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Message
Looking into a Nile Cruise
Posted on 11/7/24 at 1:38 pm
Posted on 11/7/24 at 1:38 pm
So my family is starting to think next major vacation and the idea of a Nile cruise is starting to take shape
Any recommendations? Looks like all the major river cruise companies have a set up on the Nile and the itineraries are impressive
It's just the ball breaking price has me looking at some other options
Has anyone done a Nile cruise with Viking/UniWorld/AMA? Are those legitimately worth the cost? Would you have rather paid 1/3rd of the cost and then did your own thing in Cairo?
Any recommendations? Looks like all the major river cruise companies have a set up on the Nile and the itineraries are impressive
It's just the ball breaking price has me looking at some other options
Has anyone done a Nile cruise with Viking/UniWorld/AMA? Are those legitimately worth the cost? Would you have rather paid 1/3rd of the cost and then did your own thing in Cairo?
This post was edited on 11/7/24 at 1:47 pm
5
Posted on 11/7/24 at 1:56 pm to WestCoastAg
I looked into this about a year ago and I think we talked about it on here so some people have done it.
For us, to do it safely and correctly, it would have been like a 20k trip off the bat for my wife and I.
Cairo can be very difficult especially with women. Its not the safest place on earth, the men are VERY aggressive with women, you can get very very sick from the water and food (right behind India for food borne illnesses).
I read some stories that really discouraged me.
To me, the best way to do it was one of the packages a bit on the higher end (although still not crazy) that provided a nice 4-5 star hotel, takes you through security at the airport (which apparently can be a challenge), has armed guarded tours of the sites as well as Cairo, etc.
The price just seemed a bit much for me off the bat but I am going to revisit it at a later date
For us, to do it safely and correctly, it would have been like a 20k trip off the bat for my wife and I.
Cairo can be very difficult especially with women. Its not the safest place on earth, the men are VERY aggressive with women, you can get very very sick from the water and food (right behind India for food borne illnesses).
I read some stories that really discouraged me.
To me, the best way to do it was one of the packages a bit on the higher end (although still not crazy) that provided a nice 4-5 star hotel, takes you through security at the airport (which apparently can be a challenge), has armed guarded tours of the sites as well as Cairo, etc.
The price just seemed a bit much for me off the bat but I am going to revisit it at a later date
Posted on 11/7/24 at 2:20 pm to WestCoastAg
I'm mostly ignorant, why are they expensive? You go out of Cairo? The pyramids are in Cairo, then what's on the river cruise beyond that?
I've been looking long term at a Mediterranean cruise that makes a stop in Egypt for a day trip to the Pyramids, Jeruselem, Greece, and Istanbul. I thought it would be incredible to do all of those places in one trip and then return wherever we felt we wanted to.
I've been looking long term at a Mediterranean cruise that makes a stop in Egypt for a day trip to the Pyramids, Jeruselem, Greece, and Istanbul. I thought it would be incredible to do all of those places in one trip and then return wherever we felt we wanted to.
Posted on 11/7/24 at 2:32 pm to baldona
The Great Pyramids and Sphynx are in Giza, technically not Cairo, but they are across the river from each other.
You see a lot more ancient sites than just the pyramids and cruise up and down the river. They usually go to places like Luxor, Edfu and the Valley of the Kings
These aren't like enormous Carnival cruises so most of the better ones don't hold that many people, they can be a little higher end experiences.
You see a lot more ancient sites than just the pyramids and cruise up and down the river. They usually go to places like Luxor, Edfu and the Valley of the Kings
These aren't like enormous Carnival cruises so most of the better ones don't hold that many people, they can be a little higher end experiences.
Posted on 11/7/24 at 2:36 pm to Fun Bunch
Which is essentially what I've been coming to. You want to do it right and safe with a quality egyptologist. That just happens to put the price in the high 10, low 20 thousands which...is a lot 
We are also thinking about how we could possibly make Petra work and a lot of these cruises over extensions...for another 5k
We are also thinking about how we could possibly make Petra work and a lot of these cruises over extensions...for another 5k
This post was edited on 11/7/24 at 2:38 pm
Posted on 11/7/24 at 2:50 pm to WestCoastAg
Yes it is not cheap. My wife really wants to do it one day, but I'm just not adventurous enough to not do it in the safest way possible.
