Spend 5 days relaxing on a leisurely Nile River cruise from Luxor including accommodation and full
board basis. Accompanied by your Egyptologist tour guide, explore the wonders of ancient Egypt. All
you need do is sit back and enjoy the scener
Posted By : gordonelloyd
Review of Luxor Aswan 5 day tour with flights from Cairo July 2022
5 days With Sphinx tours purchased through Viator.
The trip is definitely worth doing but there are the great, the good and not so good aspects.
The great:
The places visited were all excellent to spectacular ( Karnak, Luxor,and Hotshepsut temples, Valley of the kings,Horus, Kom Ombo, Phalie and Abu Simbel temples). The hot air balloon ride was also excellent and very good value at $60 US.
The good:
The guides were good to excellent with the only poor guide being at Abu Simbel. The cruise down the Nile was enjoyable. The boat was clean and comfortable and the staff very attentive. I slept well and the AC was fine.The food was OK and it passed the main test of my not getting sick. Egyptian wine was affordable [350 Egyptian pounds) and OK.
The not so good.
Although This will take up most of the space in the review, these aspects were outweighed by the above positives overall.
The main issue was communications. The Viator ticket That was emailed made it clear it was not the voucher you needed and you had to pick that up 24 hours before the trip; and this had to be done “in Cairo” with no more specificity provided! Fortunately the Viator ticket did provide a web link to the sphinx tour operator who clarified they would send what was required by WhatsApp 24 hours before the trip. This worked out well and disspelled the fear of having to run all over Cairo trying to get a voucher which Viator had created by their poor information.
Communicating with Sphinx and their subcontractor cab companies generally worked out OK through WhatsApp, but it was absolutely critical to have a local SIM card to make this possible. However there were 2 days when sphinx was unresponsive and we were left wondering when and if our guide would show up. It all worked out, but it was somewhat nerve-racking. Apparently the sphinx person I was in contact with was sick for those days, but they should’ve had someone else filling in. Others on the tour tried to communicate with Viator to get information about when the guide would arrive, but that was useless.
The Viator brochure Clearly said the hot air balloon trip was included in the price, but an extra $60 US was charged. This was certainly worth it, but Viator should Have been more accurate. Another instance of their inaccuracy was my trip was specified as being private. I was joined by an Argentinian couple and the company was welcome, but again VIator did not seem to be too concerned about accuracy. The problem was even worse for the Argentina couple as they had been told they would have a Spanish speaking tour and it was English. Also for several trips , Particularly Abu Simbel, the three of us were lumped in with other groups so there was a van full of people, not close to the private tour that was advertised. This wasn’t really a problem, but it was misleading.
Overall:
I wasn’t sure if I should rate the tour 3 or 4 stars. I landed on 4. LOL that was certainly not the way I felt on the 2 days we were waiting without any information and wondering whether our guide would show up.
One other comment:
The van to Abu Simbel was a nine hour trip there and back, not the six hours advertised. The 1&1/2 hours at Abu Simbel was worth it (although a bit more time would have been nice). and the van was comfortable. But I would suggest looking for a tour that flew from Cairo to Abu Simbel, flew to Aswan and then picked up the rest of the tour on the boat Aswan -Luxor. Of course this could also be done in the reverse. The probably several hundred dollar extra cost would be worth it to avoid the nine hour van ride.
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Posted On : 2022-07-19 03:40:18 
Posted By : Junko_N
Tour company(Sphinx of Egypt Travel) doesn't communicate well . I mailed/text to the tour company couple times but we did not get any domestic flight information till midnight. They called and woke us up at 24:20 and told us that our flight to Luxor is 7:40 AM and hotel pick up time is 5:40 AM.
They booked us Nile air which was good airline,got to Luxor on time. A guy and driver picked us up from airport and took us to the boat. checked in around 9:30, took some rest and had lunch at 13:00 and another guide showed up at 2:00 and took us for sight seeing in Luxor. (2 days) Boat was old but not bad, not too big or small. Our boat was called Magic( you can google magic nile river cruse and you can see the boat interior). You need to pay everything on board,Local beer (500ml) was 80 Egyptian pound,water and other drinks were almost same price.(US$4-5). Wi-Fi was available for purchase. Meals were so so... Not so much choices and all buffet style. They will ask tip when you check out /disembark the boat.
Hot balloon ride was cancelled due to the weather(windy), Horus temple visit at Edfu didn't happen. Boat stopped at Edfu but no one contact us. A guide at kom ombo was horrible,he showed up late and rushed to show the temple and he just left.
Overall it wasn't too bad. Just the tour company ....they need to communicate with customers more..we were wondering during the whole trip what we are going to do/who is coming and meeting us next day....it was frustrating....
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Posted On : 2022-05-29 11:12:06
Posted By : Heather_F
**CAUTION** Do not use this tour company. They will not communicate with you or tell you your itinerary. They refused to give us any information and the five star boat is a one star nightmare. Dirty, Old and we were harassed by the men on the boat. We had to leave the boat two days early for our own safety. We had to move our flights and were told by the airline we had no tickets so we had to but our own. This company then sent us tickets and wanted to cancel the other ones. They ended up getting a refund and made me pay for my tickets and told me they would give me a refund and then refused to give the refund on VIATOR. They are a scam.
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Posted On : 2022-04-15 18:51:06
Posted By : Sharon_G
Like the concept but cruise it is not a five stars it all, quality max three. You never know what is next until night before, they screwed up with my return domestic ticket even when I provided the info two months prior. I missed my international flight.
Tour operator never answer my texts on time until I arrived in Cairo.
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Posted On : 2022-04-07 19:35:50
Posted By : TERRANCE_N
Awesome trip. Not a western cruise experience but still relaxing. Zero entertainment but it’s in Covid times so that’s understandable.Air balloon ride was amazing.
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Posted On : 2022-03-28 14:44:34
Posted By : Khaled_A
This is an amazing tour package. The cruise boat is a 5-star with excellent service and accommodation. The guides and transportation were all professional and treated us VIP services. I highly recommend this tour and package.
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Posted On : 2022-01-07 16:11:32
Posted By : Terrance N
Awesome, relaxing and very chill all at the same time. The accommodations, personal service were very nice, the crew were just incredible always there when you needed them. Now if your looking a for a western type cruise (Royal, Carnival, Celebrity, Norwegian) this is NOT.
The cruise price, tours and historical value is great. Just be prepared to pay for entrance fees on 95% of visits to historic sites which are not included & don’t forget about tipping driver and tour guide. So have your funds right.
It’s going to be hot and a lot of walking so hydrate and be ready for vendors to overwhelm you. They mean no harm just want to provide for the families as we do! Overall a very nice quite time spend on this cruise. We met some really cool folks and we all had an excellent time.
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Posted On : 2021-10-31 03:28:37 
