alfie2

We had high expectations for our trip to Cairo - and I'm happy to say that they were not only met, but exceeded! The sightseeing, restaurants, and hotels were all unforgettable.
We landed in Cairo airport early evening the 11th of September 2005. Here we were contacted by a travel agency and they arranged a 3 days tour for us.
Next morning a car and tour guide, Mr. Ahmed Hamed Yousif came to our hotel, we were off too see the pyramids in Giza.
Although we'd seen countless pictures of the Pyramids, they were still stunning up close. It's one thing to see a picture, another to stand at the foot of one, stare up and walk around it. It's amazing to think that the ancient Egyptians built such magnificent structures around 2600BC.
The Sphinx too was a marvellous and mysterious site - so little is known about when and how this mysterious sculpture was built.
We enjoyed our time in Cairo our hotel provided yummy fresh yogurt for breakfast, English breakfast, several Egyptian specialities and delicious fresh fruits.
The Egyptian Museum was amazing. It was jam packed with ancient artefacts’, so many in fact that it was completely overwhelming. We especially enjoyed the King Tut exhibit and the sheer number of artefacts’. We were so lucky that we had our own local guide, Mr. Ahmed Hamed Yousif with us and He explained everything too us.

Having a private guide helped us appreciate the temples and tombs even more. Our guide was very well educated; He’s been living next to Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx together with his family since his childhood and therefore it early became clear for Mr. Ahmed Hamed Yousif that he wanted to be a tour guide. He has a bachelor degree in tourism and Egyptology from the Cairo University. He has studied 4 years in the faculty of tourism to become a certified tourist’s guide and got a license from the Egyptian tourism police and the Egyptian Ministry of tourism to guide and help the tourists and arrange tours all over Egypt. He’s got excellent English skills and has 12 years of experience showing this wonderful country to tourists from all over the world. He even taught us to decipher some of the hieroglyphics! We, of course, had lots of questions about details and all the new things we were seeing and he was able to give us great, thoughtful answers. We felt that having a guide gave us a depth of understanding that we would not have gained had we visited the sights on our own. We felt that the guide was well worth every penny we spent.

He is callable of arranging tours every where in Egypt; Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Alexandria, 5* Stars Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan, Sinai trip, Red Sea, Trip to the Egyptian Oasis in the Sahara desert, you name it, he can arrange it.
He always uses nice air-conditioned cars or minivans and professional tourist’s drivers. He can book nice, safe and clean 5, 4 or 3* stars hotels every where in Egypt.

The main issue in all of this is that in those 2 weeks we spent in Egypt, Mr. Ahmed Hamed Yousif were interested in us and our wellbeing at all hours. He is very helpful and wants to for fill every request you may have and He is always able to make you smile and laugh. He makes sure that you get the best service and when you go shopping He makes sure that you get the best quality in clothes and when you buy gold and papyrus, you get guarantee certificates that makes it very safe to buy at reasonable prices and there is no pressure of buying.

Conclusion: We had an absolutely wonderful time in Egypt and got a new friend in Mr. Ahmed Hamed Yousif. We will never forget our trip or Ahmed.

If you ever comes to Egypt, please use Mr. Ahmed Hamed Yousif as your personally guide, He is worth to contact before you go to Egypt and can help you with booking hotels, guiding and make sure that you have an unforgettable time in Egypt.

Mr. Ahmed Hamed Yousif can be contacted at this email:
[email protected]

gail

Interesting that this is alfie's first post and syntax and spelling is a little odd.

Grcxx3

I agree with gail......rather suspicious posting!

samscomps

this is too funny... you got to give him credit though - guerilla marketing.

monkey333

this is very suspecious it sounds like someone trying to sell their own tour.

