Published on Aug, 2024
Before the trip, I had a lot of worries about not being able to know which exact ship I will be assigned to, until only a few days before the trip. I still tried to communicate with the tour operator in advance and hope to get the information as soon as possible. Bassante from Here Egypt Tour has been so helpful with coordinating our itinerary, making sure we get the best experience on this tour. For example, we originally thought our cruise would be departing from Luxor. However, a few days before the cruise, Bassante let us know that if we depart from Luxor, we will miss the hot air balloon ride and we can either be refunded for that activity, or we can consider changing our flights to depart from Aswan instead. Also, she would be able to book us onto a nicer boat too if we depart from Aswan. Luckily, Egypt Air flight tickets can be easily canceled and refunded, so we immediately changed our tickets.
Since we went during low season in the middle of summer, we were lucky enough to be booked on the very nice Steigenberger Minerva Nile Cruise. The ship was very well maintained and all the staff and service was top-notch. We love the food on board too. It was truly a haven after a long day of touring in the brutal heat.
Our guide was Mohamed Shakour and he really was a big part of our trip being so enjoyable and memorable. Not only did he organise our everyday schedule so well, always communicating to us and catering to any of our requests, he was also an incredibly knowledgeable egyptologist and provided us with detailed explanations in all the spots with great passion. Throughout the trip he was more like a friend and an uncle that took very good care of us. We were really grateful to have him as our guide.
Bassante from the tour company was also checking in on us by whatsapp everyday, making sure everything was in order, which is very sweet of her. And when a small unhappy incident happened to us on our day trip to Abu Simbel, even it was not the tour company's fault, they listened to us and even took the extra step to make it up to us by offering us lunch on the last day. It was these gestures that made us truly appreciate their effort in making sure their customers get the best experience.
We also opted for an additional tour to see the Nubian Village, our guide on that trip, Omar, was also exceptional. 10 out of 10!
I was so glad that in the sea of tour options online, I chose this one and they really delivered more than what I expected. Highly recommend everyone to go for this wonderful tour!
