Pyramid Camel Rides

[Jsipes]

I would like to ride the Camels at Giza....can someone who has done this let me know appox cost, and how long the ride lasts. Also, I saw Jack Nicholson atop the Pyramid in the movie TYhe Bucket List. Are people allowed to climb the Pyramids ? Would appreciate help from you well-seasoned world travelers. Thanks, Jer the Bear

[paul929207]

Seems like it was $5 or $10 for a 10 minute or so ride. We were near the Sphinx.

 

I have read several horror stories of tourists being taken. We had our guide arrange it and everything was on the up & up.

[Jsipes]

Seems like it was $5 or $10 for a 10 minute or so ride. We were near the Sphinx.

 

I have read several horror stories of tourists being taken. We had our guide arrange it and everything was on the up & up.

 

Thanks Paul, I'll remember to do that. Jer

[roscoe39]

Thanks Paul, I'll remember to do that. Jer

 

in addition...its a big no-no to climb the pyramids these days. There have been a large number of tourists killed over the years from attempting the climb and apart from being disrespectful its now against the law. Ive seen the tourist police chasing people who have tried to do this in recent times....

 

A tip though...

 

If you get to the site early enough..(about 9am) they release about 100 or so tickets to enter the interior of the tomb and climb right up into the Kings chamber. This is different from the common tourist trap of going just into the entry that was blown open in Antiquity and not a real entrance way.. You only get to go into the pyramid about 10 feet....

 

Its well worth the effort to get the limited tickets as the experience of being inside the chamber is incredible and unbeatable.

[Toto2Kansas]

Our group split up and those wanting to ride a camel down the hill to the pyramids could ride single $12 or double $20, plus tips to the handlers. The ride lasted about 15-20 minutes and it was great. Try to find a camel that actually has two stirrups though, most of ours only had one so it was a wild ride. :)

 

As for climbing the pyramids, I agree, it is a definite no-no and they will let you know that if you try. I had a friend climb up only a couple of steps for a picture and when they asked her to get down as it was not allowed, she fell. Very rocky and she skinned up her hands, forearms and legs. I would definitely not recommend you try climbing even a small way up, it is very dangerous.

 

But definitely ride that camel, and bring something for your hands afterwards. lol They are quite smelly beasts and I couldn't wait to get to the hotel to wash my hands (several times I might add), hand sanitizer didn't even make a dent. :) :)

[Jsipes]

Our group split up and those wanting to ride a camel down the hill to the pyramids could ride single $12 or double $20, plus tips to the handlers. The ride lasted about 15-20 minutes and it was great. Try to find a camel that actually has two stirrups though, most of ours only had one so it was a wild ride. :)

 

As for climbing the pyramids, I agree, it is a definite no-no and they will let you know that if you try. I had a friend climb up only a couple of steps for a picture and when they asked her to get down as it was not allowed, she fell. Very rocky and she skinned up her hands, forearms and legs. I would definitely not recommend you try climbing even a small way up, it is very dangerous.

 

But definitely ride that camel, and bring something for your hands afterwards. lol They are quite smelly beasts and I couldn't wait to get to the hotel to wash my hands (several times I might add), hand sanitizer didn't even make a dent. :) :)

 

Thanks for the info...

[Jsipes]

Our group split up and those wanting to ride a camel down the hill to the pyramids could ride single $12 or double $20, plus tips to the handlers. The ride lasted about 15-20 minutes and it was great. Try to find a camel that actually has two stirrups though, most of ours only had one so it was a wild ride. :)

 

As for climbing the pyramids, I agree, it is a definite no-no and they will let you know that if you try. I had a friend climb up only a couple of steps for a picture and when they asked her to get down as it was not allowed, she fell. Very rocky and she skinned up her hands, forearms and legs. I would definitely not recommend you try climbing even a small way up, it is very dangerous.

