Jthespartan

1. Memphis tours was very helping in planning, arranging, and organizing our trip to Egypt. Although we were on a tight timeline (12 days), they managed to fit in everything that we wanted to do. Plus they were very helpful in offering suggestions of additional things that we should see/do. Particularly, I was a bit apprehensive about the Nile Cruise at first. I didn’t think that that was something that I wanted to do… but Ahmed Fayez insisted that it was top-of-the-line and a great way to see the temples along the Nile. In retrospect, I’m very glad that I followed his advice and booked that portion of our trip. The cruise was absolutely fantastic. This was my wife’s favorite part! 2. The Bedouin overnight portion of our trip was my favorite. The food that I ate that night was better than any I have ever had! The only suggestion I would make is skip the black dessert after breakfast and head back to Cairo first thing in the morning. The black dessert was nice… but at that point I was just ready for a shower! Haha. 3. Mohsen, our coordinator, met us at the airport and helped us fly through customs without any problems. During the first part of the trip he was very friendly, anxious to help us in any way that we could. Specifically, on our way back from St. Catherine the AC went out in the van. Mohsen was eager to fix it for us… eventually he stopped at a local repair spot, got some freon, and fixed it. We were extremely grateful that he went out of his way. On the last day of our trip, we asked Mohsen to check the status of our flight (which was supposed to leave the following day). Mohsen called the airport, gave them the flight number, and responded that it was on time. Later that night, I decided to double check and was surprised to find out that our flight had been canceled and rescheduled to the following day. I don’t know if Mohsen didn’t ask the appropriate question or he was given bad information… either way it created a problem for us as we had to spend nearly $100 USD in long distance calls trying to figure out why our flight was canceled, when it was canceled (months before), and what to do. Plus, we had to book another night in the hotel, which Memphis helped us, and pay for another day of unbudgeted expenses. I did blame Mohsen for our headache… not for the cancellation but for obtaining bad information. It would have been more appropriate to verify the date and time as well as the flight number of the flight to be certain he was obtaining accurate information. Regardless of if it was his fault or not, it is his responsibility as our tour operator to obtain and report accurate information. Imagine if I would’ve checked out of my hotel, gone to the airport, he dropped us off and found out it was canceled… I would’ve been extremely upset for the inconvenience. Once that happened, Mohsen attitude changed completely. He was no longer fun loving and helpful. Instead, he treated us as if we were an obligation and an inconvenience. He took us to Khan El Khelili on our final day (the day that we were supposed to leave) and made it extremely awkward for both my wife and I. He only said maybe 10 words to us… and kept saying things like “And that is why you are mad at me” or “I don’t know if I can do that for you or you might get mad” as well as other similarly stand-offish comments. It was very unnecessary… we were willing to bury the hatchet, forget this one instance, and move on… he wasn’t…and it became very unpleasant. 4. The trip to Alexandria was fun, but definitely not worth the money. For $130/person we went to Alexandria for the day, saw some sights, had lunch, and came back. In retrospect, I wish I would’ve spent the night there and made it a two day event… that would’ve allowed me to see more and I would’ve felt like it was worth the money. Our tour guide in Alexandria was not very good. He didn’t introduce himself until midway through the tour. He also kept talking on his cellphone while we were with him. At one point, we waited 10 minutes while he finished up his phone call. He was very unprofessional. Also, he really didn’t explain much of the history. I still don’t know the significance of Pompey’s Pillar or the Library at Alexandria. 5. The tour guide (Mr. Ashrof) who took us to the Egyptian Museum, the Citadel, and the Pyramids was absolutely great! He was a very captivating story teller… I would absolutely recommend him to anyone. All in all, I think my experience with Memphis was favorable, and I would absolutely recommend this travel agency to anyone. Ahmed is a top of the line professional who will help you plan the trip of a lifetime! Thanks for all you did for us Ahmed!