Private Tour:12 Days 11 Nights Pyramids/Nile Cruise & Hurghada by Air from Cairo

Posted By : Darian I
My tour guide Sam was excellent! He was very thorough, helpful, and patient. He made my trip in Cairo an amazing experience and I would highly recommend him as a tour guide! He was always helpful when in need of recommendations and he is very informative.
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Posted On : 2023-08-06 08:33:45

Posted By : LD_F
We travelled with Reflections in June 2023 for a 12 day Egypt tour as a couple. It was truly an amazing experience, not just because of the sites, but because of Reflections.

In each city we were assigned a coordinator that ensured we had transportation and a guide for the day. The coordinator was very communicative and was always able to be reached. Even when our plane was delayed and didn't land until 2am local time. The guides were very knowledgeable and took their time explaining sites and answering questions.

Pro Tip: June - Aug months is hot (110+ F) and not a lot of people travel during this time. But if you can bare the heat, then you will have a private tour with front row access to everything, because there's not a lot of tourist.

The trip was very well organized, starting in Cairo, then flying to Aswan, for a Nile Cruise to Luxor, then driving to Hurghada for relaxation at a beach resort.

I definitely felt like I got my money's worth. The sites mentioned on the site, the tickets are included. The transportation was nice with A/C. The days we ate lunch at a local restaurant was always a treat to try cruise (outside of the hotel). Breakfast is usually free at the hotel and the cruise and resort included dinner. The accommodations were nice, I would rate them four star; while they were older hotels, they were clean and professional. We stayed in Cario: Barceló Cairo Pyramids, Nile Cruise: MS Monte Carlo, Luxor: Iberotel, Hurghada: Nubia/El Karma Aqua Beach Resort, and Cario: Le Passage (near the airport for departure). Also, we flew EgyptAir from Cairo to Aswan and Hurghada to Cairo. Reading reviews from other tour agencies, flying cannot be underrated for long distance travel.

We always felt safe and secure. When we traveled, the US had Egypt at a level 3 (reconsider travel). But sticking to the tourist cities, there never seemed to be an issue with locals or police (like you hear about in other countries). Also, the guides shielded us from panhandlers, that can be aggressive at tourist sites. Pro Tip: The trick is to say nothing and keep walking; as no thank you, only invites more advances.

Part of your tour, the travel agency will take you to shops. Usually for jewelry, papyrus, carpet, alabaster, perfume, spices, etc.; of just the things that interest you. I never felt pressured to buy anything and it's really just meant to be a good time. With that being said, look up somethings ahead of time, so you have an ideal of fair prices. Pro Tip: Negotiation is part of the culture, so always talk down the price. Also, the places they take you to are the quality shops. So don't buy stuff off the street, as it's usually cheaply made.

Hurghada was a perfect way to end the trip. As the rest of the trip was a lot of early mornings and long walking days. The hotel we stayed at in Hurghada was a beach front property on the Red Sea; so we really didn't have to go anywhere. But if you do decide to do any excursions, you can book through your coordinator the day before. The prices were good and we got the same quality service as the rest of the trip.

A couple of other pointers:

1. Your coordinator will assist you with currency exchange and they give you a good rate. But Google the exchange rate before you travel, so you know what's fair.

2. Keep small bills on you, 5, 10, 20, 50 Egyptian LE, because this is a tipping country. So while you're not pressured to tip, it's a unspoken courtesy to tip (i.e. tip the bellman for taking your bags). But with that being said, don't be afraid to say no, thank you and keep it moving. Although we did like to generously tip our driver and guide for the day, for their awesome service. Before you travel Google tipping in Egypt, so you know what's high and low. Pro Tip: The currency exchange usually only has 200 LE. So buy water or ask your guide to swap.

3. The Airline Egypt Air, is only one free bag. So depending on who checks you in, you may have to pay for any extra bags. No big deal, but something to motivate you from overpacking, which we did! Also, at the Egyptian airport there's a lot more check point security gates. So keep your carry-ons simple.

4. At about half of our hotels the internet was free, others were paid. You'll communicate with your coordinator through WhatsApp. So keep that in mind, otherwise, call your cellphone provider for their international plan for the trip.