 

But definitely ride that camel, and bring something for your hands afterwards. lol They are quite smelly beasts and I couldn't wait to get to the hotel to wash my hands (several times I might add), hand sanitizer didn't even make a dent. :) :)

 

Thank you so much....I'm going in spring 2009, and I'll definately take handi-wipes, pine sol or something !! Hee Hee.:)

[NAS-KARR]

I just read in someones review of a cruise in Feb.,08 that they paid 10 or 20 USD's just for a 20 min picture session.

 

 

CIAO,

[Toto2Kansas]

It costs $2 to just sit on a camel and take pictures. A 10 minute ride is $5. Again have your guide arrange. There are guards surronding the pyramids, along with a rope. For $1 they will step on the rope and let you stand next to the pyramid. For another $1 you can climb a little ways up.

If you have the sercurity guard with your group assist you in this it is much easier:D

 

There were no ropes around any of the pyramids during our visit. We could get up close and personal with each one. Those that did try to climb a little ways up for a picture, were immediately told to get down. Not even a bribe could get them to allow it.

[cherylakers]

We just got back 2/9 and there were no ropes. We were able to get right up to each pyramid. There was also a place on 1 pyramid where you could climb up about 15 feet or so. It was like a walk way. You went up one way and down the other way. That was the only place you could climb up. They had armed guards all around the pyramids to keep people off.

 

The camel ride was $5 USD which our tour director had arranged in advance. There were probably about 50 camels out there waiting. They actually took us a little ways away from the pyramids so that we could get the 3 pyramids in the background which made a beautiful picture. Pictures were taken and then they came to our hotel that evening and the next evening and the next to sell us the pics. We did buy them for $5 USD because they were quite good.

 

Cheryl

[Fblack]

FYI.... the movie The Bucket List was shot 100% in Los Angeles. They never went to Egypt, or Eze, or anywhere outside of LA.

[CAC104]

Where is the best place to find a good guide....We are going via a cruise in 2009, do you think we should just let the ship offerings take us?

[WeBeGone]

There were a hundred of us that used Nile Blue Tours for our Cairo overnight off the Star Princess last Nov. We each saved $600 by booking through Nile Blue over the price Princess was charging. Nile Blue was great. We also spent a week with them in Feb for a Nile cruise. I have the highest regard for this company.

info@nilebluetours.com

[Cruise Junky]

There were a hundred of us that used Nile Blue Tours for our Cairo overnight off the Star Princess last Nov. We each saved $600 by booking through Nile Blue over the price Princess was charging. Nile Blue was great. We also spent a week with them in Feb for a Nile cruise. I have the highest regard for this company.

info@nilebluetours.com

 

We're going to be booking our overnight with Nile Blue, they've been great to deal with online.

[Andiamo!]

We're going to be booking our overnight with Nile Blue, they've been great to deal with online.

 

I'm sure you'll be extremely happy with Nile Blue Tours - and you'll have a wonderful time in Egypt!

[rubinstein2r]

We are going with De Castro rather than Nile Blue in June when we cruise on Azamara. They are going to include a tour at the Egyptian Museum, which doesn't seem to be included in the ship's shore excursion.

 

--Myra and Leo in Arizona

[Cruise Junky]

I'm sure you'll be extremely happy with Nile Blue Tours - and you'll have a wonderful time in Egypt!

 

Thank you, from you, that means a lot !! We can't wait.

[MercedMike]

Where is the best place to find a good guide....We are going via a cruise in 2009, do you think we should just let the ship offerings take us?

 

We used Egyptian Express and were extremely happy.

 

Check out our review and pics at http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/holyland2.html

 

for a link.

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

[Hambagahle]

be warned - in adition to being extremely smelly, camels bite! And bite hard. So watch out. In addition the way they get up once you are in the saddle is unnerving, unless you know what to expect - first the camel gets the hind legs up, so you tip all the way forwards, then it gets its fore legs up, so you go back! (It may be the reverse, but you see what I mean!) Hang on tightly!!

 

The gait of the camel is wierd, if you are used to riding horses. Apparently this is because it moves both left legs forwards, then both right, instead of RL RL etc. Apparently this is why it is called "the ship of the desert". I have had the "peasure" (??) of riding one of these creatures twice at the Pyramids, and when we are there next year I shall watch others doing it - cheaper, anyway!!

