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Come Aboard My Nile River Cruise on Uniworld's River Tosca


LauraS
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Was there with Uniworld in February. I’ve traveled the world, but Egypt is just amazing and Uniworld does it right.

 

It is impossible to escape the ugly American tourist, even on Uniworld. Sorry about that experience you had. OTOH, I did quickly tire of the Muslim tradition of grotesquely over cooking all meats. Seeing a beautiful full prime rib cooked to between well done and carbon black was disheartening! Only meant I ate more of the wonderful fresh fish! The meat eaters interested in the beef, lamb, or veal ( no pork anywhere of course) it was a tough road of super well done! Even poultry in Egypt is over cooked.

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LauraS,

 

Enjoyed your review. We made the same trip in January and thankfully we didn't have overtly ugly Americans in our group. Nor was I aware of anyone skipping the excursions. I was surprised how each temple was unique and how much history we learned, ancient and current. An unforgettable trip for sure.

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With Uniworld, your CD is the tour guide so no additional tips required. The bus driver that picked us up in Luxor stayed with us all the way to Aswan and back. This meant as we were sailing up the river, he was driving up ( and then down) to bus us as needed. So we tipped him once when we got back to the airport in Luxor.

 

We tipped our first Cairo driver at the airport, before the Luxor departure, and our second driver in Cairo on the last day after the Pyramids.

 

All tips were in Egyptian currency. Including those to the CD.

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My wife and I will be doing Egypt in January with Uniworld. How did you handle tipping while off the ship? From what I've been reading, everyone expects to be tipped.

 

Besides tipping as described by pinotlover, we needed small change at public or restaurant toilets, the equivalent of about 50 US cents or a dollar. And to a "guide" at Queen Hatshepsut 's temple, who lifted a rope to let me see a small roped off area. I gave him the equivalent of a dollar. Guides inside the tombs at the Valley of the Kings would like a small tip if you pause to hear their explanations, as your Egyptologist cannot enter the tombs with you but will tell you about them before you enter.

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I have been following older posts of travellers going to Egypt and some said they tipped a lot with U.S. $'s such as when the kids come out to the ship and try and sell you bookmarks, etc. I was surprised at this but I wonder which currency the Egyptians would prefer?

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I have been following older posts of travellers going to Egypt and some said they tipped a lot with U.S. $'s such as when the kids come out to the ship and try and sell you bookmarks, etc. I was surprised at this but I wonder which currency the Egyptians would prefer?
The average working class daily income is less than 100 Egyptian Pounds (EGP), with 70 EGP being a reasonable guess outside Cairo. That is about US$4. An Egyptian would often tip 1 EGP (about 5 US cents) - I would imagine that US$1 would be well received, although 20 EGP (the closest equivalent) would be easier for them to spend.
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Earlier this year we certainly found that most street traders were primarily trying to trade in USD, but would of course happily take EGP, GBP or EUR .

 

We kept mostly to EGP for simplicity both for us and for them, and it was simple to get EGP from an ATM, but there are relatively low limits on the daily amounts you can draw from an ATM so don't expect to be able to draw the sort of amounts you do back home, but to be honest you don't really need much as a little goes a very long way...

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Cormike 1, please keep the information coming. My wife and I are booked for January, 2018 so whatever information you pass along will be appreciated.

H2Otstr: I just received an email from Uniworld offering the services of VisaCentral.com. Since I live approximately 30 minutes from the Egyptian Consulate in Los Angeles, I applied for our visas in person at a cost of $15 per person. They require the completed visa application, two passport photos and your passport. I'll pickup the completed visa in one week. I could have mailed everything to them and had them mail the completed documents back to me. The visa service seemed pretty expensive since all they're doing is acting as a middleman for the process.

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I will do a review when we get home. I don't post when we are gone. I will try and mark down tips that I think will be useful for everyone. We did not get a Visa ahead of time as it would have cost us about $75 each. I will get it at the airport when we land. I read somewhere that most people do it this way. With living in a small town we don't have services like the large cities offer. So we are off to the airport this afternoon for a night flight. It is raining like crazy here in Southern Ontario and in Montreal where we are flying out of so I hope there are no delays. I am so excited to finally be able to see things that I only have seen in books or tv/internet. Bye for now!

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My wife and I will be doing Egypt in January with Uniworld. How did you handle tipping while off the ship? From what I've been reading, everyone expects to be tipped.

