Subject:
Re: Memphis Tours
Date:
2005-10-20
Name:
Nick Fairweather
Country:
Hi Manoj,
Yes, I am very happy to provide a reference for Memphis Tours.
I booked a tour with Memphis Tours for a family of five in January this year (2005). I booked on the Internet and found that many of the agaencies I contacted wanted me to pay the balance of the tour cost as sooon as I arrived in Cairo, they planed to meet me in the hotel lobby for me to hand over the cash in US$. Now, not knowing any of these people, and not knowing if in fact they ran real businesses or not, I was not going to do this. Memphis Tours however were happy for me to visit their office and pay there. Subsequently the tour details changed and we were due to catch the sleeper train the day after we arrived in Cairo, so Sherif suggested that he should meet me at the hotel on arrival (just after midnight). I didn't agree to this but that was not a problem, Sherif was happy for me to visit him early on Sunday morning and finalise arrangements there.
Finding the office was a little difficult, the taxi driver had to stop twice for directions, but once there I found Sherif and his assistant to be very efficient and friendly. We drank mint tea while waiting for some paperwork to arrive and I found both of them to be very nice people. That evening we were picked up in a mini bus and taken to the station by Sherif's assistant - whose name I regret I am unable to recall at the moment (it might have been Achmed). He was very helpful and remained with us until the train arrived and made sure that we were settled into our compartments before leaving.
The cruise we had booked was for 9 nights on the Nile Admiral, part of the Presidential group. Everything was excellent, they changed our room booking on arrival so that we could get into our cabins really early - the sleeper train arrives in Luxor at about 5.30am!
Our entire holiday in Egypt went without a hitch and I am very happy to recommend Memphis Tours without reservation and if I am fortunate enough to be able to return to Egypt I will without doubt use them again. For this trip I handled most of the arrangements myself and was only going to book the cruise through Memphis Tours, it turned out to be simpler to also book the sleeper train through them as there was no real saving in booking direct. In hindsite it probably would have been better to also allow them to pick us up at the airport and arrange our hotel as well.
One of the concerns I had about booking through the Internet is that you never really know that the company really exists, even when they give references you cannot be sure that that it isn't the same person using a different email address. For that reason, here is my phone number, it is an Australian number as I live in Western Australia, I am happy for you to ring me if you want to check that i am a genuine reference.
Hope this helps, enjoy your trip to Egypt, my family had a great time and we would love to go back, there is only so much you can see in a couple of weeks. (The weather in January was sunny but cool, perfect for sight seeing, though too cool for swimming.)
Nick Fairweather
Tel: From outside Australia : 61 8 9397 5679
From within Australia: 08 9397 5679
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