Turb0Beaver

My wife and I chose Memphis Tours for a 5 day Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan at the end of a one month trip in the Middle East which took us through Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt. While organizing the cruise several months ahead of time I found it an easy decision to choose Memphis Tours because of the competitive prices and most importantly because my emails were always responded to promptly and professionally. I had a lengthy email correspondence over several months with Maged at the head office in Cairo, and he was a pleasure to deal with. Our experience with the tour through Memphis Tours in Egypt was mostly quite good. Pick ups and transfers were all private and in air-conditioned vehicles. We also had a private guide, Dr Salem Barbary Ahmed, which came as a great surprise to us as we were expecting perhaps one Egyptologist guide for every 20-30 passengers. Dr Salem was very knowledgeable: he holds a PhD in geophysics and his thesis dealt with how geophysical technologies can be used to find archaeological artifacts. As a scientist myself I really enjoyed that we had such a technically qualified guide. Dr Salem was also very helpful with organizing the many different excursions that can be made on the this sort of trip, and a good guy to talk to in general. When my wife got quite ill with a combination of heat exhaustion and food poisoning on the third day of our trip, Dr Salem was calling our cabin to make sure she was ok and trying to help out however he could. We highly recommend him. The ship we were on was called the MS Mojito, which is not owned by Memphis Tours but is one of the many ships that they book with. The cabins were quite comfortable, but I can't speak highly of the food: it was honestly some of the worst I've had in my life. Of course this isn't directly Memphis Tours' fault, but it's important to note. At first I thought that this was just symptomatic of food in Egypt in general, but after independently going to a few decent restaurants in Cairo and Luxor it seems as though the chefs onboard maybe just didn't know what they were doing. As with everywhere in Egypt, it is important to anticipate the extra cost of all the tips (baksheesh) that are expected and often directly solicited. This is one aspect of travelling in Egypt that I really don't like, but if you're going to Egypt there is no getting around it. We found on the trip with Memphis Tours that tips really weren't an optional and unspoken bonus as they are in western culture: we had several members of staff ask us if we had tipped this person and that person as though it was just a part of our bill. This really does add up to a significant extra cost, and will take you by surprise if you're not expecting it. On a trip with Memphis Tours your driver, your guide, the guy who carries your bags if you need him to (who can't carry their own bags?), the hotel staff, the kitchen staff, pretty much EVERYONE will expect a tip. Some will directly solicit it. We were on a tight budget for this trip and basically just tipped the minimum suggested amounts. Even at that rate the tips added up to an additional 15% (~$150-200USD) on the total cost of the trip. Overall we had mixed feelings about our trip to Egypt, and of the five countries that we went to in the Middle East on this trip, Egypt was our least favorite (we found Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan to be much more enjoyable but of course they don't have the same historical sites that Egypt has). Memphis Tours did a great job of making things as easy and enjoyable as possible (except the food!), but there really are a lot frustrations when travelling in Egypt. It was worth it to see the wonderful sights that Egypt has to offer, but I don't think my wife or I will be jumping at the opportunity to go back. Again, this isn't a comment against Memphis Tours, just a general observation about travel in Egypt in general that I thought would be relevant to people planning a trip there.