SouthAfricaMargie49

Four friends and i decided to book a trip to Egypt and after getting many quotes and scanning Tripadvisor thoroughly we decided to use Memphis Tours. As any traveller will know itineraries are likely to be changed often during the planning stages and our Agent at Memphis - Ahmed Shalapy was very patient and helped us to plan the trip we wanted. When i asked about an early check in on our first day he suggested an extra night so that we could go straight to our rooms. This is something i will do on all my future overseas trips as most flights from South Africa are overnight and it means not hanging around with luggage till the normal 2pm check in time. Thanks Ahmed. Our guide in Cairo was Mahde and he knew so much about The Pyramids of Giza, Memphis and Zoser that we had a wonderful day. We stayed at the Moevenpick Giza -lovely hotel After a day in Cairo we flew to Aswan to board the MS Nile Dolphin for our three day Nile cruise. Our guide Salim was also on board for the three days and he is extremely knowledgeable. My only complaint here was with the Nile Dolphin and not Memphis Tours in that they charge for anything to drink they don't even supply tea with lunch or dinner without charging you and seeing as the water is undrinkable a complimentary bottle of water on the table would be nice. On our last day on-board we went on a hot air balloon ride over the west bank which Memphis booked for us - it was awesome and ran so smoothly we just loved it After our cruise we were booked into an awful day room to await our late flight to Sharm - very glad it wasn't overnight On arrival at Sharm there was no one to meet us at the airport (seems someone got mixed messages) but we were never apprehensive and just caught a taxi to our hotel. Here i have to add that Memphis more than made up for the mishap - we were refunded the taxi fare and a couple of free lunches were thrown in. We stayed at the wonderful Maritime Jolie Ville - fantastic hotel Our guide Hamada Roshdy picked us up at midnight the following day for our trip to climb Mt Sinai and saw us to Mt Sinai and then on to Taba. Thank you Hamada you were a lot of fun and we loved having you as our guide. We stayed over at the Taba Heights Intercontinental which is just fabulous. The next morning we were running late and poor Hamada was in a bit of a panic but managed to rush us to the ferry port just in time to catch the ferry to Aquaba. Once there we had an excellent driver/guide (Galieb??) organised by Memphis and we had a guide through Petra excellent two days. Stayed at the Golden Tulip in Petra - accommodation OK - food not great. Caught the ferry back to Taba and had the misfortune of dealing with customs authorities in Taba who wouldnt return our passports without a guide there but wouldn't allow poor Hamada in to rescue us. After our customs ordeal we were driven back to Cairo (stopped at a roadside cafe with the worst toilets i have ever seen in my life) Spent two more days in Cairo at the Moevenpick. Thank you Memphis for a well organised trip. Our guides and drivers were all great and all but one mishap was not your fault and just a part of travelling in Egypt (I think) Our guides always protected us from most of the harassment that most travelers to Egypt experience. I will be sure to use Memphis on any return visits