Tour of Cairo and Alexandria

[BigGuy25]

Can anyone post what their tours cost? I'm interested in the two-day overnight tour, but won't be going until 2012.

 

Yes, I like to plan ahead. ;)

 

I don't have the overnight costs ... but just for some perspective, our private (just DW and me) one-day tour with Ramses this summer from Port Said to Cairo and Giza was $240 plus tip. Would have been less if we shared with another couple. But, even by ourselves, the cost was $140 less than what the ship's "bus tour" would have been. And, the convenience and comfort of the private tour is not even comparable to the large groups.

Edited July 26, 2010 by BigGuy25

[Zukini]

Can anyone post what their tours cost? I'm interested in the two-day overnight tour, but won't be going until 2012.

 

Yes, I like to plan ahead. ;)

 

For the standard overnight Ramses itinerary from Alexandria to Cairo in May of 2011, with an overnight at a selection of different hotels, the price for 2 I was quoted is $300 per person. It was an additional $30 per person for an upgrade to the Mena House hotel. The per-person price would decrease if more people were on the tour.

 

Hope that helps.

[Laurie S.]

Yes, thank you! I also contacted Ramses Tours late last night and had a response this morning. This sounds perfect! Wish I didn't have to wait until 2012, but I'm on my other trips of a lifetime before then. ;)

[Toto2Kansas]

Do we need a visa if we are just there for one day? We will be staying on the ship at night

 

Princess took care of our Visa's for us, we didn't have to do a thing. Even if not going on an overnite, the visa was still needed.

[msmic]

We are traveling in May 2011 and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with Egypt Shore Excursions? I've read all the wonderful messages about Ramses but would like to hear about other companies as well. Thanks in advance.

[binky&jane]

There is so much info on this thread. I LOVE it!! Our recent trip to the Med would have not been the same without taking the advice of everyone on CC. My family of 4 returned from 17 nights in the Med in April. We have 2 kids ages 7 and 14. Our guides in all of the ports did a fabulous job engaging them. But I have to say that the 7yo still talks about returning to Egypt. This was by far her favorite stop. We used Ramses. Most of my communication was with Mohammed Yousef. There was a time or two when I needed to email him twice. But I had a LOT of questions. I put together 6 groups of 10 from our CC roll call. So I am sure you can imagine how many emails I sent to him. We had others who decided to set up their own tours through Ramses also. They either chose to do an overnight or something completely different. The tours I arranged came back to the ship after the first night and we toured Alexandria the next day. We did not have security on our bus. But, at a few of our stops a guard stood by the door of the bus while we shopped. The driver stayed with the bus when there was not a guard. We were never worried about our safety. Athens made me more nervous than Egypt. I am hoping to return to Egypt in 2012 on a Holy Land cruise. I just need to get my husband on board. He is about 80% of the way there. (He is wanting to do a Baltic curise.) We will obviously use Ramses. They have so many tours to choose from. If there is something you want to add or delete form your tour, just let them know. They are super to work with. Upon our return we will definitely be spending the night. I want to go further into Egypt to learn more about their wonderful history. :)

 

Cheers!!

[binky&jane]

Which of the Giza pyramids are open at the moment?

 

Do you mean to go inside? I'm not sure which one it was. There was only one that people were going in. It was the first one as we walked in. We chose not to go in because you have to crouch down. The opening is just like 4ft tall. My husband is 6'5" and I have a bad back so it wasnt an option for us. Some of the people who went inside said it was wonderful and others said it wasn't worth it because its nothing but an empty room. I guess that is just personal preference. I hope I answered your question. :)

[smeyer418]

Which of the Giza pyramids are open at the moment?

they rotate on a day by day basis on which one is open.

 

read this

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1251084

[smeyer418]

Our ship is docked from 8 am to 8 pm at port said. We wish to definitely see the pyramids. How long would this take and recommendations for anything else that should be a must see in this short time.

It takes 2-3 hours each way. You will have enough time for the Pyramids including the Spinx, the solar boat(all at the same location of the Pyramids), the Egyptian Museum and some shopping. It will be a long day.

[WeBeGone]

Our ship is docked from 8 am to 8 pm at port said. We wish to definitely see the pyramids. How long would this take and recommendations for anything else that should be a must see in this short time.

If your NEXT port is Alexandria, try to arrange a private tour for an overnight in Cairo.