 

Have fun! And if you do it, Do get your picture taken...:)

[JordanF]

We loved the camel ride at the pyramids. Our guide arranged the purchase, so we got a fair deal. But, at the far end of the ride, the person leading the camel offered to take our picture. He used my camera and took a few, which came out great. However, before returning the camera, he asked for a "tip." So, of course, I was more or less buying my camera back! I gave him some money and laughed for an hour.

 

There were four of us--the rides were $5-$10 per person, and the camera "tip" was another $10 or so. All money well-spent.

[lolita123]

We are going with De Castro rather than Nile Blue in June when we cruise on Azamara. They are going to include a tour at the Egyptian Museum, which doesn't seem to be included in the ship's shore excursion.

 

--Myra and Leo in Arizona

 

 

I just received a negative review of DeCastro. Just posting as an FYI

 

Hello,

 

While this was a land/cruise tour, I want to post this here, since I know many of you are researching here while planning on a trip to Egypt.

 

So, I have been planning this trip for over nine months. Went through exhaustive research, going through reviews, details on each company and the itinerary itself. I decided on De Castro since it is a large company, had some good reviews online, and Soliman (the tour operator) was very responsive and was very patient answering all my questions - and I will tell you I had a lot of questions since I wanted to make sure this trip was perfect and we were going with the right agency.

To give you some examples - I was very clear with my specifications on the type of trip. We wanted the trip to be exclusive, and wanted to stay in specific hotels and take a specific cruise. I had chosen these places based on the research I had gathered from here, Soliman and I had clear talks about this - he had recommended the Le Meridien, Giza however I had heard nothing but great things about Mena House, so I had asked him to book us into that. Similarly, he had tried to put us into another hotel in Aswan, however I had told him we needed the Old Cataract. So, I was very specific with him each step of the way, letting him know where we wanted to stay and he was great in acknowledging that and confirming it.

Eventually towards the latter part of the planning, we went ahead and booked the Mena House ourselves since I wanted to put the deposits on our credit cards. Accordingly, the trip itinerary through DeCastro included everything else.

Things went smoothly the first day, they were there to receive us, get our visas, take us to the Hotel, collected us the next day toured Cairo and then came the next day morning to pick us up to go to Alexandria.

On the way there, Soliman tells us there was a change in the itinerary - They could not book us into the sleeper trains to Aswan and the return from Luxor to Cairo, so we will be flying there ( we were ok with that even though that meant spending an extra day at Aswan and Luxor). Then he said, the reservations department screwed up and even though they had reserved rooms for us at the Old Cataract they did not send the deposit on time, so our reservations are cancelled and we are now booked into the Pyramisa. Also, the same thing happened with the Nile cruise - we are now booked into the cruise ship Medea instead of Mojito. He assured us repeatedly how Mojito and Medea are similar - five star deluxe, we will not see the difference; everything is still five star deluxe category.

We were disappointed but believed him...and then we went to the Alexandria Library where we got online and checked out Medea - and saw the difference in pictures. Medea looked like a cheap motel compared to the Mojito. It was not a deluxe category, and again, thanks to all the information I had received online, there is a big difference between the two categories. Besides, based on the rates we had paid De Castro - they were five star deluxe rates all the way through, so this was not acceptable.

So, on the way back to Cairo, we had a conversation with Soliman, and that is where the true colors came out. He had known about this schedule change since the 2nd of April, but did not bother to tell us when we got there 6th morning, when he met us at the airport and took the money from us. He basically lied when he said the Mojito and Medea was the same, and Pyramisa is an ok hotel, but not the same category as the Old Cataract. At this point, they can do nothing; we will just have to accept it. However, we were very insistent and stressed on this being bad service and it took a lot of discussion (heated at times) before he finally agreed to make some calls. Finally we were told that we would be given $200 per couple to book ourselves into the Cataract and they would cancel the Pyramisa booking. So we booked ourselves into the Cataract and paid an extra $200 to stay there since De Castro messed up. The stay there was amazing (will post separately on that). Then he said he would let us know about the cruise.