alfie2

I can see that people misunderstand my first message, that was not my attention. We spend 2 weeks in Cairo in sep. 2005 and had a great time.
We arrived at Cairo airport at the 11.th of sep. early in the evening (what a nightmare, because the only thing we had planned before we left Denmark was flight and hotel). With a father who is almost blind, a mother who was nervous and a husbond who was tired, is was almost like travelling with 3 children in the age of 2 that cant do anything on their own (for an outsider this must have looked very funny. I got the troops together and got all our luggage. We must have looked like an easy target cause a little egyptian lady contacted us and suddenly we had agreed to a 3 day sightseeing. The company got us a car to take us to our hotel and thats where we met the traffic in Cairo. The driver must have thought we were crazy because we just laughed all the way (we had been talking of renting a car and go by our selfs to all the sights).
Day 1 in Egypt:We were picked up at our hotel and went to see the pyramids in Gisa (they were BIG, eventhough we had seen pictures of them, it was impressive standing by their side, then of to the Sphinx, a place were you get the big view and ofcourse camelride ( a camel is a very big animal when you get up on it). Then of to papyrusmuseum (spent a lot of money there),then a nice lunch and off to perfumeplace (spending more money), then off to se some other pyramids, carpetschool, home to the hotel bathing, having an icecream and relax for 1 hour and the last thing of the day: Dinner at a boat on the Nile with egyptian entertainment. At 01pm it was time to go to bed.
Day 2 in Egypt:Got picked up again by Ahmed and our drivers and went to the egyptian museum, the old part of Cairo, Mohammed Ali mosque, golden eagle bazar (buying gold), lunch and finally a shop where we bought loads of clothes. Home to the hotel having dinner and relaxing. Ending the day at the sound and lightshow at the pyramids in Giza.
Day 3 in Egypt: Early up again (who said vacation??) off to Alexandria to see all the sights there.
Day 4 and 5 in Egypt: sitting by the pool ( do I have to say anything else? ;o) ).
Day 6 in Egypt: My husbond and I ment it was time for us to see Cairo on our own. We wanted to go to the zoo and we took the shuttlebus in to the center of Cairo. We had read something about a riverbus going to a place near the zoo and we wanted to try this. Standing there, trying to figure out and explain to some egyptian men what is was we wanted, we got contacted by Ahmed who was very surprised that we went around by our selfs and was afraid for our safety ( that ment that in a few minuts we were 3 going on this tour to the zoo). The egyptian men were trying to sell me a hole f... boat to take me and my husbond down the nileand that was not what I asked for. Ahmed took us to the right riverbus and payed for our trip (dont think tourists normally take this kind of transport, cause everybody was looking at us like we just had landed from out of space or something like that). It was friday and the egyptians had the day off and a lot of familys apparently spend that day at the zoo (we were the only tourists there).
The rest of the time Ahmed took us to a lot of places where tourists normally dont come and that was great.
I could go on and on telling about this trip and I can only say: GO TO EGYPT it is worth it and is an fantastic place.

alfie2

Since you are so sure that I dont exsist, please look at this page www.fotopages.com/cgi-bin/account.pl?page=2. I realize by now that I did it wrong in first attempt, but no one is perfect. I get sad when people is so suspecius on other people, Im trying to gain some trust here but you are so convinced that all people are lyers and cheaters. Sorry, but I just had to get this of my cheast. If You have further quastions you are welcome to contact me on mail: [email protected]

Ruth

Alfie, please don't get upset. OK you've been misunderstood, but you can see that your first post looked like straight advertising, and that's not allowed on this site. Don't take it personally - the people on this site are not criticising you as a person, just commenting on your first post. And, a final piece of advice, please don't post the same thing over and over (and, I seem to need a password to get into your photo site).

Best wishes, and glad you had a good time in Egypt. Don't let your experience on this forum spoil it!

Ruth

alfie2

Hi Ruth
Thanks for the advice. I dont understand that you cant get on to the page, please try this link and let me know if it works. There shouldnt be password on my page. http://alfies.fotopages.com

Ruth

That's better! Lovely photos. I'll be there in less than 3 weeks - can't wait!!

alfie2

Im glad you liked the pictures and look forward to hear about your trip.
Best wishes and enjoy ( Im jaloux, wish it was me going there)

Wanda1

I'm sorry there has been a misunderstanding about Ahmed Yousif. Ahmed was our guide in Aug. 2005. We were extremely greatful to him for making our trip memorable. I couldn't believe he would take 12 days out of his schedule to accompany just the 2 of us on our trip thru Egypt! I've recommended him previously on this board and several people have contacted me to agree he made their trip a joy. I recognize what Alfie has posted because this is what Ahmed told us on our trip. I totally understand it sounds like advertising;I also recognize his writing and this is not it. His English is pretty good but he doesn't speak like this. I figured Alfie was not from the U.S. as I read her post, but most definitely agree it is not Ahmed. I hope this clears up this doubt because he doesn't deserve his reputation tarnished because of this unfortunate incident. Now enjoy Egypt. This was one of our favorite trips of all. I wish I could go back but so many places to see. We have promised our son this trip after college graduation, so maybe he'll let us go with him. Wink!

twofortheroad

Wanda--Out of curiousity, did Ahmed "find" you at the airport when you arrived? Did you, like alfie2 arrive in Cairo with no set itinerary?

