Edward O, Nov. 2017
My wife and I were in Dubai and decided last minute to hop over to Egypt and see some of the sites and take in some of the culture. I booked the weekend trip on Travelocity the night before we left. I wanted my wife to see as much as we could without having the time to plan it. I am not much of a people person and am not keen on riding a bus with a bunch of strangers. As luck would have it, I saw an ad on Travelocity for a personalized tour 2-5 persons since we only had two people the tour was just for 2 for a very reasonable price booked through Viator. I figured why not try it. I am so glad I did. The day we were flying the day before the guided tour to Cairo, I received an email letting me know our Tour Guide would be in the lobby holding sign with our name on it at 0830 the morning of the tour. As advertised, the Tour Guide Nasser and the driver Jarone were awaiting us in the lobby at 0830 sharp!. Nasser and Jarone were extremely professional, courteous, and ensured they opened and closed the door each and every time we entered or exited the private vehicle, the restaurant meal included in the deal, and all of the places we went. We visited Giza, Sakkara, and Memphis City and saw so many things pyramids, Sphinx, paper factory, perfume factory, and took a camel ride. There is no way we could have ever planned and executed all of this in our three day trip, much less in 8 hours length of the private tour, we were amazed. It was so nice to pull up to the entrance of each of the sites and have the doors of the vehicle opened for us. Nasser escorted us through security and the entrance, walking us past all of the herds of people like we were stars. Nasser told us throughout the day what we would be doing and where we would be eating and let us decide if we were good with everything or if we would like to modify any part of the trip such as the lunch spot... My wife is vegetarian so we asked to go to a restaurant at which she would have plenty to eat. Nasser did just that, he changed the lunch venue and we had the most amazing lunch I am not vegetarian, but they had a buffet that had both vegetarian and meat dishes. It was absolutely delicious and very filling. I would have paid three times what we paid for this tour and Nasser and Jarone were so warm and friendly. This was the perfect way to see so many parts of history and culture that I cannot explain how special this was with just words. As a side note, since we had just arrived in Egypt, we did not have any local currency and did not have a chance to go to an ATM. Nasser told us not to worry, he had plenty of cash and would pay for whatever we needed souvenirs, drinks with our meal, came ride, special tour of a tomb in a pyramid, etc. up front and we could reimburse him after the tour. He did just that without any ulterior motive. At the end of the day, Nasser stopped by an ATM so we could withdraw some Egyptian Ponds and pay the tab we had run up purchasing extra goodies. After the tour, Nasser and Jarone dropped us off at our Hotel, carried our bags in for us and gave us gifts. What a very nice and unexpected touch. We are now planing on bringing our daughters back to Egypt with us for Spring Break next year and we will be seeing Nasser and Jarone again on another personalized tour!