fourfortravel

Dear Fodorites, DD and I just learned we will be able to join DH for three days in Cairo at the end of this month. The three of us will tour the pyramids together and hopefully ride camels, but for the remaining days DD and I will be on our own. We're looking for a private guide who can take us to the markets and provide history about the neighborhoods; the museums we can manage on our own.

I am reading TripAdvisor reviews as I begin to plan, and would appreciate any personal experiences one would like to share. Thank you!

dutyfree

We used Lady Egypt tours when doing our trip to Egypt and Jordan. Our family is normally an independent type group but I was unable to get tickets for our flights to Luxor on our own,etc. They let me pick what I needed or wanted and used even the hotels I wanted.Guides were very good.

welltraveledbrit

Hi Four for travel

Debbie from Casual Cairo has been highly recommended on the board for touring around the city.

We were in Egypt just over a year ago (I'd lived there as a child) and we had an amazing time, it is an incredible country and the Egyptians are so friendly. I can highly recommend the agency we used for the trip Djed run by the very helpful and knowledgable Aymann Simman. I'm sure he could help with the Cairo portion of your trip. I was very impressed both with the guides and drivers but also the dahabiya we took down the Nile. I'm not sure if you're planning to do anything outside of Cairo, but here are links to Djed, my Fodor's Trip report and my blog - just in case any of them might be useful. There are tips on Cairo in there too

http://www.djedegypt.com

http://www.somuchmoretosee.com/search/label/Egypt

http://www.fodors.com/community/afri...nd-a-river.cfm

Hope this helps!

fourfortravel

Thank you, both! Truth be, I had half-forgotten about this post since it was so quiet for a few days! One of my husband's colleagues suggested a guide they had used and liked, so I went ahead and reserved.

welltraveledbrit, I read your trip reports as part of my planning, especially your post on eating your way through Egypt, as food is one of our favorite parts of traveling. We will only be in Cairo on this trip, but that just means we'll have to return.

nutmeg2000

Sorry to weigh in so late. I used Debbie from Casual Cairo both times when I visited Cairo and she was great! It was comforting as a woman in a foreign country (where there are lots of soldiers with big guns and signs are in different alphabets) to have an American who knows the place so well. She guided four of us women when we had a long cruise stopover in Alexandria and had a van pick us up for a full day tour of Cairo and checked with us on what we absolutely wanted to see in our short time there. That was in 2001 before 9-11. We used her services again in 2009 when the whole family did a tour of Egypt and we had a day "on our own" and she showed us some of the interesting, less touristy things. We also did a shopping trip where she helped us buy good items at great prices...not like the tour operators who held us all hostage at overpriced places on the way to or from sightseeing trips.

fourfortravel

Just a short follow up. I had found a well-reviewed female guide through Viator, who turned out to be ideal. She was a young Egyptian woman (from Cairo) with a degree in Egyptian history and with the government certificates identifying her as a licensed guide. (She brought them on the first day.) She tailored her itinerary to us, and made the two days we spent interesting as well as informative.

kalanz001

My I suggest [email protected],she is a free lance guide,who I have used on 2 trips to Egypt.
I have been with many guides and by far she is the best guide with her love and passion for ancient Egypt,she has made me fall in love with Egypt also.
Mona Farid will finish her Master's degree in Egyptologyin the spring.

janisj

kalanz001: fourfortravel's trip was more than eight months ago . . . and she reported about the excellent guide they used up thread.

Travelline

I used Le Caire Travel they provide me an Egyptologist with master degree her name Heba Saeed she was hard-working and patient
Her English was very good
Her Email : [email protected]

MmePerdu

There are those of us mining previous forum posts for information and I see no reason to stop posting. Thanks kalanz001 & Travelline, I'm taking notes.

Fourfortravel, regarding your experience, contact information would be greatly appreciated.

MmePerdu

"Fourfortravel, regarding your experience, contact information would be greatly appreciated."

I mean contact information for the guide you say was so good.

I'm sorry to report I'm finding that Debbie Senters, Casual Cairo, seems to be out of business. I'd contacted her previously and had planned on using her services. If anyone knows differently, please let us know.

fourfortravel

MmePerdu, we booked Hanan Salah. It turned out that she was not available for our days and sent a (licensed) colleague with whom we had our memorable tour, something that seems to happen now and again. The young woman was a history major and especially made the tour of the Egyptian National Museum come alive.

My trip report is here if you have interest and inclination to read.
http://www.fodors.com/community/afri...s-to-cairo.cfm

MmePerdu

"...a (licensed) colleague with whom we had our memorable tour..."

Thanks for the response. No name or email address?

I enjoyed your trip report, thanks for the link. I, too, would like to have learned the name of the hotel you so enjoyed.