[Turtles06]

Do you mean to go inside? I'm not sure which one it was. There was only one that people were going in. It was the first one as we walked in. We chose not to go in because you have to crouch down. The opening is just like 4ft tall. My husband is 6'5" and I have a bad back so it wasnt an option for us. Some of the people who went inside said it was wonderful and others said it wasn't worth it because its nothing but an empty room. I guess that is just personal preference. I hope I answered your question. :)

 

Hey, thanks for the best laugh out loud I've had in days. What were they expecting, an audience with an animatronic King Tut? :rolleyes:

 

We were fortunate enough to get tickets to go inside the Great Pyramid this winter on our visit to Giza, and it was a huge thrill. Just standing inside the tomb room and thinking, "wow, we're inside A PYRAMID" was one of those thrills of a lifetime. It still amazes me to think about it.

 

BTW, it's not narrow the entire way. You enter a normal sized opening and climb a number of steep ramps and stairs that take you well up inside the pyramid. It does get narrow at points; my partner is 6'3" and at the very very end, she had crawl on her hands and knees for the last ten feet or so to get into the tomb room. If you have a very bad back, or real claustrophobia, this might not be the thing for you. But if you are physically able to do it, and this is the kind of thing you like (you know who you are!), don't miss it.

 

As it was explained to us, limited tickets are given out each day togo inside the Great Pyramid. One of the other Pyramids is also open, and easier to get tickets for.

 

Originally Posted by charmingone

Our ship is docked from 8 am to 8 pm at port said. We wish to definitely see the pyramids. How long would this take and recommendations for anything else that should be a must see in this short time.

 

If your NEXT port is Alexandria, try to arrange a private tour for an overnight in Cairo.

 

This is good advice (unless for some reason you want to spend an entire day in Alexandria). Otherwise, you'll spend a ton of time driving back and forth.

__________________

Edited September 5, 2010 by Turtles06

[Licisca]

I was in Alexandria last 21th september with Costa Mediterranean and I booked a full day Tour of the city with Ramses Tour. It was really amazing, we were 2 people, me and my husband and it was not our first time in Egypt.

The tour was really well organized and the guide Youseph very kind and prepared. I am italian so we had a guide speaking a perfect italian. I can surely suggest everyone to book with Ramses Tour :)

[bbbradk]

Thank you for all the tips, we will be porting in Alexandria in September, I just sent an email to Ramses, hoping for day tour #2

 

We did the Ramses Tour, it was the worst tour we have ever been on, we booked the tour as private, so it was only the 2 of us, the guide (a young girl who was very nice, but the worst tour guide ever) took us for a 20 minute walk through the port, then over a bridge, through the post gate and to the street to find our van.

Was not a Ramses van (although there were many in the port area that we had to walk away from) it was some private van, I am hoping the guide was a private one and not an employee of Ramses, because she was bad.

 

She was barely audible on the rare occasions she did speak, I was visibly upset at all the walking we had to do to find the van, she promised there would be no more long walks to find the van, she lied.

 

As mentioned, she had about 2 minutes worth of information about Alexandria, then silence all the way to Cairo (although her and the driver were very chatty, and she took several calls on her celphone, did some texting, and at one point pulled out her laptop to go on facebook.

 

I snapped once we went for lunch, the website stated clearly that lunch would be at the Hard Rock Cafe (not real Egyptian food, but with all the warnings about the food in Egypt we got from the ship we figured it was a great option, we could have some American food and not get sick)

Without any notice, the van pulled up at the Queen Cleopatra restaurant, I refused to eat anything.

Eventually the guide asked me to speak with the company owner on her cel, he asked what was wrong, I explained I was totally unimpressed with the tour, he wanted to make things right, so offered a free day tour of Alexandria the following day (the guide for that tour was fantastic, how I wish he had taken us to the pyramids)

Even the free tour ended up only being a half day tour (to be fair there was not a lot to see in Alexandria, and the guide was fully willing to take us anywhere else we wanted to see).

 

Anyways, the conversation with the owner made for the most uncomfortable 3 hour trip back to port ever.

 

I wonder now though, if I booked this tour in April, why would Ramses treat me as if I booked last minute?

In retrospect, I think a cab ride would have been far cheaper and much more informative.

[dog]

Thanks to all who report back on their Ramses tour. I've copied the info. incase it disappears, or I can't find it again.

Really appreciate the feedback, as we are looking forward to our tour in May.