Wanda1

Actually Ahmed was recommended to us by my husband's co-workers overseas. Several couples had used him in the past and he camed highly recommended. I spoke with them at length to be sure this individual was what we were looking for. We had been communicating with him for about 2 months prior to arriving. He suggested an itinerary and we adjusted to our preferences. He was very accommodating as far as changing cruise boat the last week to honor my requests. I didn't feel I should go to Egypt without arrangements mapped out ahead. I've traveled to China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Italy on my own but this one I wanted a private guide. It saved us a lot of time and aggravation. The private, clean, new minivan in the middle of August heat was so welcomed. The reason I've recommended him on this board is because I remember how overwhelmed I was trying to find someone in egypt. My trips have been perfect with a lot of help from recommendations on Fodors. This is my first source of info and I haven't been sorry yet. Oops, correct that. I did take a recommendation for a guide to the Great Wall in China, but the guide had gotten so many fererrals from Fodors that he never actually drove us. He passed us on to another driver of his who didn't speak english even after I specifically requested his personal attention. I wasn't happy paying $100 and not be able to communicate with the driver.

Grcxx3

Wanda1 -

I, too, saw all those referrals for the guide in China - and passed! We did all the major sights in Beijing by ourselves and hired a private taxi through the hotel (the Peninsula) to take us to the Great Wall (Mutyanu). Glad we did after reading the bad experiences people had!

bulamrpaul

I returned from Cairo last week and the four of us arranged to use (based on what we read on this posting) Ahmed Hamed Yousif as a guide for two days. Normally we do most of trips on our own with a trusty guide book, but since our time in Cairo was limited to just three days, we decided to spring for a private tour guide. Ahmed is a very well educated, friendly, honest, helpful guide who really wanted us to have a wonderful stay in Cairo. I would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone looking for a guide in and around Cairo. He arrived promptly in the mornings at our hotel and the van he used was very clean, new, and most importantly had a great air conditioner. Although he has some suggested day tours, he is very flexible in designing a day around what you would like to do and ensuring that we had enough time to explore the archaeological sites. He reminded us regularly that we weren’t in any hurry and to take our time to appreciate everything. Additionally, he did his best to navigate us away from the tourists so we could see Cairo through the eyes of an Egyptian. Another testament to his character was his desire for us not to get ripped off as tourists. Upon request he took us to a few shops (papyrus and metal light shades) and although we were confident in bargaining he stepped in with Arabic and ensured we got prices 50% below the marked price. He adamantly told us that we were under no obligation to buy anything and I am confident that the places he took us to he wasn’t getting some sort of commission from the store. I could ramble on, but I just wanted to support Alfie and Wanda in their positive reviews of Ahmed.

merlinnz

What are his charges?

StanKase

I assume, if we accept Mr. Yousif as alfie2 describes him, I am interested in his charge for 2 8-10 hour days possibly with a break for dinner (2 hr. waiting time) then to a night market for 1-1 1/2 hrs.? Also we wanted to go to Luxor (1-2 days), possibly Aswan (1-2 days) and then to Sharm el Scheik, we would fly there and be on our own at the Hyatt (any experience there?) or go for the Four Seasons for 5 days. We are avid snorkelers. After about 10 days in Egypt we plan to visit Israel for 7-8 days (Jeruselum, Haifa, Tel Aviv).
My big question is we know nothing about the quality of the guide/drivers he would arrange for us in Luxor, Aswan,etc.Does anyone?

RAG1011

I don't know about this guy, but my daughter and I were in Cairo in Nov. and we used a woman named Debbie Senters. Her fee was $9.00/hr, her driver spoke very good english, and on our side trips she provided us with Egyptologists who were very good.

alfie2

Hi StanKase
I really do not know how much he charges, but I am sure it will be reasonable. I am sure he can personalize any kind of trip for you, he is very accomodating. For a daytrip to the Sinaidesert with Ahmed, driver and aircon car, we payed 700LE. Have a wonderful time! Sussie