An experience to cherish for a lifetime!
Real Egypt was recommended to us by a friend who has previously taken a tour with them. And the high recommendations proved to be true in every sense. We went on an 11 day tour of Egypt with Real Egypt who customized the entire trip as per our budget including the best attractions as per our interest. The personalized tour included Alexandria, Giza, Aswan, Nile Cruise, Luxor, Cairo and the Whale valley (Desert Safari). All the guides who accompanied us for these tours deserve a special mention: Nancy Mahmoud was our guide at Alexandria. She is a very sweet person and really loves the place she lives in. Being with her felt like being with a family member. A special mention must be made of the restaurant where we took our lunch, Atheneos which overlooked the Corniche of Alexandria. Md. Ali was our guide for Cairo and Giza. He was a very knowledgeable and energetic person. He gave us a clear picture of what to expect when we went inside the Great Pyramid(which was an optional tour). He recommended the camel ride which we were not initially too keen about, but later found it was an experience worth having especially for the view of the nine pyramids from the desert. But our favorite is Mohamed A Fahmy who was our guide for Aswan and the Nile cruise till Edfu. What is special about him is the passion and joy that he feels while discussing Egypt. Every monument he explained, every god he showed and every historical site he reviewed received from him equal amount of enthusiasm. This enthusiasm was contagious. We learned a lot about the ancient Egyptian culture. And till date we keep in touch over social media sharing our enthusiasm about Egypt. This was followed by our excursion to Luxor where our guide was Shaima. She has a child-like innocence about her. The enthusiasm she had about the historical sites also had a child like quality about it. She was there throughout the 2 hectic days sharing very personal experiences of the daily life in Egypt. And we cannot complete any discussion of Egypt, without speaking about Samir Abbass, the owner of Real Egypt, who accompanied us for our desert safari and Whale Valley. We saw sights that only awed us with their uniqueness in the middle of nowhere. Be it the Petrified Forest, the ancient road from the Basalt Quarry, ancient Greek settlements or the Magic Lake, all are worth a special mention. The arrangements for the overnight camping at the Whale valley were great. And so was the special picnic lunch prepared by Crystal (Samir’s wife who was a very sweet person). Even some other people whom we met like Mr. Ahmed and the two other drivers at Cairo and at the Whale valley became so much a part of our team that it will be hard to forget them.
The entire trip was an experience that we will always cherish. The personalized care that was taken at every point of the trip felt like we have never really left home. We were really nostalgic when it was time to leave. We are really looking forward to another trip in the future where we can see some more of the wonders of Ancient Egypt. Thank you Real Egypt team for making our trip so wonderful.
Date of experience: January 2016
