Luis_A, Feb. 2023
Mahmoud made this an incredible experience!
I was a little scared to book this, based on other reviews, but ended up loving it. I will describe the good and the bad.
First of all, you have to understand you are paying $355 for a 4 day cruise, including room, food and tours (Entry to sites is extra, around 55 dollars). That being said, the boat is nowhere near a 5 start, at least to American standards, but it was good for the price. The shower was warm and room spacious for a cruise. The room could absolutely have been cleaned better, the bathroom was dirty and when my phone fell under the bed, I wish I hadn't looked there. What I was expecting to be bad, the food, ended up being very good. Every night was a little similar, but everything was delicious with plenty of options.
We arrived late to Aswan, and the driver waited for us over an hour. Since we wouldn't have time to eat prior to the tours for that day, they prepared for us a lunch box and took us directly to the sightseeing sites to catch up with our group.
Everything was well explained by Mahmoud and gave us time to explore each site and take pictures. Each day he would send us the plan for the day along with times. Please keep in mind this is a VERY high paced experience, unless you skip tours and decide to stay in the boat. Each day is a very early start.
The only tour that I was let down by, was Abu Simblel. We started the journey very very early, drove over 3 hours to the site. It took the tour guide (Not Mahmoud), Over 30 minutes to get our tockets. After explaining everything, we only had about 45 minutes to explore and unfortunately we could not go inside both Temples. Instead he should have given the explanation in the bus, before or after the site. If I would have know I would have skipped the explanation and go inside the Temples.
The highlight of the trip was the hot air balloon. It was incredible to see the sunrise of the Temples. Just know that it is another 3am day, and after continuing to the Lixor sites, it will be an exhausting day.
On the last day, after Luxor our flight depsrted at 1am. Mahmoud accommodated a day arrange transportation at 9pm. They also allowed us to wait on the cruise till them.
The sites you see are unreal, lots of learning and sightseeing. I would 100% recommend this to everyone 👌