowledge about their countries and the history and I had no complaints about their service or knowledge. I do not think you will sacrifice quality with Lady Egypt.

My guides were all awesome. I was kind of a geek cause I would read up on each site before going. The information provided was very accurate and the guides provided me with extra facts that made it more educational. Of course, each egyptologist has their favorite niche and will obviously talk more about those things, but it did not take away from the experience.

Just a note for Jordan (if you book with Lady Egypt), you will get a driver who will be your tour rep through out trip. They are NOT guides and are not allowed to go with you in the sites. They are there to make sure you have a good time and that your needs are accomodated.

doc

doctorjohn, my experience with Lady Egypt in Jordan was completely different. We had both a driver and a guide in Jordan and our guide most certainly did go into the sites with us. If memory serves you had a private tour of Jordan? Maybe that's why it was different for you.

I was very happy with our tour guide from Lady Egypt. He stayed with us throughout our Egypt tour (Cairo,Luxor,Aswan and the Nile cruise). His name is Aamer Ibrahim.

Yukon_XL

We also thought our Lady Egypt guide was excellent - his name is Mahmoud, he's from Luxor, but he was our guide in Cairo, Aswan and Luxor.

I'm going to be in good hands with Lady Egypt it seems.. everyone loved their guides!

I did a private, 2 week tour with Lady Egypt and thought the guides were quite good. We had different guides in the different places where we traveled around the country. Our guide in Cairo and Alexandria was especially well-informed and passionate about his country. We found the guides to be knowledgeable, flexible, and willing to cater to our interests.

I have an MA in classical archaeology and I'm currently teaching a course on ancient Egypt, so I was pretty particular about the guides. Lady Egypt was extremely reliable and professional, and the price is excellent for the services you get. I think you will be happy with them!

cmp6e; Would you mind posting the names of the guides you had? Thanks.

My guide in Cairo and Alexandria was:

Khaled Elhennawy:
email- [email protected]
[email protected]

He works with Lady Egypt, but also arranges his own tours I think.

I will have to dig through my information from the trip and see if I can find the other guide's name who was with us in Aswan and Luxor.

Thank you, cmpoe. It is always good to have specific names. I try to leave few things to chance when i plan a trip. Knowing that a particular guide comes with sterling recommendations is excellent information.

cmp6E - Thanks for posting the name of your guide who works with Lady Egypt. I am going on my second trip to Egypt, and have an MA in history, so am very much wanting guides who have a passion for history along with knowledge. I would be interested in learning the names of your other guides in Aswan and Luxor.

Thank you for your information. Can't wait to go back!

I am very glad to read all the recommendations for Lady Egypt and her guides, as I may soon be using same. Can anyone tell me, on a practical note: will I need to pay the entrance fees for my guide and driver at each site we visit? This will make a difference to my budget calculations...

Licensed Egyptologists (which is what will be guiding you through Lady Egypt) all have a pass to get in free. Sometimes there is a fee of LE5 for the van to get inside an area like the Pyramids, but that may be covered in your fee to LE anyway.

celticsinger, I used LE and we never paid admission for guides in either Egypt or Jordan. We never paid for the van to get in either.

I would highly recommend asking for Youssef as your driver in Jordan. Lady Egypt contracts with Desert Horizons there. He picks you up at the airport and is with you the entire time although will have a guide with you for Petra. The guy is a doll-around 34 with a business degree and very comfortable to be with for a week. He is flexible,funny and friendly along with being a great driver.Tell him that Debbie and her family from Chicago who he had in December send him hugs!

<<<will I need to pay the entrance fees for my guide and driver at each site we visit? >>>

All the fees (including yours) are included in the price you pay LE. When we would arrive at a site, we would wait while our guide went to get tickets, then he would hand them out to us. He never had to have a ticket, as Deb said.

I just came back from a two weeks stay in Egypt that was arranged through Lady Egypt. The guides I had in Cairo, Luxor and Answan were very good. They were friendly, easy to talk to, funny, extremelyh easy to get along with, and knowledgeable with their Egyptian histories. I don't think you'll be disappointed with LE.

Too add to the collection of rave reviews ......
We had Aamer Ibrahim when we were there late last year - he was fabulous! Great sense of humour, nothing was too much trouble, really good to talk to about all aspects of Egypt - both modern and historical. He was intent on making more friends of Egypt - and was very successful. Also very flexible and adapatable when it came me changing my mind about what I wanted to see!
I was unwell for a short time & he was an absolute life saver with getting access the special yellow tablets etc.

Hi We returned from Egypt last week and our private tour was put together by Lady Egypt
With respect to the guides-I found them all knowledgeable and fun to be with
There is a pool of licensed guides who study for about 4 years to be guides and they all have different availabilities
Our guides did not work specifically for Lady Egypt-some had finished stints with large tour groups and were available for us-luck of the draw We were quite pleased Sandy

Queen Egypt. We too had Aamer in Luxor and Aswan and loved him. I agree that nothing was too much trouble. If I had asked him to walk in to town at 3 am to get me a fanta he would of. I also loved how he called tourists "friends of Egypt". He introduced me to his tourist buddies as his "Australian Wife"!

I LOVE these responses! Now I am really starting to look forward to my December trip with Lady Egypt! Thanks everyone!

mmc.. you will love the service Lady Egypt provids. I was originally going to go with Scenic Tours as it was the only luxury tour company I knew of in Australia. Thank god I read everyones favourable commentsa bout Lady Egypt. Every time I saw a "Scenic Tourer" I slyly chuckled to myself as I am sure I was having a way more pleasurable time than they were, and at a far cheaper price for my own guide & driver!!

Can someone tell me approximately what it costs per person for a private guide/driver who will stay with us from beginning to end of our 10 days /9 nights trip to Cairo and Nile cruise? We will be hiring through the tour company who is organizing our trip and who is working with our travel agent.

<i>We will be hiring through the tour company who is organizing our trip and who is working with our travel agent.</i>

Won't <u>they</u> tell you the price? I'm sure both the tour company and the travel agent will mark up the price of the guide.

Yes, TC, they did. I would just like some idea of pricing so I can compare.

Marianna, why don't you cut out the travel agent and organise it yourself. It was so easy.

I did a private guide and driver 24 day (I think, or may of been 25 day) tour for $4500 US per person (hubbie and I in Egypt & Jordan). I thought that was a great price for what I received.

In that price the hotels we stayed at (many were suites not rooms) included Mena House Oberoi, Cairo Marriott, Movenpick Aswan, Steigenber Luxor, Dead Sea Marriott. We flew from Cairo to Aswan, Nile cruise, flew Luxor to Cairo and Cairo to Jordan & Return.

I just re-read the original post about the quality of the guides. I had 3 Egyptologists whilst with Lady Egypt In Sept/oct 2010 and I found each of them to be magnificent in terms of knowledge and information. In regards to just looking after us they were all fabulous, but particularly Aamer in Luxor, Aswan and on the Nile Cruise. He went out of his way at every moment to make sure we were happy and havig a good time. I would recommend any of them. Even when they had arranged romantic dinners for my new husband and I we often asked our guides to join us as we thoroughly enjoyed being with them.

MissGreen - Did you get a business card from Aamer? What is his phone number?

CC - if you want, email me about Aamer... [email protected]