Travel Egypt tours
 

I am interested in the Ramses Nile Tour offered by Travel Egypt, which includes Cairo, Lake Nassar, the Nile and most of the famous sites. I would be interested in any comments from persons who have experience with this operator. The small groups and the accomodations sound great. Also, would you choose March or Sept. (06)?? Thanks

Gamorris:

I used Travel Egypt (AKA South Sinai Travel) in May 2005. I booked the Pharaoh's Nile tour. I customized it to add additional days plus Sharm El Sheikh.

I was extremely pleased with the service. The guides, transportation and hotels were excellent. In many places, I had a private guide. For the Nile cruise tour, there were 4 people in our tour group. I loved the private tours and the small groups. Egypt is incredible and I can't wait to return.

Before booking my tour, I read the references in the "Post cards" section on Travel Egypt's Website and contacted one of the people who had recently taken the Pharaoh's Nile tour. I also scoured the WEB for any information on Travel Egypt. I did not find much info but all of the feedback/information that I did get was very favorable. People who have taken these tours seemed to be very pleased and after taking my tour, I understand why.

I'm not sure about which date to recommend but based on personal experience, I can highly recommend Travel Egypt. My guide in Cairo was Hani. He was fantastic. Let me know if you have any other questions about Travel Egypt?

I am really glad to hear from you. We have not really been able to learn about Travel Egypt, except that their website (now down) sounds like the trip of a lifetime. Great to hear your fine comments. But who is South Sinai Travel?

Anyway, about your trip. Did you stay at the Mena House and Marriott, as per their web site? Did they cover all the website points; were there any broken promises?

We are pretty serious on the Ramses tour, which includes the boat ride up to Abu Simbel, and a few special request items along the way. We now plan to go in March '06 for the solar eclipse. While cruising on the ship, does the ship provide the "Egyptology narration", or is this left to the TE expert at the site. Also, we have the potential of a timeshare trade to create a post-cruise extenstion, and wondered if you could elaborate on your Sharm extension. Where did you stay, and did you work this out with TE? If so, were they cooperative? How did this impact your return airfare?

Thanks in advance. gam

South Sinai Travel (SST) is the company that owns Travel Egypt (TE). When you correspond with TE, you will see SST in the email address and letterhead. During the tour, the company is referred to as SST.

SST is a large company that has many offices in Egypt. SST owns the Basma hotel and the Mirage cruise ship.
The website is: http://www.southsinai.com/

I spent 17 days in Egypt with a side trip to Jordan (7 days) - so I made quite a few changes to the standard tour. I scheduled the Jordan tour with another company but TE was very cooperative. I visited Jordan and then went back to Sharm to continue my TE tour.

I spent 4 nights in Cairo at the Mena House and I did have a Pyramid view room. I loved the view (beautiful view and grounds) but as others have mentioned on this forum, the Mena House hotel is a little out of the way from the downtown area. The Cairo Marriott was extremely nice and I was lucky enough to have a room with a beautiful Nile view.

When the Tour leader met me in Cairo, we discussed the itinerary. There were no broken promises. My tour exceeded my expectations. At each destination (i.e., Cairo, Luxor, Aswan), there is another Tour Leader to ensure that all goes well.

My trip included a 4 night Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan. The egyptologists/guides were also on the boat but they provided "narration" at the sites not on board. However, they were available during the cruise for questions. The cruise was very nice. The rooms were large and comfortable.

The excursion to Sharm was arranged by TE. They offer it on their Website. I stayed at the Ghazala Hotel which is right on the beach. The hotel location is great (Na'ama Bay). The first night, I was given a room on the 1st floor in the older part of the hotel. The furniture was older and I could not open the curtains without giving everyone outside a full view of my room. I asked to be moved and I was given a very nice room in the newer part of the hotel. If you go to Sharm and stay at the Ghazala, ask to stay in the newer part of the hotel. Sharm was nice but the next time, I would choose to spend more time in Aswan rather than Sharm El Sheikh. The excursions did not impact the return airfare. EgyptAir has flights from Cairo to NYC 4/5 days of the week so you just schedule a flight for sometime during the next week. However, you may incur additional charges for extensions or changes ($25 to $50).

I corresponded, via email, with Mourad Samir at TE. He was very cooperative and patient with my many inquiries and changes. We went back and forth with tentative itineraries until I had just what I wanted.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks for taking the time for the detailed answer. Glad to learn the SST relationship with TE. The TE website was down ocver the 4th (still is) and we have been unable to reread all the good stuff on their web site. You have been very helpful; thank you. Regards, gam