Dianne
·
January 10th, 2026
Excellent guides ... very knowledgeable, well...
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Rita
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December 30th, 2025
Here’s a cleaner, lighter, **more diplomatic-but-still-honest** rewrite. Same message, fewer daggers, more raised eyebrows:
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I went back and forth on how to write this, because my experience with Holidays in Egypt was genuinely a mixed bag. Parts of the tour were absolutely five-star. Other parts… let’s call them “character building.”
Let’s start with the good, because there *was* plenty of it.
Before the trip, communication was excellent. Questions were answered quickly and clearly, and I felt confident going in. Once on the ground, things became a little more vague—particularly around domestic flight details, which tended to arrive just in time to be mildly stressful—but nothing catastrophic.
Accommodation was consistently very good. All hotels and boats were comfortable and well run, and the Nile cruise aboard *Zeina* was lovely. The Steigenberger Nile Palace in Luxor deserves a special mention—it was genuinely exceptional. Staff across the board were friendly, warm, and very service-oriented.
The group itself was fantastic: a great mix of ages (from late teens to 50+) and nationalities, which made for an enjoyable, easygoing atmosphere.
Our Cairo guide, Sohaila Fuad, was outstanding. Smart, engaging, professional, and genuinely passionate—exactly what you want when being introduced to ancient Egypt. She set the bar high. Unfortunately, *very* high.
The tour description says there is a guide throughout, but in reality this changes after Cairo. We were taken to the airport by a driver and met a new guide in Aswan. Sadly, Hassan Hosny did not match the standard set in Cairo.
He started strong with a solid introduction at Philae, but as the trip progressed, the guiding became increasingly minimal. Hassan is undeniably funny—but also frequently disengaged, more interested in cigarette breaks or sitting in the air-conditioned bus than actually guiding. He often joked about sites being uninteresting or broken, which some may find amusing, but others (myself included) did not.
What was most disappointing was his dismissive attitude toward the sites themselves—referring to them as boring, broken, or glossing over explanations with a literal “blah blah blah.” Given that ancient Egypt is the entire reason many of us were there, this tone fell flat.
At most sites, we received a brief 10–20 minute introduction followed by a fixed window for photos. At Abu Simbel, the timing worked well. At major sites like Edfu, however, half an hour was simply not enough for anyone with a genuine interest beyond snapping a few selfies.
The Nile cruise portion is very schedule-driven, which translates to *many* early starts—often before breakfast, meaning packed breakfasts became the norm. Wake-up calls as early as 3:30am were common, especially if you opted into activities like Abu Simbel or the hot air balloon (which, to be fair, was incredible).
Flexibility was mentioned but in practice this meant long, tightly packed days with little breathing room.
One example: the tour includes a horse and carriage ride to Edfu Temple. After asking several times if anyone wanted to upgrade to a tuk tuk (and receiving no interest), Hassan decided we would all go by coach instead—disappointing those who were actually looking forward to the carriage ride.
That same morning, we were told to leave at 4:55am for what turned out to be a 10-minute drive… to a temple that didn’t open until 6am. Result: nearly an hour of standing in the cold, shivering. A simple heads-up to bring warm clothes would have gone a long way. Ironically, when we left Edfu later, there were no crowds at all—suggesting a later visit would have been far more comfortable.
On arrival in Luxor, time constraints meant we only visited Luxor Temple, not both Luxor and Karnak as originally planned. Thankfully, the time we *did* have there was sufficient.
This, however, made the final day utterly exhausting. After the optional balloon ride (amazing), we crammed the following into a single day, finishing by 3:30pm as the group split:
* Balloon trip (optional)
* Breakfast & checkout
* Valley of the Kings
* Temple of Hatshepsut
* Colossi of Memnon
* Karnak Temple (the largest temple complex in the world)
There was no lunch stop, no suggestion to buy snacks, and very little concern shown for basic comfort—which felt unnecessary and avoidable.
