Egypt Tour

[babyshannon]

Hi vnc,

Can I check with u whether do u joined any optional tours during yr trip? How was the charges coz i saw that there is one day which is free and easy. I hope it will not exceed my budget of 3k per pax.

By the way, do I have the honour to take alook at yr photos taken in egypt?.

thanks alot for your help.

 

[vnc]

Hi Babyshannon,
Yup, we joined most of the optional tours in our free and easy day, eg camel ride. Very nice experience indeed! Not very expensive, I think. We also went into a pyramid (another optional tour). We went to Abu Simbel (another optional tour which cost US$150 each). The rest is cheaper, can't quite remember le.

Sure, do leave your email so that I can send you the link.

 

[babyshannon]

Hi vnc,

My email address is [email protected]

Thanks.

 

[babyshannon]

Hi vnc,

Thanks. I had received yr photos already.
Just booked my yr end trip to Egypt with Universal travel..

However, I was advised by the tour agent that riding camel is not advisable as it is not safe. By the way, hows the nile river cruise? Is the cruise similar to the Star Cruise?

 

[vnc]

Hi babyshannon,
? Huh? Our tour leader from the same agency told us it's very safe to ride on the camels leh. She said see the road like not safe like that but actually very safe one. It was rather scary becoz u will be very high, then u look down, it's a little road and beside the road, it's the waters.

So, all in all, it's up to individual bah. See if you dare or not loh. For us, we have already travelled so far.. then also it's like once in the lifetime thingy, we just try it since 90% of the holidayers are doing it.

But if you don't dare to, I think there are other mode of transport to reach the destination.

 

[vnc]

Umm... the nile cruise is not like Star Cruise at all. Not so big like Star Cruise. But it's comfortable enough to stay (at least for us lah). Hee... Let me check if I got any photos of the Nile cruise ferry. Coz most of the time we took video instead of still photos.

 

[babyshannon]

Hi vnc,

Hope ur still around. Can I check with you whether did u book the optional tour to Alexandria and Abu Simbel? How much do u pay and are they worth the trip?

Thanks

 

[vnc]

Hi Babyshannon,

Wah, that time we didnt have the option to go to Alexandra. We did opt to go to the Abu Simbel. And yeah! To us, it's definitely worth the trip. Very long bus journey. but the history is very rich in that place. They build the temple where at certain dates the sun will rise and will shine exactly at the statue face's! Heard that on those dates, people camp there just to take photos.

 

[jacqueline97]

I went to Egypt, nile cruise for my honeymoon 8 years ago. History is rich there and I got bored cos I did not read more about it before I go....

Interesting and exotic place. No regret and I think its nice to fly there at least for an experience...

People are friendly but many con man too. We stayed in sheraton hotel.

 

[babyshannon]

I just confirm my tour to Egypt with Universal Travel..finally paid the deposit. Gosh..the whole package cost us $2199 before taxes, but after $100 discount per person. Its so expensive coz we are travelling during the xmas period. But then again, I have no other choice as my husband and I are only free during that period.

The staff in Universal Travel mentioned that the optional tour is about USD90 to 120 per person for each optional trip.

Guess I need to budget about $3.2K per pax (including taxes, optional tour n expenses) for the tour.

Really looking forward to my trip this Dec..

By the way, Vnc, can I check with u whether do we bring only USD dollar? do we have to change to egyptian pound?

 

[vnc]

Hi Stary,
Yah, I definitely agree with you. Glad that you mentioned it, it's definitely more enriching if you were to read about Egypt first before going. For us, my hubby managed to borrow from library a book on Egypt before going. And true enough, everytime we visit a temple or place, we dun just look look see see.. we at least know a little about the story behind the place.

Hi babyshannon,
Don't change Egyptian pound now woh! Just bring US$. There are many money changers in Egypt. Just change the amount that you would need. Try not to change too much because I think SG money changer doesn't accept Egyptian pound (if I dun remember wrongly)?

For us, my hubby always change just the amount we need. Maybe slightly more so that we can buy food or bottled drinks from the streets.

But fret not, I believe Universal Travel would have a scheduled gathering before the trip to inform you more details, what you should or should not do in Egypt etc.

 

[babyshannon]

I agree..have been reading the lonely planet of Egypt recently. feel that it will be more useful for us to know more about the history of the temple before we go there. I may bring along the lonely planet during the trip too.

Hi vnc,
thanks, guess I will only bring along USD only.

been counting down to my trip. this is the first time my husband and i join a tour group..

previously, we often plan and travel by ourselves, to both japan n australia.