Next day, he kept us hanging - telling us we will know soon whether he could get us into the Mojito. Meanwhile, we went and took a look at the Medea - and it was scary. Very shabby, peeling carpets, the room they showed us was dirty, peeling bright orange carpets, half windows which was dirty - and then we saw the Mojito - and it was a big difference. Waited the whole day to hear back from Soliman, he told us we would know by 5pm latest, then disappeared and showed up at 7:30p to let us know that we would have to go with Medea. At that point, we were livid. Nine months of planning, detailed instructions, countless emails, confirmed itinerary and everything was pointless because he was basically telling us that he could not put us into the Mojito. He then admits to the fact that Medea is not as good as the Mojito...we can go and book ourselves in there independently but it would be like the Cataract. We would have to pay the money out of own pockets. They would refund us some of the money but we would get it back in 20 to 25 business days. At that point, we were not trusting him anymore - since everything he was saying was lies and were out of a great experience. We said we would complain to the Tourism Police, we would make sure EVERYONE knew this and he basically said he does not believe in online reviews, De Castro is owned by the same guy who owns Harrods in London, and if I post a negative review, he will post 10 good review online, and they will still get customers. After arguing with him till about 11pm ( we missed the Phila light and show), he finally made a call to the Senior Manager who then called us back at midnight to say that he was putting us on the Mojito.

The next three days were great - Mojito was wonderful. Then we arrive at Luxor where again we meet DeCastro's tour operator who brings along Bob, a tour guide. He then starts bargaining with us...we want to see the Karnak Light and Show; we need to pay then 35 British pounds per person for it. When we pause at that, he says ok let's bring that down to 20 British pounds per person, but if we pay him directly, then it will be only 15 British pounds. At that point, we decide to do those ourselves. So we get a taxi from the cruise ship to the Temple (15 LE each way) and then 75 LE pp for the tickets - you can see the difference – 1 GBP is about 10.79 LE…

We go on the sightseeing to Karnak Temple, Valley of the Kings, Queen Hatchesput Temple with Bob where we see him blatantly buy one ticket and get all of us through, give some separate money to the gate wardens, and then charge us the full price.

I know this is a long review, but at this point, I want everyone to be aware of this tour agency. I realize mistakes can be made, but the way they handled it was terrible. Soliman turned out to be this immensely bitter person, who made it clear he did not enjoy his job and clearly did not like to be contradicted. He was lying every step of the way to cover up the mistakes. What scared me was his talk about the company not caring about reviews - I have traveled extensively and ALL my traveling decisions have been made by what is posted in various travel websites - so if a company is of that philosophy, then they are basically there to take your money and that is it...who cares about travel experiences?

Mostafa, the GM, did do a good job of putting us on the Mojito, but the day and a half of battles with Soliman and putting up with his attitude before we could speak to Mostafa really made the whole thing very bitter and messy. It was clear that other travelers probably got the same thing happen to them, and Soliman was sure he could get away with making the changes in the itinerary and when he told us he was calling his manager to see what could be done, he wasn't.

 

I am sure people out there have good experiences with De Castro, but the question is – when something does go wrong how do they handle it? We were fine with taking the train from Cairo to Aswan and from Luxor to Cairo. They could not arrange that (though in the final itinerary everything was confirmed) so they moved us to flying – they DID not do us a favor. We paid for an extra night in Aswan, AND, also we paid for our meals in Aswan and Luxor (dinners at both places which would have been covered on the train). We stressed on five star deluxe – we were booked into a five star (which was horrible), and we had to fight for over a day to get what we wanted AND had paid for.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions, I will try my best to answer any questions. But, I strong recommend thinking twice before going with this tour agency.

 

D.

 

 

 

 

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[Traveler50]

We just got back 2/9 and there were no ropes. We were able to get right up to each pyramid. There was also a place on 1 pyramid where you could climb up about 15 feet or so. It was like a walk way. You went up one way and down the other way. That was the only place you could climb up. They had armed guards all around the pyramids to keep people off.

