Nov. 6 2005 OAT trip to Jordan and Egypt
 

If you are booked on this trip, please respond. My husband and I are confirmed. Would love to chat and exchange info.

A couple of people just returned from this trip. You can read their posts by looking under Egypt in March. It sounds like they had a wonderful trip. We're leaving in just a few weeks!

I'm doing the OAT trip to Egypt on September 24, so I'll certainly post a trip report when I get back. But if anyone else is going on the September 24 trip, I'd love to hear from them.

We returned from OAT's Egypt trip with Jordan extension on April 16. If you would like our write-up, contact us at [email protected] We could not have been more pleased with all arrangements.

USNR - please don't start one of those threads that get hundreds of requests for someone to email a trip report. That's what the BOARD is for! Many of us would undoubtedly like to see your report - we've love for you to post it! Thanks,
Karen

I'm looking for someone doing the OAT trip, leaving for Jordan November 20. The Jordan extension is first, followed by the Egypt trip.

Bobby Sue

Hi pp_c,

We have contacted Egypt Highlights. We are planning on traveling in Dec. 2006. I would love to hear your experience with them. Any problems with wiring them money in advance? What ship were you on?
According to Walla we can't book anything until July. It's really hard to wait until then. We already have our airfare and want to put money down so we know we are really going. Since we are going high season our rates are somewhat higher.

We have booked with Egypt Highlights for this upcoming September. Just for the record, we had absolutely no problems with the money transfer. Also, just for anyone going, I went to a flight aggregator, www.cheapflights.com and ended up booking tickets LA to Cairo via A'dam on KLM for $900.00 (incl. tax/fees) through airline consolidators.. this was the best price I was able to find particularly as it was directly from LA.

Hi Thyra,

What ship are you on? What hotels did Egypt Highlights book for you?
We are so excited about going to Egypt. It's really hard to wait until Dec.

Hello Anitas,

Actually we aren't doing a cruise, we are doing a felucca and then some desert camping instead.. but we did upgrade our hotels from 3 to 4/5 star
Cairo: Sheraton Royal Gardens
Luxor: Le Meridien
Unfortunately I can't think of the hotel in Aswan.. oh yeah, Movenpick I believe, (I have all of my paperwork at my office). Just so you know.. I emailed 35 references for Egypt Highlights from countries all over the globe and the resonses were completely amazing! We also opted for the Abu Simbel flight because I heard it was a must see!

Boy, you sure are correct about the excitement factor!.. I am counting the days!!! No doubt you will have better weather in December then we will in September. I promise that I will post a full and detailed trip report upon returning.. If anything comes up in advance I will let you know... I am soooooooo excited.

Hi Thyra,

Thanks for the info. Can't wait to see your post.

We are planning on booking with Egyptian Highlights for November. Will be interested in hearing your reports.
Also, who did you book travel insurance with? Frommer's Budget Travel seems to have good prices.

When will Egypt Highlights actually book your tour for November? We were told that they don't start booking Winter until July.

Hey There,

I actually went to a website www.insuremytrip.com entered our information and got quotes from about 50 carriers. I ended up booking with a company called
HTH Worldwide for the price of flight and tour combined. I like what they covered and they got good stars, it was $198.00 for two people for $4500.00 worth of trip.

Hi Pamela,

When I spoke to Egypt Highlights they told me that since my tour was not until December 2005 that they wouldn't actually book my tour until July. I didn't want to send them $2500 before I need to. When you book through them how far in advance did they set up your tour?

Thanks for all your information.

Thanks Pamela for the info. I can't wait. Sounds like your trip was awesome. Your tour sounds real similar to ours but we are going to fly to Abu and also fly to Aswan rather than taking the train. We also added the balloon ride. I guess I will have to be patient until we can book it. July is only 2 months away.

Four of us who travel with OAT frequently will be in Jordan / Egypt from Dec. 18, 2005 to Jan 6 2006. We are eager to hear reports, and are particularly interested in advice re: desired seating on Egyptair. Also, I have read that it serves no alcohol, but passengers can BYOB. Is this true?

Oct. 28,2005 OAT trip to Egypt--anyone going, we would love to 'meet' you & talk before we leave.

We were on this trip May-June. A couple words of advice.
1) EgyptAir would not allow us to request seats until we arrived at the airport.
While waiting at the gate, about an hour before boarding at JFK, we were all told to "line up here". No explaination. Our carryons were all hand checked and we were then seated on the other side of the gate. If you needed to use the restroom you had to ask permission to leave the area.
2) Make sure you have a carry-on! Either 5 or 6 people out of the 31 (2 groups) lost their luggage. One person didn't get hers until a couple days before we were due to return home. For the others the average wait was 5 days.
3) Unlike other OAT trips this one seems very heavy on shopping and visits to factory stores. A dreadful experience in my opinion. When we were visiting the papyrus store there was a perfume shop in the same shopping center. One person went there during this time and she paid less than others who went to the same perfume shop a day or so later as an optional tour.
4) If you are buying anything have the guide help you--it seemed they were always able to get better prices. Also, people who held out until the end of the shopping time at each shop seemed to get a better price or sometimes a "freebie" thrown in. I'm not a shopper but this is how it appeared to me.
5) Almost 3/4 of us did become ill (within a couple hours of each other). Cipro and imodium were greatly appreciated.

We had an excellent guide in Jordan and an OK guide in Egypt. The Egypt guide was obviously glad that this was her last tour for the season she was not of the quality I've come to expect from OAT.
We did enjoy our trip--it was just not quite up to the quality nor did it provide the variety of experiences I've come to expect from OAT. I guess it was more of a "typical" tour.
If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them.

Oh, my, KP, that doesn't sound very encouraging. Did your itinerary vary greatly from the published one? In looking at my itinerary, I don't see a whole lot of shopping time. Mind you, I don't mind shopping, but that is not the focus of my trip. Regarding the illness, did you think it was something you ate or the climate? Also, it sounds like I need to put my soap powder in my carryon.