 

[gizmo_toh]

Hi everyone. I find that alot of you are choosing universal travel for the egypt tour. May i know why???? I had made a comparison and found that although universal travel is the cheapest but the places they cover are not as much as compare to SA and Chan Bro tour. Somemore food are not fully 100% included for universal tour. Thanks.

 

[babyshannon]

Hi gizmo,

Before I confirm with Universal Travel, I actually look into Dynasty Travel, Chan Brothers, SA and Universal Travel. My husband n I were quite particular when choosing tour agnency. We asked for all the pricing , e.g. tips, airport taxes, optional tour charges, other extra charges. Universal travel is very good in breaking down all the charges for us, while other agencies only able to provide us with a rough guide.
I choose Universal Travel becoz my husband and i feel that they are more familiar with egypt than the other agency. SA and Chan Bros are more familiar with australia n korea packages. They even had some difficulties answering our questions about egypt.
Furthermore, they are actually about the same price and uses the same airline (Qatar airways, same flight timing on the same day). In fact, when i enquire, Chan Bros is slightly cheaper than Universal travel and Chan Bros offers 4 star hotel while Universal travel uses 5 stars hotel.
Universal travel offers 2 optional tour to Abu Simbel and Alexandria. The price you pay for the optional tour will include lunch. In fact, I was shocked when I realised Chan Bro charges USD180 for optional trip to Abu Simbel while Universal told me that the price is only between USD90 to USD120.

Hope the above will help answer your questions..

 

[gizmo_toh]

Hi babyshannon. Thanks for your clarification. It really helps.

 

[kayemoss]

Babyshannon, how big is the tour group when u went for ur Egypt trip?

 

[babyshannon]

Hi Kayemoss

I havent depart for egypt yet. will only be going this coming dec end..so far i only know that my group is full..but dunno how big is the group.

 

[kayemoss]

Hi babyshannon, oic... How long is your impending trip going to be? Could you pls let me know how big ur group is when u re back from it?

Thanks

 

[bearybinks]

hi babyshannon,
i just came back from my 13-day egypt honeymoon last tues..i agree with vnc, dont bring too much egyptian pounds cos the local ppl prefer US$ n euros..u get a better deal tt way,esp since now US$ so low.

have fun! we thoroughly enjoyed ouirselves, esp the Nile Cruise

 

[babyshannon]

Hi piper,

Thanks for informing me. I intend to bring on USD dollars. Is it possible to change for egyptian pounds in singapore?
Do u go by free and easy or by tour group
Can i take a look at your pcs?

I am looking forward to the Nile Cruise too..

 

[babyshannon]

Hi all,

I am back from my egypt trip. really enjoyed myself very much..

Love the Nile Cruise..

Feel free to ask me any qns if u r interested to go to Egypt..

 

[babyshannon]

Hi kayemoss,

there are abt 25 people in my group. a mixture of young and old. there will be a tour guide from singapore following us throughout the trip in egypt. however, my friends and i all find the tour guide unhelpful and kind of abit extra. basically, she just follow us wherever we go. The local guide in egypt is very good and helpful.

I saw the Chan brother group when i was there. find their tour guide from singapore better and more helpful to the tour members.

 

[kayemoss]

Thanks Babyshannon!

Like that har.... I think i better opt for those tours like 2 to go liao... Dun wanna stuck with big group and lousy tour guide.

How much did u pay extra for tipping in Egypt? Who is ur tour guide from Singapore?

 

[kayemoss]

Piper, u also took the same agency as babyshannon?

 

[babyshannon]

Hi kaymoss,

i pay extra tips for the singapore guide who follow us. must give one, coz 6 of us actually thought of not giving her. then she keep hinting in the bus. then during last day at airport transfer, she keeps following us. talking to us and tell us how much her previous grp give her for tips. so in the end, we each give her USD20 for the ten days.

However, we enjoyed ourselves very much. the nile river cruise is very romantic and the places we visit are very beautiful.

If ur interested, i can send u link to my photo albums.

 

[kayemoss]

Hi babyshannon, i would like to see ur pix..

Could u pls email the link to [email protected]

Thanks!

 

[vnc]

Hi Babyshannon,

Glad that you enjoyed the trip! I guess we had the same SG tour leader. She is not really a tour guide, just a tour leader.

Wow, you sure gave quite a lot for the tips. I think we also didn't give her that much. Who is your local Egypt tour guide? Is it Mustafa?

 

[babyshannon]

Hi vnc,

opps i mentioned wrongly. yup, she is the tour leader.
My egypt tour guide is mustafa too..

I feel that he is quite good and helpful.

