Nile River Cruise with Viking

It has been 30 years since I visited Egypt (both times) and both times, the line at the airport to acquire the Egyptian visa was long and slow moving. I think it took me about an hour just to get the visa. It was frustrating, because the person issuing the visas was very slow and not in any hurry to do his job.

It has been one month since we visited Egypt and it took us no more than 5 mins to get our visas :)

The experience will, I am sure, depend on how many other flights arrive around the same time as yours.

If you know you will be arriving at a busy time of day then if you can get the visa ahead of time it obviously makes sense to do that, as long as the cost is reasonable.

As to what is a busy time of day, we arrived in the early afternoon and there were very few flights arriving at that time, many flights seem to arrive in the evening, especially those from the UK and the rest of Europe.

We just received an email from Viking indicating that the new ship, the Viking Nile, has been renamed the Viking Ra.

There are now a few details about the trip on My Viking Journey, but not much. This trip is now available to see on line. Our sailing is Sold Out.

Thanks to all who have responded to my many questions on Egypt. You have been a great help!! If anyone has taken Viking-Pathways of the Pharoahs, I would love your review. Thanks so much to all

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Does anybody know what airline(s) Viking uses for the Egypt itinerary? Apparently no Viking Air Plus because of the limited flight options (even from NYC), but we do like the convenience of Viking air and transfer arrangements.. If we go with Viking Business, we'd still like to avoid long layovers or an excessive number of stops. Knowing the airline might help us decide.

We did not book with Viking but got a wonderful flight with British Air. We are flying from Phoenix to Heathrow. 2 hr 45 min layover and then British Airways to Cairo. Coming back from Amman to Heathrow and then to Phoenix. We booked Premium Coach and will pay $32 pp for Viking transfer from Cairo airport to hotel.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I booked through Viking. Flew from Dulles airport in Washington, DC on Austrian airlines. Stopped in Vienna, Austria then on to Cairo. Coming back it was British Airways - Cairo to Heathrow airport then on to Dulles.There was probably a 2-3 hr layover in Vienna and at Heathrow - so there was plenty of time. Everything went very smoothly though the plane home was so packed it was really uncomfortable. After 12 days on the go and a cramped plane, I wish I had looked into upgrading.

I booked through Viking. Flew from Dulles airport in Washington, DC on Austrian airlines. Stopped in Vienna, Austria then on to Cairo. Coming back it was British Airways - Cairo to Heathrow airport then on to Dulles.There was probably a 2-3 hr layover in Vienna and at Heathrow - so there was plenty of time. Everything went very smoothly though the plane home was so packed it was really uncomfortable. After 12 days on the go and a cramped plane, I wish I had looked into upgrading.

Could you share your experience on the River Cruise?? Did you enjoy and did you feel safe?

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I went in March of this year. The trip was was through Viking and was fantastic. I always felt safe, we had armed guards with us at all times on excursions, and even police escorts for the tour busses we were on. The tour is non stop and you are on the go the whole time. Our guide was Waleed ( guide to the stars- he was Will Smith's guide 3 days before our group) and he was awesome and really took care of us. I recommend the hot air balloon excursion over Valley of the Kings. I did a lot of research prior to the trip and bugged many of the folks on this forum with questions about tipping, excursions, safety, food, water, money, getting sick (which I didn't). I definitely recommend this trip. It is a trip of a lifetime.

We are booked with Insight doing Jewels of the Nile, Lake Nasser & Abu Simbel. We are flying Oct. 30th. We do 2 full days in Cairo, fly to Aswan, do 4 days, then board different ship for the Nile portion. It says 12 days but 2 are travel days of course. I enjoyed reading a few posts here from others that have done Egypt. Those more recent....I would love to hear more. HOB8501....how did you find tipping, safety, money, etc. that you had asked about previously. Anything special I need to know that hasn't been mentioned here already? I just hope everything stays settled. We had this booked back in 2011 when the riots broke out and had to cancel. I feel if I don't go this year I might not get there at all and it is my #1 item on my bucket list. I am so excited about having this booked again. We will be celebrating our 35th anniversary so it makes it all the more wonderful.

We are booked with Insight doing Jewels of the Nile, Lake Nasser & Abu Simbel. We are flying Oct. 30th. We do 2 full days in Cairo, fly to Aswan, do 4 days, then board different ship for the Nile portion. It says 12 days but 2 are travel days of course. I enjoyed reading a few posts here from others that have done Egypt. Those more recent....I would love to hear more. HOB8501....how did you find tipping, safety, money, etc. that you had asked about previously. Anything special I need to know that hasn't been mentioned here already? I just hope everything stays settled. We had this booked back in 2011 when the riots broke out and had to cancel. I feel if I don't go this year I might not get there at all and it is my #1 item on my bucket list. I am so excited about having this booked again. We will be celebrating our 35th anniversary so it makes it all the more wonderful.

Be prepared to tip everyone. I am from the US and I brought $250 in $1 bills and used that for tipping. The US dollar was accepted for tips everywhere; $1 to the horse carriage drivers and the camel guys - $1 to women in the bathroom to get a few sheets of toilet paper or $1 per day to tour bus drivers. We even tipped the donkey cart driver $1 who gave us a ride at one of the temples. At the time I went we rounded 1 USD to be about 20 Egyptian pounds (it was a little less but it was easier to figure out that way). All souvenir vendors took USD everything seemed to be $1 and they all yelled $1, $1 when you were passing through the markets. There were a few places like the temples or museum (see the mummies) where if you wanted to do something extra you paid in Egyptian Pounds so have some of those too. You can tip the ship's staff in either USD or Egyptian, and same for the guides. At the end of the trip you tip your guide - I gave my all the Egyptian pounds I had left and added USD to it. I just got my money from the ATM at the airport when I got there - I didn't worry about fees or who had the best exchange rate - to confusing. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Cairo and they had a bank in the lobby open 24 hrs a day so you could get money there. The boats did not have an ATM nor did most of the places we went to. One day we actually asked our guide if we could stop at an ATM while driving through one of the bigger towns. He was very accommodating - it was a big production but so much appreciated. On the boats get your laundry done - it was so inexpensive. I got 4 pants, 4 tops, socks all done for 60 Egyptian Pounds (less than $3 USD). Only drink bottled water that they open in front of you. The trip was amazing and one I will never forget.