[Flowrider]

We did the Ramses Tour, it was the worst tour we have ever been on, we booked the tour as private, so it was only the 2 of us, the guide (a young girl who was very nice, but the worst tour guide ever) took us for a 20 minute walk through the port, then over a bridge, through the post gate and to the street to find our van.

Was not a Ramses van (although there were many in the port area that we had to walk away from) it was some private van, I am hoping the guide was a private one and not an employee of Ramses, because she was bad.

 

She was barely audible on the rare occasions she did speak, I was visibly upset at all the walking we had to do to find the van, she promised there would be no more long walks to find the van, she lied.

 

As mentioned, she had about 2 minutes worth of information about Alexandria, then silence all the way to Cairo (although her and the driver were very chatty, and she took several calls on her celphone, did some texting, and at one point pulled out her laptop to go on facebook.

 

I snapped once we went for lunch, the website stated clearly that lunch would be at the Hard Rock Cafe (not real Egyptian food, but with all the warnings about the food in Egypt we got from the ship we figured it was a great option, we could have some American food and not get sick)

Without any notice, the van pulled up at the Queen Cleopatra restaurant, I refused to eat anything.

Eventually the guide asked me to speak with the company owner on her cel, he asked what was wrong, I explained I was totally unimpressed with the tour, he wanted to make things right, so offered a free day tour of Alexandria the following day (the guide for that tour was fantastic, how I wish he had taken us to the pyramids)

Even the free tour ended up only being a half day tour (to be fair there was not a lot to see in Alexandria, and the guide was fully willing to take us anywhere else we wanted to see).

 

Anyways, the conversation with the owner made for the most uncomfortable 3 hour trip back to port ever.

 

I wonder now though, if I booked this tour in April, why would Ramses treat me as if I booked last minute?

In retrospect, I think a cab ride would have been far cheaper and much more informative.

 

i am sorry you had a bad tour to cairo, i am surprised to hear about your bad experience, i have been reading very good reviews of ramses for a year and a half, i am going with them in december, we are 3 groups of 15 persons doing an overnight.

 

2 years ago me and my wife went to turkey, before we took a 12 day tour through various places in western turkey, we took a mini tour with the same company to troy, it was just me and my wife and the guide in his small-medium car. even though the 12 day tour in a 10 person group was great, the troy private tour was boring, kind of what happened to you, we didnt "click" with the guide, my wife was in a bad mood because of the the unconfortable ride, etc. so even though it was the same company, the overall tour was great but that first private tour wasnt. what i am trying to say is that even though a small part wasnt good, it doesnt mean the tour company was bad. in my case i would certainly recomend the tour company we took in turkey but would warn others on doing a private mini tour to troy, i would state it would be better to visit troy as a quick stop.

 

trying to use my turkey experience in your case, i think that in tours, specially in countries like egypt and turkey, you have to expect some unexpected bumps, for example if the port is full and you have to do a little walking to the van or car, that is the luck of the draw, it could have happened to any other company.

 

the restaurant issue, if you didnt specify you wanted to go to the hard rock, the company isnt at fault to take you to another place similar in quality, others have posted good reviews about the queen cleopatra restaurant.

as for the guide, maybe she noticed you were angry about the walk and felt you wanted your "space" on your ride to cairo. this happened to us in our mini tour to troy. I think guides will interact with pasengers in different ways, with people who ask more questions they will be more open and talkative, maybe the guide felt you didnt want to be talked to on the ride. then again maybe you had a bad guide, every company has one i guess. if that was the case, i think it would have been better to state that x guide in the company is not recomended and not that the company as a whole is not recomended.

 

finally if the company gave you as compensation a free tour of alexandria, i think it shows that they do care and treated you good in overall terms. not all companies would be willing to give you another tour free as compensation for not liking the guide in another tour. try asking the ships tour salesperson you want a free tour in your next stop because you werent satisffied with a tour you took, you will be laughed at.

 

as all in life "ship" happens, and you have to take the good with the bad, it sound to me that the first walking part and the restaurant thing kept you from enjoying the rest of the tour. i would be this upset if i had missed seing the sphinx, or the museum, or something like that.