 

[bearybinks]

hi babyshannon!
im glad u enjoyed the trip. the Nile cruise was awesome rite? so relaxing and kinda surreal. sorry i didnt reply earlier. i hvnt been checking in on the forum in a while. can i see your pic? i hvnt had time to upload mine.
[email protected]

did u change egyptian pounds here in the end? i changed at parkway parade.

hi kaye,
my package was from another agency and kinda different. the tour agency here links up with a local egyptian agency so we just paid the s'pore agency for our air tickets and the land tour - it wasnt a typical package cos we were told the price breakdown ie air tix and land tour.

we were picked up at the airport by the egyptian tour leader and for most part of the trip, it was just two of us and our tour guide and driver. was v cosy and personal. for the cruise part, we were joined by a greek couple and we shared one tour guide. it was nice cos they were v similar to us, we didnt dilly dally at sites we didnt like and we even told the tour guide not to take us to those tourist shops to get fleeced. and he actually listened to us cos he realised we wldnt buy anythign anyway.

 

[lux]

hi piper,

Which agency did you go to? Also is there an estimate cost?

I am planning a trip there next month and thinking if I should just pick up a land tour there or otherwise.

Thanks,

 

[bearybinks]

hi ling,
i booked with Quality Tours in s'pore and they sold us a US$880 8-day land tour from Emilio Travel in egypt. tour agent owed us a favour so she didnt mark up on that price. actually, u may be able to book online with a local egyptian tour and get them to pick u up from the airport..then u just need to get your own air tix. there was no airline promo when we went in nov so we paid $1.5k per person for SIA. quite exxx.

 

[lux]

Hi Piper,

We did a last minute trip planning actually. The plan was to use our kris flyers but the damn flights cant be redeem because their seats are full *grumble* we miss a couple of promotional airfares as well. Bad planning on our part! end up we are stuck with 1.3k air ticket with tax from emirates.

So is $800USD for 1 person or 2? I am deciding if I want to book a land tour or go with a package in SG. Frankly I never joined a tour group before because we do our own travelling so have no idea what to expect.

I was thinking of going to Hurugadah as well for snorkeling and a 2 nights stay there plus the 'tourisy' thing one normally do with the cruise and spinx and pyramid mix. Manage to find a package from one of their agency at USD450 per person for 10days. However is apprehensive if that is a good deal so trying to get advise from previous travellers on line.

 

[babyshannon]

Hi,

I agree the cruise journey is awesome. Love it so much, especially relaxing on the top deck of the cruise. In general, I find the whole journey relaxing, not so rush.
But to choose again, I will not use universal travel again, but to do 2 to go type of trips. better coz dont have to wait for the slow pple. in my group, there is this couple who is the always the last to arrive at every destination for the whole 10 days.

 

[lux]

A question.... do we need to get a visa to enter Egypt? I have mixed information because it states Egypt does not require visa for singaporean passport holder BUT the tour agency that I asked in Singapore said there is a $60 visa fees for every booking of the tour pacakge. Confuse (--

babyshannon... thanks for the citing one of the con of travelling in a package.

 

[babyshannon]

Hi Ling,

U need a visa to enter Egypt. But its cheaper to do it when u reach egypt. my friend cant pass the passport to the agency to do, and he does it when we reach luxor. it only cost him USD15 while my husband n i did it for SGD40 each. so we conclude that its cheaper to do it in egypt. and is quite fast also. he cross the custom at the same time as us.

 

[bearybinks]

hi ling,
US$880 is for one person. your US$450 for 10 days sounds like a steal but better doublecheck the itinerary and make sure meals/accomodation are included and what type of hotels. from my research, the programme for most tours are almost the same, difference is the optional tours to abu simbel n alexandria. other than tt, the other sights are all along the main tourist route.

we extended our trip and flew to sharm el sheikh for another 5 days to go scuba diving. our air tix from cairo to sharm cost S$200 per person. we bought at the egypt air office in cairo. initially, the tour rep offered to get for us, but the price he quoted us was more than S$300 per head - tt was more than what our s'pore tour agent told us to expect. so we made him take us to the airline office and true enuf, the over-the-counter price turned out to be so much cheaper. we were v pissed off but he started explaining some crap abt how there are 8 different classes within economy class and what he wanted to buy for us was the better class. pls la, the plane isnt v big so it doesnt make sense. anyway, just be cautious when it comes to money. we found tt the locals were always trying to fleece us. of cos there were nice ppl tt we met, but many of them are pretty mercenary.

as for visa, like babyshanon says, it's cheaper to buy at the airport. for me, we bought at cairo airport. there are several counters selling the visa before the immigration checkpoints. we paid abt US$15 too. it's v fast. it's quite a joke cos the man just sticks a stamp into your passport without checking anything and tt's your visa into the country

 

[lux]

Hi girls,

Thanks for the confirmation on the visa. Yes I heard it's $15 in Egypt. However not too sure if it applies for Singaporean as well. Glad it does!