 

Finding small Egyptian currency is tough. Everyone on our Uniworld tour was on the lookout for small bills and coins, even our guide. We often shared the washroom fee among several people since we didn't have any coins small enough.

 

The guide laid out who needed to get tipped and when, i.e. drivers mainly. These people work hard and don't make much. Ship gratuities are laid out in the documentation, and can't be put on your shipboard account.

 

This was one of our best-ever trips, very memorable, done October 2015. BTW, the staterooms are wonderful!

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Finding small Egyptian currency is tough. Everyone on our Uniworld tour was on the lookout for small bills and coins, even our guide.

 

... another good reason to take a good supply of $1 bills (in good condition).

 

I always do my best to tip in the local currency whenever possible but a good clean dollar bill is a larger tip than is expected in many cases and will be gratefully received.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Finding small Egyptian currency is tough. Everyone on our Uniworld tour was on the lookout for small bills and coins, even our guide. We often shared the washroom fee among several people since we didn't have any coins small enough.

 

The guide laid out who needed to get tipped and when, i.e. drivers mainly. These people work hard and don't make much. Ship gratuities are laid out in the documentation, and can't be put on your shipboard account.

 

This was one of our best-ever trips, very memorable, done October 2015. BTW, the staterooms are wonderful!

 

There are no Egyptian coins only paper money. We tipped 5EP at bathrooms. Most bathrooms had an attendant that would roll off an amount of toilet paper as you went in....nothing in the stalls. More toilet paper to wipe your hands after washing. They are dependant on those tips and really...5EP is nothing. You can also give her $1-2 U.S. and it is very much appreciated. We were told not to give any coin from other countries as they can`t take coin to the bank. I am Cdn and we gave a waiter on our ship EP`s for his Cdn coins that someone had tipped him. It was $5 in Cdn coin and he could not take it to the bank. So please don`t leave them `noisy`money lol.

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Cormike 1, please keep the information coming. My wife and I are booked for January, 2018 so whatever information you pass along will be appreciated.

H2Otstr: I just received an email from Uniworld offering the services of VisaCentral.com. Since I live approximately 30 minutes from the Egyptian Consulate in Los Angeles, I applied for our visas in person at a cost of $15 per person. They require the completed visa application, two passport photos and your passport. I'll pickup the completed visa in one week. I could have mailed everything to them and had them mail the completed documents back to me. The visa service seemed pretty expensive since all they're doing is acting as a middleman for the process.

 

Our Insight Tour rep met us at the airport and took us right to the Visa counter. It was $25 U.S. per person, cash and all it is was a sticker put on a blank page in your passport. Fast and easy! They do check to make sure you have it in your passport before you leave the airport.

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Cormike 1, I hope you start a new thread with your thoughts, tips, etc for those of us who will be traveling in the upcoming year.

 

How long did it take to get your visa? Approximate cost? Did you use a service?

 

No need to get it ahead of time. You go to the Visa counter and it is $25 U.S. per person, cash and they put the sticker on a blank page in your passport. Very quick and easy. They do check that you have it before you leave the airport.

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... another good reason to take a good supply of $1 bills (in good condition).

 

I always do my best to tip in the local currency whenever possible but a good clean dollar bill is a larger tip than is expected in many cases and will be gratefully received.

 

I followed your earlier advice Mark and took about a 100 one dollar bills with me and used most of them up in tipping. They really appreciated the U.S. dollars because as you said it is worth more than the EP. Thanks for that great advice!

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Besides tipping as described by pinotlover, we needed small change at public or restaurant toilets, the equivalent of about 50 US cents or a dollar. And to a "guide" at Queen Hatshepsut 's temple, who lifted a rope to let me see a small roped off area. I gave him the equivalent of a dollar. Guides inside the tombs at the Valley of the Kings would like a small tip if you pause to hear their explanations, as your Egyptologist cannot enter the tombs with you but will tell you about them before you enter.

 

While at the tombs, pyramids, etc. you will see men wearing their galabeya`s standing at the entrance or walking around. If you take a picture of them, they expect to be tipped lol.

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While at the tombs, pyramids, etc. you will see men wearing their galabeya`s standing at the entrance or walking around. If you take a picture of them, they expect to be tipped lol.

 

Same in Peru. There was a little boy in Lima who was holding a baby llama. I took his photo, with intensions of paying him, and before I could get my money out he was yelling at me for payment :D.

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