When two of us staying on in Luxor asked to spend longer at Karnak, Hassan kindly gave us a taxi number—but refused to take our luggage, despite heading to the boat and hotel with the others anyway. That was the moment I decided that the tip I’d been debating would remain firmly in my pocket. (For clarity: the daily $8 collected by HIE does *not* include guide tips.)
In short: I would absolutely recommend the Cairo portion of this trip. I would *not* recommend the Nile cruise section if your goal is to explore ancient sites in any depth.
On a positive final note, I added an extra day to visit Alexandria, and both my driver Bob and local guide Wissam were excellent—professional, flexible, and genuinely engaging. The seafood lunch (chosen à la carte at my own expense) was a highlight and a great way to end the journey.
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cognito:default_val
·
December 28th, 2025
We enjoyed our visits to the various temples which were well organized by our tour guide Ahmed Kassem. He was professional and friendly and gave us enough time at each location.
The variety of food on the cruise ship was good and the staff in the dining hall was attentive and friendly.
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Corng
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December 28th, 2025
The experience was outstanding. It was well organized, safe and highly informative.
Our tour guide Ahmed was very impressive, helpful and knowledgeable. We can highly recommend this tour to anyone.
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Rajani
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December 28th, 2025
Our Egypt tour was an excellent experience from start to finish. The hotel bookings were very good, and the tour guides were extremely knowledgeable and well-prepared. The Nile cruise was a highlight of the trip and truly memorable.
The food throughout the tour was great, and special care was taken to ensure we were provided vegetarian meals at all times, which we really appreciated.
Overall, it was a wonderful and well-organized tour. We would highly recommend Holiday in Egypt to anyone planning to visit Egypt. Our tour guide, Ahmed, was especially knowledgeable and did a fantastic job planning and managing every aspect of the tour, making our trip smooth and enjoyable.
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Toni
·
December 23rd, 2025
Historic Horizons - Egypt 8 days
All accommodation has been great, in particular the Steigenberger Nile Palace Luxor.
After we visited the Pyramids we had lunch in the perfect location with the Pyramids in the background.
The GEM was amazing, the Pyramids, Sphinx were well worth seeing.
Sohaila(Sue) is a very informative guide, she was happy to find out any information if she didn't know it. She was also able to locate a wheelchair for one of our tour companions while at the GEM, and also a golf cart to help her get back to the gates.
Aswan / Luxor
Our drivers for the transfer to and from Cairo, Aswan and Luxor airports where very polite and helpful and gave information about the area.
Tamer has been outstanding.
He explained what we should expect each day. Kept us updated via the WhatsApp chat. He listened patiently to any of our complaints and concerns then addressed each one.
His timing of our tours to ensure we got the best vantage point/ view was perfect.
All the tour guides went above and beyond in showing great patience and diplomacy when dealing with our tour group.
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Adele
·
December 23rd, 2025
Historic Horizons Egypt 8 nights Tour - 17 Dec 2025
I recently had the pleasure of doing the Historic Horizons tour which started 17 Dec and finished 24 Dec 2025. Here is my detailed review.
* Transport:
* Local drivers: the local drivers in each location were safe drivers, they knew where to go, they were professional and we had no problems at all.
* Mini buses: we had mini buses which seated around 15-20 and were comfortable and clean.
* Flights: the domestic flights which were included in the tour - first we had Air Cairo from Cairo to Aswan. Cairo airport doesn’t have much to offer in terms of food or cafes, so come prepared. Our flight was delayed twice so we ended up arriving much later than planned. This is high season and a lot of tourists are doing the same thing, meaning there will be crowds, and several delays are likely. I wouldn’t recommend booking any international flights or tours or activities right after any domestic flights because it’s highly likely it could be delayed and then you could miss your next activity or flight.
* Guides:
* Pyramids & GEM - Sohaila: very knowledgeable about history and happy to answer all the questions. Explained all the historic stories in an easy to understand way, in English. Expertly guided the group around the sites and kept us on track with the timeline to make each stop.