 

The camel ride was $5 USD which our tour director had arranged in advance. There were probably about 50 camels out there waiting. They actually took us a little ways away from the pyramids so that we could get the 3 pyramids in the background which made a beautiful picture. Pictures were taken and then they came to our hotel that evening and the next evening and the next to sell us the pics. We did buy them for $5 USD because they were quite good.

 

Cheryl

 

We just got back from Egypt on 4/26 and we also could climb up on the Great Pyramid (largest one). In fact they had steps going up so it was easy to walk but you could only go so far and then back down. It was fun to get up that close.

 

We also loved the camel ride and they were arranged by our tour guide for about $4 and of course it was not a very long ride but we were glad we did it. The tips we gave actually cost more than the ride. Our designated camel leader was a little boy about 10 years old. He led our camels and when the camels nudged each other once he snapped a rope at them and stopped...so he seemed to have them under control. Also, when the ride was over he promptly told us we needed to tip him! Of course we had already figured that out but I suppose he wasn't going to take any chances. Then another kid came over and plopped a scarf or turbine on my head for another picture. Then he promptly told us we needed to tip that kid too! They were so cute (kind of bossy though) so we really didn't mind because we had a good time.

[NautiqueBelle]

RCI is offering the following ship's excursion. If anyone has done this, I'd love to hear what you thought about your day -- especially any thoughts you had about the camel caravan. Thanks in advance. :)

 

 

Caravans in the Sand

This exciting tour by coach, four-wheel-drive vehicle and camel caravan will acquaint you with the beauty of the Egyptian desert and the mysteries of the pyramids. Travel aboard your coach (approximately 2.5 hours) through desolate expanse of desert and reclaimed, cultivated land en route to Cairo. Stop at the Western Plateau of Giza for panoramic views of the only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World, the Pyramids of Giza. Continue to the base of Chepren's Pyramid and enjoy some free time to explore the site at your leisure. Afterwards, drive down the valley to where the mysterious Sphinx guards the mortuary complex. Visit the ValleyTemple and then journey through rural areas towards the Sakkara Country Club. Upon arrival, board 4X4 vehicles for an adventure into the desert. Join a camel caravan where experienced camel drivers will assist you to climb onto the unique saddle to begin your unforgettable trip through the desert sands. Capture the spirit of the Bedouin as your expedition takes you back to the Oasis of the Sakkara Country Club where lunch will be served. After lunch, rejoin the coach and proceed to Sakkara, Egypt's ancient cemetery. Discover the Step Pyramid of King Zoser, the first monumental building in the world. Finally, return to Cairo and the Papyrus Institute where a demonstration will introduce you to the art of paper making as discovered by the ancient Egyptians. Spend some independent time for souvenir shopping in the adjacent gift shop before the return trip to Alexandria.

[leugerst]

We were on the costa concordia 4/3/08. We did pretty much the same tour through Costa. We are a family of 4. Two teenage sons 14,15. They had a great time in the jeeps. The lunch was okay. We were worried about the food a little, but did not eat the salad, or anything that was not cooked. The camel ride was the best. It was about a 25 minute ride. The rest of the tour was good, the pramids are wonderful and we had enough time to take plenty of pictures and if you pay the guards a few euro's you can climb up a few blocks of the pyramids. I would highly recommend taking the tour. A highlight of our cruise!

[NautiqueBelle]

We were on the costa concordia 4/3/08. We did pretty much the same tour through Costa. We are a family of 4. Two teenage sons 14,15. They had a great time in the jeeps. The lunch was okay. We were worried about the food a little, but did not eat the salad, or anything that was not cooked. The camel ride was the best. It was about a 25 minute ride. The rest of the tour was good, the pramids are wonderful and we had enough time to take plenty of pictures and if you pay the guards a few euro's you can climb up a few blocks of the pyramids. I would highly recommend taking the tour. A highlight of our cruise!

 

Thanks. I was wondering how long that camel ride would be.