Journey through Egypt

My independent overland through Egypt was a fabulous adventure! We docked in Port Safaga with its desert landscape (pic. 1). The tour agency was right on the dock with a van. We hopped in and headed overland, independent of a convoy. The drive to Luxor was expected to be at least 3.5 hours so mid-way we stopped for a refreshment break and shopping. Across the street were Egyptians with camels (pics. 2 & 3). I didn't realize it at the time but some of the best stuff with the best prices was available from this little road side shopping stand. While there, the ship's convoy passed us. We quickly caught up to them but with their 9 buses we were not able to hop our way through to get ahead again so we then moved at their slower pace.

Upon arrival in Egypt our tour agent took us to our hotel. But wait! It wasn't the hotel I booked. I showed the paperwork to the agent and a flurry of phone calls commenced. They insisted this was a better hotel. I knew that was not the case from my research on TripAdvisor. So off we went to the hotel we booked to see if there were rooms to which we could be switched. Unfortunately there was only a suite and two Nile view rooms. One was a balcony Nile view which was a higher grade than we booked and the suite was much higher than we booked. We decided to have lunch while the tour agent sorted things out and tried to move us. Lunch was at the Italian restaurant in the Steigenberger Nile Palace. It was good but not air conditioned. 109 degree heat can really get to a person.

Our guide was a very nice person who really helped us bargain and get good prices while shopping. However there was one big problem. Although I could understand his English very well he didn't understand anything that we said to him. One of my group mentioned the problem to me and I had noticed it also. We had a quick conference and decided to have him replaced. The tour agency was great and produced a new guide after lunch that was excellent!

Another small issue was the van was not a luxury vehicle but a cargo van with seats bolted in it. As a result the ride was rough. I asked to have it swapped out but the agency only had that type of van so we just got another of the same model. I tried again in Cairo but again just the same model. I saw many tour agencies with passenger vans so next time will be sure to have them specify the vehicle type. In thinking back to the booking process I think I may have skipped this step with this agency because I had such a hard time finding a tour operator in Egypt that took credit cards (I only found one) so didn't run around all the bases with them.