* Aswan, Nile Cruise & Luxor - Tamer: very knowledgeable about history and happy to answer all the questions. Explained all the historic stories in an easy to understand way, in English. Expertly guided the group around all of the sites and kept us on track with the timeline to make each stop. Provided good advice with regards to what to do, what not to do, and was flexible with the guest’s requests. It’s not an easy job but he did it well.
* Itinerary:
* I felt the itinerary was just the right amount of time at each location, and also it captured the main sights that people want to see, without wasting any time or missing anything important.
* Locations:
* Each city location was well chosen and the sights that we went to in each location were well selected.
* Accommodation:
* Cairo: Helnan Dream Hotel. Lovely hotel, nice restaurant on site. Reasonable prices at the restaurant. The hotel has nice grounds and spacious rooms. There is a kids amusement park next door which closes at 7pm. The hotel isn’t near anything so you can’t walk to any restaurants or shops. The hotel has a free shuttle to the Mall of Egypt leaving at 8pm and returning at 11pm.
* Nile Cruise: The ship was the Blue Shadow II. It was nice but a bit older. The food was buffet and had a very nice selection of food, with an omelette and pasta chef who made it to your request. The shower was short in height so it’s a bit of a squeeze for tall people.
* Luxor: Steigenberger Nile Hotel. A luxury hotel, absolutely lovely grounds with several choices of restaurants and cafes with reasonable prices. Spacious and very nicely appointed rooms with good size bathrooms.
* Cost:
* I felt the tour cost was fair and affordable.
* Restaurant prices were good everywhere.
* In the tourist sites eg at the Valley of the Kings etc, the on site cafes can be more pricey.
* Other notes:
* Hawkers - be aware that there will be a lot of hawkers and touts trying sell you things everywhere.
* Accessibility - there were a lot of places which had stairs, steps, and uneven ground. There was also a large amount of walking involved. If the person has issues with walking then they should bring someone who will help them get around as there’s not always hand rails or assistance. Not easy for people with mobility or issues with stairs.
* Every tourist site had toilets available, usually it cost 20 EGP per person to access the toilet so bring small change.
Well worth it, a very memorable and excellent experience! Thank you
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Theodorus
·
December 22nd, 2025
We have seen all the highlights, had enough time without guide, and enough with our guide,good food, good beds, good transport.
Our cuisboat itself was good, but at night, when 5 cruiseboats where next to eachother in the harbour, the generators of the other boats gave a lot of noice and gasses into my bedroom. This is a designproblem of the boats. Please redesign and i will rate you as `excellent;
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Daniel
·
December 21st, 2025
Phenomenal tour, saw a great chunk of the historical sites, our guide in Cairo and second guide from Aswan to Luxor was amazing, very smoothly run, got free time at every site after a walk around and being told significance of the sites, just phenomenal.
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Devin
·
December 20th, 2025
The tour was an overall great experience. We managed to hit all the top tourist sites and packed so much in during our time in Egypt, which I liked. Some people will undoubtedly complain about doing so much and not having free days and a tremendous amount of spare time, but I prefer my vacations to be like that. Let it be known that most of the tourist sites are packed with tourists, but that is the reality of traveling to historical sites.
The organization was good as well. This included the transportation, the time at sites, the accommodations etc... It should be known that pretty much every day was an early start, which, again, I don't mind as I like to do as much as possible on vacations. When I say early, we woke up between 4AM and 6AM on most days. Additionally, we would have full days and usually have dinner around 7PM.
Lastly, and most importantly, the guides and our fellow tourists are what made this trip so memorable. For our guides, we had Su for a day in Cairo and then had Anas the rest of the way. Both were very knowledgeable, patient and organized. After spending so much time with Anas, it was like he was a member of the group and not just our guide. One of my top memories from the trip came when the tour was over and Anas met us for dinner on our last night. He took us to an Egyptian restaurant, which was located overlooking the Luxor Temple. The food was good and the company was better. What a way to end the trip. I will miss Egypt and our group. "Shall we go?"
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