 

again, o am sorry you didnt enjoy your tour of cairo, its a shame because for many of us that stop was the highlight of the entire cruise. i just feel its unfair that you bash the company entirely because of one guide.

jmho

[cruisemom42]

again, o am sorry you didnt enjoy your tour of cairo, its a shame because for many of us that stop was the highlight of the entire cruise. i just feel its unfair that you bash the company entirely because of one guide.

jmho

 

I don't think the poster was "bashing" the company in any respect. He/she said it was the worst "tour" not the worst "company"....... and let's face it, the guide can really make or break a tour. I think it is important to hear all views from posters who take private tours with any company -- the good AND the bad. It may help others to not make mistakes. And if it's true that Ramses has spread themselves a bit thin and are having trouble arranging high quality guides for ALL the tours they contract for, I think that is worth knowing.

[CRUISERTN]

I have cruised and toured all over the world and our private tour last fall with Ramses was our best tour EVER!!

I think any guide who will get the company representative on the phone and then having them try very hard to make it right for you shows the integrity that Ramses has. I don't know many companies who would do that for you. Might have been a mis-communication regarding the restaurant that the guide could not help, maybe the area around the port had their fill of private tour vehicles and the van could not get in the area, which caused the longer walk.....all I can say is that our experience, along with another couple, was the very BEST!! Our guide was on his cell phone a few times, but he was calling ahead to see which sites were crowded, to determine which order we went to them. They are also on their phones to network with other private guides in case of a vehicle break down, to assist one another, so that no one gets left behind. Our guide used his cell phone to call several jewelry stores to check on a specific ring we wanted, and did not give up until he found one for us...he went out of his way and certainly above and beyond. He stayed with us for our camel ride at the sphinx area to make sure the camel handlers got us off of the camel and did not try to make us pay for the ride again after he had already paid them. I can go on and on, but our Ramses guide and driver were the absolute best!!

 

If we even mentioned a certain site, he was determined to take us there, whether it was on the scheduled itinerary or not - as long as we had the time. When we returned to the ship (we did the overnight tour), we compared notes with others on private tours and with the ships tours, and learned that we saw and did so much more than anyone else. George at Ramses told us when we booked the tour that he promised us "a tour of a lifetime", and he certainly lived up to his promise. I would highly recommend Ramses.....we hope to return to Egypt again one of these days, and will be once again calling on Ramses for another private tour!!

[Optifire]

We have just returned home this week from our Holy Land and Ancient Empires Cruise and for Egypt our tour company we used was Ramses Tours. They were perfect. We had a group of 54 but wanted to maintain small groups so Ramses was able to use 5 minibuses with 10-12 in each. It worked our really nice. We came out of the terminal building and our guides were waiting for us with our signs for our group and we set off for a walk to the end of the terminal parking lot as the private tour vehicles are not permitted to park in the terminal lot as priority is given to the ships large tour buses. It only took us about 5 minutes and we loaded and were off.

 

We were late getting off the ship so our guide, Karim, suggested that we change the scheduled itinerary around as in his opinion and experience this would allow us to adjust our time and get the most out of the time that we had left and it certainly did. We were able to see it all in the time that we had left. One thing in Egypt is that you must be very flexible in order to get everything in.

 

As for lunch, Karim asked us which we would prefer, Hard Rock or Traditional Egyptian Food and we all opted for the Egyptian Food as everyone felt that we all came to Egypt to experience the country and no one chose to go to the Hard Rock. Over the two days for lunch , eating the delicious Egyptian food, no one in our group became ill. We drank bottled water or canned soda and did not have any ice as that is where you can run into problems as that is their water. We did fine and loved the experience.

 

Karim was the best guide ever, trying to accomodate everyones wishes and making everyone happy and he did just that. He pointed out the important things on the way to Cairo, there was not much to see on that route of importance. He also pointed out that if we should have any questions at any time to please ask and he would glady answer. He didnt want to talk too much also on the way, as he wanted to give people a chance to rest as he knew what laid ahead of us for these two days, so he told us to relax and get ready for a fast pace when we arrived, so we could get as much in as we could, and we did. He was on his cell phone alot, as with our late departure and a change in our itinerary to accomodate us, he now had to rearrange all the reservations that he had in place. Every stop that we made, everything was ready for us, for example lunch was so organized. We went right in sat down and the food was hot and served to us right away. Our entries into the sites and musuem where tickets were needed were all in place and he just ran off the bus, got the tickets and we were off to go, far ahead of all the others waiting in line. It was great.