Be prepared to tip everyone. I am from the US and I brought $250 in $1 bills and used that for tipping. The US dollar was accepted for tips everywhere; $1 to the horse carriage drivers and the camel guys - $1 to women in the bathroom to get a few sheets of toilet paper or $1 per day to tour bus drivers. We even tipped the donkey cart driver $1 who gave us a ride at one of the temples. At the time I went we rounded 1 USD to be about 20 Egyptian pounds (it was a little less but it was easier to figure out that way). All souvenir vendors took USD everything seemed to be $1 and they all yelled $1, $1 when you were passing through the markets. There were a few places like the temples or museum (see the mummies) where if you wanted to do something extra you paid in Egyptian Pounds so have some of those too. You can tip the ship's staff in either USD or Egyptian, and same for the guides. At the end of the trip you tip your guide - I gave my all the Egyptian pounds I had left and added USD to it. I just got my money from the ATM at the airport when I got there - I didn't worry about fees or who had the best exchange rate - to confusing. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Cairo and they had a bank in the lobby open 24 hrs a day so you could get money there. The boats did not have an ATM nor did most of the places we went to. One day we actually asked our guide if we could stop at an ATM while driving through one of the bigger towns. He was very accommodating - it was a big production but so much appreciated. On the boats get your laundry done - it was so inexpensive. I got 4 pants, 4 tops, socks all done for 60 Egyptian Pounds (less than $3 USD). Only drink bottled water that they open in front of you. The trip was amazing and one I will never forget.

Taking dollar bills for tips is not a bad idea. Regarding tipping a dollar for toilet paper. This is probably too much to tip. I recommend taking a small roll of TP, just in case, since some toilets (or holes in the floor) will not have any TP or even a lady collecting tips for TP.

I did Egypt over 30 years ago before all the terror attacks and we had no armed guards. Just be careful and don't wander into strange areas on your own, especially unaccompanied women. Also, recommend not eating street food. We only ate in four star hotels or above.

Our Egypt trip and Nile cruise was one of my all time favorites.

During our Nile cruise with Movenpick earlier this year we even tipped the Police at one point :)

One thing I will note though is that although we didn't use Viking for Egypt, we have used them for China and Vietnam/Cambodia and the level of tips recommended for the Movenpick cruise was only a fraction of the tips that Viking propose.

Egypt is somewhere that you will tip for almost everything, but the level of the tips is extremely low.

One thing our guide did which was helpful was to collect a small amount from everyone at the start of the cruise and then took care of all the small tips along the way which avoided the need for everyone to carry small notes.

He provided scrupulous accounting as we went and wherever possible had one of the guests hand over the tip when it was for a bus driver or other similar occasion.

Not sure if your group guide will do that for you, but it was helpful, and it was something that our Viking guide in Vietnam did as well.

Thank you to all of you for those helpful thoughts. I will definitely get lots of U.S. $1 bills. What an amazing trip this is going to be. We will not be venturing out on our own at all. We are not that "adventuresome" and usually get a guide if we want to explore a new city. This is pretty tour intensive so we don't have much free time for going on our own. It is covering everything we really want to see so that is a plus as I would think we won't be back to this area of the world again. Thanks again and anything else you think of that might be helpful, please pass it along.

Two things came to mind, you won't be able to take your camera into the Valley of the Kings, but you will be offered a package of photos and a CD at a very reasonable price.

Similarly at Abu Simbel you will not be allowed to take photos inside the monuments (nor will your guide be allowed to 'guide' you inside) but you will be allowed to have your camera with you and you are free to take photos outside. Again there will be a pack of photos available at a low cost, but no CD this time.

The photos are decent but don't expect too much from the claims that they are 'professional' quality. I don't doubt the photographer was paid, so I'm sure they are technically accurate to call them 'professional' :)

Two things came to mind, you won't be able to take your camera into the Valley of the Kings, but you will be offered a package of photos and a CD at a very reasonable price.

 

Similarly at Abu Simbel you will not be allowed to take photos inside the monuments (nor will your guide be allowed to 'guide' you inside) but you will be allowed to have your camera with you and you are free to take photos outside. Again there will be a pack of photos available at a low cost, but no CD this time.

 

The photos are decent but don't expect too much from the claims that they are 'professional' quality. I don't doubt the photographer was paid, so I'm sure they are technically accurate to call them 'professional' :)

Thanks Mark_T for that info. I have bought things like that before when we were not allowed to take pictures inside so that is good to know ahead of time. Abu Simbel is why I booked with Insight....we dock right there and stay until evening so I hope to get awesome pictures at sunset!

I have seen lots of posts warning NOT TO DRINK THE WATER, but what about the water on the cruise ship? (Viking)

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I have seen lots of posts warning NOT TO DRINK THE WATER, but what about the water on the cruise ship? (Viking)

 

Do not drink the water from the tap on the ship. They provide all the bottled water you need. Use bottled water when brushing teeth and try not to get the water from the shower in your mouth either.

 

You can use ice cubes in drinks - that's filtered water.

Great Info! Thanks so much

Sent from my iPad using Forums