Sangtaek
1 year ago
We took a four night, five day tour starting in Aswan and finishing in Luxor, and it was one of the highlights of our time in Egypt. We were accompanied for all this time by Ashraf, who, as well as being deeply knowledgeable and entertaining on all aspects of ancient Egypt, is also the kindest, most patient, tolerant and flexible guide we've ever travelled with. We were travelling with two 13-year-olds and they thought he was amazing!
We travelled on the Merit dahabiya from Aswan to Luxor - this is a very comfortable and peaceful small boat (8 cabins), with a welcoming crew - the captain was Hossam for our trip - and really delicious food. Cabins were spotlessly clean and the deck areas shady and cool. It was sometimes hard to leave the boat to see the next temple...
Every place we visited was illuminated for us by Ash's comments and perspective, but we also found that he could tell when we wanted time to ourselves to walk around and absorb the atmosphere. Above all, we appreciated his flexibility and the way in which he helped us make the most of our time; for example, in Aswan, we were not interested in seeing the dam and Ash made other suggestions of what to see instead in Aswan - Nubian museum, felucca round Elephantine Island etc; same again in Luxor when we had a couple of hours before our flight and we spent these pleasantly on the Nile and at a little fruit farm on the West Bank.
We had thought that a trip to Upper Egypt, while enjoyable, might be a little stressful, but it was not the case. Because of Ash's help and local knowledge, everything happened smoothly, on time, with plenty of fun, and lots of kindness from everyone we met.
The same is true for the planning of our trip, where Mona Hamdy helped us look at the pros and cons of at least 5 possible itineraries and answered a barrage of questions from us. There is someone working the office 24 hours per day (I hope in shifts!) so replies are immediate.
Your Egypt Tours also helped us to make a last-minute arrangement for a fantastic 1 day tour to Sakkara and Dahshur, which we visited with Ibrahim - this was a very special day going to different pyramids and helped put the Giza pyramids in context.
In summary, it was a wonderful tour and we are already thinking how soon we can go back; of course it would be with Your Egypt Tours!
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