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All in all, I cannot say enough nice things about Reflections. THANK YOU and I highly recommend them for your next trip to Egypt!
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Posted On : 2023-06-14 21:31:30

Posted By : jamesdE9452KU
Excellent tour! This was a pretty comprehensive tour with well trained and knowledgeable guides. Private tours and cars everywhere. Very good.
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Posted On : 2023-05-04 08:49:23

Posted By : Robert_M
Review of Egypt tour with Reflections
There are many components to the 12 day, 11 nights, Pyramid/Nile cruise and Hurghada by air to Cairo package. Some parts we would rate much higher than 5 stars and some less. But all in all it averaged out to 5 stars! We had an amazing time! We will give a breakdown of what was good and not so good.
1st Company was fast to reply to any questions and emails.
2nd We were worried that with so many stops and exchanges something would go wrong, but it all worked like clockwork !!
We were met at Cairo airport by Sayed our first guide. He was warm, friendly, knowledgeable, English speaking was good, but not excellent. He informed us of our schedule and accompanied us to the hotel and got us checked in. We stayed at the Barcelo in Giza. It was a very nice elegant but somewhat dated hotel. But we were very pleased with the accommodations. The tour of Giza pyramids area and two other pyramid sites was VERY well planned and WONDERFUL ! We could not have asked for better.
Next morning we were brought to the airport to fly to Aswan. Again all went perfectly !
We arrived at Aswan airport and we were met by Mohsen (Mossy) our second guide for the next four days. Mossy was AWESOME he was friendly, spoke excellent English and is a professor in Egyptology. He held my wife's hand everywhere we went to make us feel safe and secure. He taught us so much and could not have treated us better if we were his own family. He protected us from aggressive vendors and unfair prices. He went with us on the boat trip on the Nile and gave us a private tour at each stop !! If we could give him 10 stars we would. If you are able to request a guide for any part of your trip we HIGHLY recommend him!
The Nile cruise boat was beautiful and quite comfortable. We were VERY happy with it. Only failing is it had no elevator. But it seems non of the Nile cruise boats do. All the crew were at your ready, the food was great! The trip on the Nile magical! All the archaeological sites were MIND BLOWING from Philae island to valley of the kings Pharaoh tombs, to Abu Simbel, Luxor, Karnak and MORE! What an adventure! Now for the only disappointing part. Four hour drive mostly through the desert to Hurghada on the Red Sea. We would not have minded the long drive if we really enjoyed it when we got there. The hotel is lovely to look extremely clean and the view beautiful and refreshing to see blue water after the long desert drive but that is where it ends. The maintenance in this hotel was terrible. So many things did function properly. Elevator buttons stuck we tried another elevator and same same problem with it. The shower door was off the track, sink broken, air conditioning kept shutting off and giving error message. The simple amenities that are expected like shampoo, tissues, extra roll of toilet paper were all absent. They gave coffee but no coffee cups we had to chase down coffee cups and toilet paper. Very annoying ! Any complaints fell on deaf ears. Now for the beach. It was shallow ,only thigh high for at least 60 feet out. It was rocky and full of jelly fish. We got in and out very quick. If you wanted to stay on the beach it was lovely and grounds beautiful. The high point of our stay there was the Desk clerk Ahmed ! Very sweet guy! He did his best but could not get anyone to do anything for us. Plane trip from Hurghada back to Cairo again was flawless ! If you could skip Hurghada or perhaps stay at a different hotel than Magic beach we would suggest that.

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Posted On : 2023-03-16 19:58:46

Posted By : Paolo_D
We travelled by 4 with Reflections travel, an agency based in Luxor.
The itinerary is incredbibe and Egypt is an amazing destination with lot to offer to its visitors: so we did love Egypt, but unfortunately we didn't like our experience with this tour.
We were never informed in advance about our accomodations in different places: so there had been no chance to check the hotels, which supposedly were all 5 stars... We were supposed to spend the first 3 nights in Cairo, but it turned out there would be only 2 nights at the beginning and 2 at the end of our tour: we found out about this once there.
The morning we were flying to Aswan our pick up transfer from the hotel was scheduled at 4am for a flight at 6am, but the driver only showed up (after several calls from the concierge) at 4.45, driving fast as crazy to the airport, which didn't make us feel safe and comfortable.
The 5 star cruise ship and the 5 star hotels were maybe 5 stars in the 80's, but absolutely not anymore nowadays: especially the hotel in Hurgada was dirty. old, rundown, far from the city with awful food: we didnt enjoy our time there at all.
The locations of the 2 hotels in Cairo were both far from the city (in the proximity of the airport), with nowhere around to go or nothing to do, unless you wanted to spend long hours in hectic Cairo traffic.
The tour guides were always complaining about the travel agency and how they had to pay for tickets and evrything lese in advance, which contriubted to crete a weird and ackward atmoshpere.
Overall, I will not suggest a tour with Reflections travel to anyone ,unfortunately.
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Posted On : 2023-01-18 09:43:09

