Tour company recommendations for Jordan and Egypt
 

Does anyone have any recommendations for tour companies in Jordan and Egypt? I'm looking for someone who can organise private itineraries rather than travel as a group.

I used Atlas tours this summer for a private week long tour in Jordan. They were extremely responsive and everything went according to plan, and basically planned the trip at the last minute for me. The driver was great. I planned my trip at the last minute so I didn't get to do much research into the hotels, however, and other than the hotel that I specifically requested at the dead sea and the camp at wadi rum, I did not care for the hotels.
I would recommend them though. I think they also do egypt, but i'm not positive about that. Depending upon how much you care about hotels, I would just do some research on the hotels first. http://www.atlastours.net/

We have used EgyptMagic.com twice with superb results. A tad on the high side, pricewise, but I think that's normal for private touring.

Try Wildland Adventures (www.Wildland.com) -- it's a small company which has received awards for it's eco friendly tourism. They have an agent who handles Egypt & Jordan -- Anne Morrison. For Egypt they work in tandem with an Egyptian agency. I'm not sure how they handle Jordan. The other people I had contact with from Emeco were all delightful.

I went with them by myself to Egypt on a 4 week private trip last January. My guides were Egyptians (both Islamic & Coptic) educated, intelligent, fun, and fluent in English.

My husband and I just returned (2 weeks ago) from a 2 week private trip to Egypt through Egypt Highlights. They also do Jordon and I have heard many good things about them.
www.egypthighlights.com

Whatever you decide, have a terrific trip. Egypt is the most amazing place.

Yes, I can recommend Tut Egypt Tours. www.tutegypt.com. They specialize in custom tours and did a great job for us.

I recently returned from a trip to Egypt. ahmed hamed" <[email protected] was recommended to us by several of my husband's colleagues. He organized a private 12 day trip for us in Cairo & Nile River. He organized an itinerary for us at the last moment. It was just my husband and myself and Ahmed organized everything. We felt like we were VIPs. He greeted us at the airport and helped us through the visa desk, drove us to hotel and made sure our accommodations were perfect. Picked us up every day and night in a clean new airconditioned minivan. Always had a private driver for us. He included everything in our tour, hotels, entrance fees, most meals as he took us to very nice restaurants. All site seeing, Pyramids, sight and sound show in Cairo, Museum, shopping, bazaar, any side trips, Sakara, train to Luxor, 4 night cruise down the Nile, all sights down the Nile, all transportation, flight to Abu Simbel, etc. etc. Everything we needed we had. He could have connected us with guides in the different cities, since we were only 2 people, but he traveled with us on the train, on cruise it was like having a friend on vacation with us when we wanted it. He chose to do this because he knew that we might not be satisfied if everything wasn't perfect. He mentioned he organizes trips to Jordan as well. Ahmed is a private guide, educated and speaks English very well. We've always traveled on our own to many places around the world, but since this was a last minute trip we decided to have someone organize everything for us. It was wonderful not having to worry about anything. We decided on what we wanted to see and accomplish and he organized it all. Absolutely everything was included in the price, except drinks of course. And best of all, it was an extremely good price. Please contact him and get a quote. Mention our names Mike and Wanda Haley and he will make sure to give you VIP treatment. He depends on referrals and bends over backwards to make your trip "perfect." and he truly did. The only thing I would change is that I would fly to Luxor instead of taking the sleeper car train. Even though it was an experience, the train wasn't as nice as the ones out of Beijing to Xi'an. I was a bit tired sleeping on an overnight train that shook a lot. The ride just wasn't as smooth as I expected. If interested, I can forward to you the itinerary he set up for us. We stayed at the Mena House in El Giza. I can't impress upon you enough the emotions of waking up to the pyramids every morning. Also sitting on the balcony and having a glass of wine and watching the light show from the balcony was breathtaking. This was a life long dream of mine come true. All of our trips have been wonderful, but this one was the "best vacation ever." I will admit we stayed in the new section of the hotel, which was once a palace, the rooms weren't all that fancy, but to be able to have those views was magical. He also was able to get us much lower rates at the hotel than if we tried to reserve over the internet. Believe me, I checked. OOne of the highlights of our trip was that he took me to a local wedding. We were walking by and saw all these people having fun at a wedding (August is the favorite month for weddings). He took me up to the wedding party, family and they invited me to dance. What a treat. They welcomed this american stranger and made us feel very welcomed at their party.