 

One thing about Ramses, and the most important thing, they always were asking is everything ok, is everything acceptable to you. And if it was not, they corrected it that it was. When we were in our hotel room, he called everyone in our group (54) in their room to make sure they were happy with the room. We all were. We stayed at the Oberoi Mena House and it was beautiful and a few also stayed at the Le Meridian.

 

Sorry for going on and on...but I have traveled on 15 cruises and booked many, many private tours and this is the first company that I had that nothing went amiss anywhere. It is hard for me to beleive. I was like waiting for the other shoe to drop so to speak, the entire time, but there was none. I still cant beleive it. That was a nice experience in itself, a company that delivers exactly what they said they would. Their customer service is so great also, that the owner of the company follows up with each person afterwards to check to ensure that all went fine. They give you a questionaire to fill out asking your experience with their company as they truly are interested in fixing it, if there should be a problem.

 

I can honestly recommend Rames Tours for our choice in Egypt.

[jegoodman]

I'm sorry about your bad experience with Ramses. I used them last December for a group of 14 for a day tour of Cairo then the next day for a day tour to Alexandria. They were perfect. The guide was fantastic, the driver was great, the vehicle was perfect, and everything went smoothly. The communication with Georges of Ramsey was always flawless and the follow up was fantastic.

 

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Ramses.

 

I am truly sorry though that you had a bad guide. I guess that can happen with any company and I'm sorry it happened to you.

[GreySkies]

My mother and I went on a tour with Ramses last year with another mother and daughter. (Both of us daughters were in our 30s.) We had Karim, and weren't all that impressed by him. He seemed nice at first, then when we arrived at the first location, got all touchy-feely with the other mother as a joke. She took it well, but I was immediately uncomfortable. I will say that he did take care of me after I nearly collapsed when I got out of the pyramid at Giza. He made sure that a large chunk of ice was brought over to help me cool down.

 

What tipped me over the like-dislike edge was when he took us to Tiger Town. For anyone that loves animals, do NOT let them take you here! You walk in, and it seems like a petting zoo at first. Then you see that you don't get to touch the animals. They had two or three dogs that didn't realize they could jump the fence and leave if they wanted, including a Great Dane. But the worst was the tigers that were put into a small cage. At first, it was just one. When the "show", which I refused to watch, was over, there were 6 tigers in the tiny cage! To top it off, Karim started to taunt them. I told him to stop. The first time, I was nice. The second time, I was a little more stern. The third time, I barked "enough" at him. This place clearly didn't understand how special these animals are. For some reason, Karim thought we would really enjoy it.

 

We did get all of our questions answered and we saw all of the sights we wanted. I got to see the pyramids and Sphinx. My mom got to see the library at Alexandria. We did some shopping at a store that had lots of stuff, but must give kickbacks to Ramses or Karim. There was another place just down the street that had exactly what I had purchased for about half the price. Oh, I almost forgot about the perfume shop that we were taken to. The other three in the group were having a nice time, but I hate perfume and the smell was getting to me almost immediately. We were there for probably close to an hour. Again, Ramses or Karim must get kickbacks from people buying stuff there.

 

I hope this helps people in their future decision.

[UKBayern]

I have read on another thread on CC that there are two tour companies with identical names: Ramsestours.com and Ramsestours.net. One is supposed to be very good, and the other one not. The good one only lets you pay at the end of the tour, the other one wants a downpayment. Could it be that the posters on this thread are in fact talking about 2 different companies?

[dog]

http://www.ramsestours.com/

 

this is the company I've chosen to go with - you pay at the end of the tour and it is Mr.George I've been in contact with.

 

It would help if people specified whether they are talking about ramsestours.com or ramsestours.net.

 

thanks for pointing out that there are 2 companies with similiar names.

[GreySkies]

My thread above is talking about ramsestours.com and my mother made all the arrangements through George.

[bbbradk]

I have read on another thread on CC that there are two tour companies with identical names: Ramsestours.com and Ramsestours.net. One is supposed to be very good, and the other one not. The good one only lets you pay at the end of the tour, the other one wants a downpayment. Could it be that the posters on this thread are in fact talking about 2 different companies?

 

 

No, talking about the same Ramses as the others, we did not make a down payment, but were expected to pay at the end of the tour

[cccruisin]

I understand that the Jade Dec 12 has over 100 people booked with Nile Blue privately. Just another option from Ramses.

Edited November 15, 2010 by busterc3