Posted By : David S
We just finished our first three days of this trip in Cairo. We had a great time. Working with Reflection travel was wonderful. The arrangements made equaled or exceeded our expectations. Our guide Esam our guide in Cairo and our driver Ahmed were great. Learnt a lot, they were accommodating and made our travel informative , safe and pleasant.
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Posted On : 2022-12-24 12:28:20

Posted By : Linda L
We spent an amazing time from Aswan all the way to Luxor with our private guide Roshdy. We were able to enjoy this trip so much more than if we did it on our own. His vast knowledge of the sights gave us a greater understanding of the culture of ancient Egypt
He also made sure we got to the sights at the best possible times to beat the crowds. He protected us from the vast amount of aggressive vendors at the entrances of the sights and gave us great advice on additional tours that complimented our itinerary. We felt safe and pampered the whole time. He even took us to the pharmacy when my husband got sick and made sure he had everything he needed. We also had an amazing driver Khaled who was always on time had his nice air-conditioned car waiting for us. he got us safely around to all the places we went. I think that I'd we did this on our own we would not have had the great experience that we had.
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Posted On : 2022-05-22 01:54:04

Posted By : Cbas03
We had a mixed experience in our time in Egypt, which is keeping me from giving Reflections Travel a top review. They have solid guides, their most excellent and the true highlight of our trip being our Nile Cruise guide Roshdy. Roshdy treated my family as his own, communicated our schedule as well as optional activities really well, and was always mindful of getting us water, shade, bathroom breaks, etc... We also appreciated the rooms we received on our Nile Cruise and resort in Hurghada. Finally, our drivers were always friendly, expert at navigating, and on time.

Reflections fell short for me in their lack of communication of the details of our plans (I often had to ask for these and was responded to quickly, but I often had to initiate). The timing of some of the in-country travel was difficult, causing me to pay extra for a late check-out and miss some meals that had been included. They attempted to change the price of the trip and what was included a couple of times and were very difficult to pay, with no online credit card option and an IBAN that wouldn't work from our Italian account. And though we cut out a day trip to Alexandria, they only credited us for $50/person though the day trip is advertised at being €87/person. Finally, though it was nice to be in a hotel by the Pyramids for our initisl arrival and tour there, it would've been nice to stay close to the airport and not have to make an hour commute each way when leaving and having a super early flight.

If I were to go again, I believe I'd skip the Tour Group altogether and simply hire a guide to make the necessary arrangements.
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Posted On : 2022-04-17 12:52:47

Posted By : chintarao
We long wanted to see Egypt and finally did. And if the trip was everything we had hoped it would be, that was in no small measure due to Reflections Travel.

Starting with an itinerary on offer, I worked with Reflections to customise it. I am not a travel operator, and this was not a large group – just three of us – yet Ashraf and Georgina gave me all the time (and patience) it took to do that. Over an extended exchange of email and phone calls they helpfully and clearly answered my myriad questions, advised and corrected me as necessary, and together we worked out a comprehensive 15-day tour.

Reflections delivered 100% and more. Everything was seamlessly organised, from the time we arrived at Cairo airport to the time we were dropped there for our flight back home. The relevant people magically showed up at the designated times at the designated places, and did what they were to. At no time was anything less than promised and expected.

Throughout we had a guide to ourselves, not only professional but thoughtful and helpful, too: making sure we got to see and do everything we wanted to, never rushing us but always mindful of the time, and balancing our excitement about Egypt with our physical limitations as senior citizens. It was also very reassuring to know that Reflections was there for us every moment of our two weeks in Egypt, present when necessary and always on call.

There is so much to see in Egypt, I’m not done with it. I do hope to go back, and I have no doubt it will be with Reflections again.
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Posted On : 2021-12-16 05:37:14

Posted By : Safari402462
It was an amazing trip very good organized
This trip was full of history Romance and relaxing time
Our guide Bari during the cruise had really good knowledge of history patient with children always on time professional job
I recommend reflection travel and of course I’ll be back
Thank you Georgina for everything
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Posted On : 2020-01-07 17:05:35