I got the contact for the tours from various forums actually. People recommended them and I checked out their website and stuff and finally ask a quote from them. However forget hilton and marriots hotels. We are getting by with okay accomodation but we checked out the sites for the hotels and they seem decent enough. I scruntize the itinerary and of course realize some difference. Cruise is 4 star but according to traveller was clean enough and food is full board for that 4D/ 3N and some other meals are covered here and there. Also we are not flying. Getting by with sleeper train to aswan. I reckon that is where the money are saved from.

I heard abt their particular money fleecing methods... scary actually. I read a case of this lady and the companion were 'pressured' into taking a camel ride while waiting for the pyramid crowd to wear thin. End up the lady cant get down unless she paid 70USD. Her companion was also seperated from her so cant help her. Otherwise is the usual perfume and papyrus stuff where they block the door and you got to buy or no way out (-_-... YELPS!!

 

[babyshannon]

Yes yes, never go for any horse carriage ride which says USD1 only...end up it will be get up USD1 and come down USD20. if u dont pay them, they dont allow u to come down.
Thats why i choose to take guided tour instead of free and easy. becos everything is included, including tips. and yr tour leader will help u to negotiate the price and pay them on yr behalf.
The sleeper train is very clean but very small too..no individual toilet, only a small basin in yr room.

 

[lux]

I think that is why people prefer package... so there is a so called 'protection'. I have my fears... that is why in a limbo on what sort of booking I should make.

However I assure you that not every country is like that. I went Free and easy in my tours i.e. cambodia, krabi+phuket+koh lanta, china, bali, SF etc and it was relatively easy and ppl were genuine and honest. Esp china where we explore Hangzhou and suzhou. Contrary to what some may say.

 

[babyshannon]

Hi Ling,

My husband and I are also free and easy person..Everywhere we travel, we will plan ourselves and we prefer to be jus the two of us too..

 

[bearybinks]

hi ling,
personally, i oso like free and easy. but for egypt, i recommend going by package tour to safe yourself some trouble n anxiety. local transportation isn't v accesible and it's a conservative muslim country in the middle east - u'll stick out like a sore thumb, not v safe. also u'll be visiting a lot of sites tt are out-of-the-way so easier to hv a guide with u.

hey babyshannon,
was your whole group all s'poreans? the egyptians were pretty interested in talking to us cos they seem to rarely hv s'pore tourists.

 

[lux]

Hi Girls...

If I have more time I might consider backpacking there. However I am on a schedule so will be opting for a local land tour I reckon. Trying to choose the 'perfect' tour now. Wish me luck~ the thing about booking in Singapore is that all have stipulated departure dates and so far I cant find any that fit our schedule *grumble*.

I guess that is what makes it easier.. booking your own trip you can do what you want instead of going to see the stuff that you dont.

 

[bearybinks]

hi ling,
wld u wanna check out Quality Tours? there's no stipulated departure date since they cld start a tour just for me and hubby, means no need minimum numbers. but the thing is, they can be a bit careless so u hv to double-check the dates etc.

 

[babyshannon]

Hi piper,

nope. my group consists of pple coming from indo, thai, india, thai and spore. everyone is helpful and approachable except for the 2 indians who are always alone and never mix around.
IMO, egypt is a country which requires alot of tipping and bargaining power. everything u buy also must bargain. thats part of their life.

 

[tingsly]

Hi babyshannon,

Me & My Hubby intend to go Egypt for Honeymoon during March 07.

Can you share your photos with us...

Thanks in advance!

 

[tingsly]

Hi Babyshannon,

hehee forget to give u my email id: [email protected]

 

[kayemoss]

Hi Piper,

Where is Quality Tours located at?

 

[ebearz]

Hi babyshannon

So coincidence, I visited Egypt last Dec 06 and booked through Universal Travel too, but mine is at the beginning of Dec 06.

My Egyptian tour guide is also Mustafa, he is helpful and always has a lot of interesting historic stories to share. Some my tour mates shared the same view as you on the SG tour leader. But the optional tours quoted by the Egyptian tour leader are higher than the ones quoted by the SG tour leader before the trip.

Overall, I still enjoyed the trip a lot.

 

[moonlightmist]

Hi all here,
I'm planning for my honeymoon in Dec this year.
Is Egypt a good place to visit in Dec? Hows the weather there like there then?
Thanks thanks

 

[babyshannon]

Hi Min,

I just came back from Egypt last Dec. The temperature is ard 10 to 20c. cooling and not hot. nice weather to visit Egypt.

Truly enjoy myself during the 10 days trips..