Especially after reading a bunch of stories that almost rival India
Especially after reading a bunch of stories that almost rival India
Posted on 11/8/24 at 6:35 am to Fun Bunch
quote:
They usually go to places like Luxor, Edfu and the Valley of the Kings These aren't like enormous Carnival cruises so most of the better ones don't hold that many people, they can be a little higher end experiences.
Yeah I get that, but it doesn’t seem like that experience really makes it worth the price given the current times. If it was perfectly safe, clean, and without any background issues I could see it. I’m just shocked they can demand those prices right now.
Posted on 11/8/24 at 6:42 am to WestCoastAg
Do a Amazonian luxury river cruise instead.
Posted on 11/8/24 at 8:26 am to baldona
quote:
Yeah I get that, but it doesn’t seem like that experience really makes it worth the price given the current times. If it was perfectly safe, clean, and without any background issues I could see it. I’m just shocked they can demand those prices right now.
There's a lot to it. The tours come with actual Egyptologists to take you around on private-ish tours. Some come with guards. They take you around Cairo.
They can privately take you though security at the airport which I have heard is an experience to say the least (bribes).
They come with flights back to or from Cairo if the Cruise is one way (most are).
Some of these cruises only have 10-20 rooms (some even less).
The food and wine you can get on some of them is pretty high end.
BUt yes, the prices to do it safely are outrageous, but people do it. You absolutely CAN do it way cheaper. I just wouldn't.
Posted on 11/8/24 at 11:40 am to Fun Bunch
Egypt is a very, very tough place for people who aren't experienced and savvy travelers who try to do things without a guide.
There are lots of scams. For example, you're about to get on the train from Cairo to Luxor, and a man in a suit with a name badge comes up to you and asks you for your name and appears to check you off of a list. When you get to Luxor, there's somebody at the train station holding a sign with your name on it, and you think that your hotel has arranged to pick you up from the station.
But the reality is that the man in the suit in Cairo and the man in Luxor holding the sign with your name on it are running a scam, and you'll be taken to some random hotel and encouraged to stay there. At that point, to get to the hotel you actually booked may require you to find a taxi to pick you up, and you may be too tired to bother.
At some places, like the pyramids, it's important to have a guide, just so you won't be constantly hassled by all the men asking you to hire them as a guide.
I'm going for spring break so I'll do a report then, but I'm traveling around on my own, not as part of a cruise.
There are lots of scams. For example, you're about to get on the train from Cairo to Luxor, and a man in a suit with a name badge comes up to you and asks you for your name and appears to check you off of a list. When you get to Luxor, there's somebody at the train station holding a sign with your name on it, and you think that your hotel has arranged to pick you up from the station.
But the reality is that the man in the suit in Cairo and the man in Luxor holding the sign with your name on it are running a scam, and you'll be taken to some random hotel and encouraged to stay there. At that point, to get to the hotel you actually booked may require you to find a taxi to pick you up, and you may be too tired to bother.
At some places, like the pyramids, it's important to have a guide, just so you won't be constantly hassled by all the men asking you to hire them as a guide.
I'm going for spring break so I'll do a report then, but I'm traveling around on my own, not as part of a cruise.
This post was edited on 11/10/24 at 5:44 am
Posted on 11/9/24 at 7:27 am to WestCoastAg
Cairo is the worst city I have ever stepped foot in. Also, be careful a lot of those boats are very dated. Luxor was nice in the resort areas.
Posted on 11/9/24 at 8:49 am to baldona
quote:
The pyramids are in Cairo, then what's on the river cruise beyond that?
Most of the really good stuff.
Again, I haven't been (going in April), but everything that I've read says that the pyramids are actually some of the less interesting sites to see of ancient Egypt. The huge temples and richly painted tombs of the kings start just north of Luxor and go south past Aswan into Lake Nasser to Abu Simbel, just a few miles from the Sudanese border.
That's why I'm spending five days in Upper (southern) Egypt, and only one near Cairo. As others have said, the pyramids are actually just outside Cairo at Giza, but that's also where the new Grand Egyptian Museum is located, so I'm staying at the Marriott Mena House right at the entrance to the pyramid complex.
My trip is basically:
2 days Red Sea (scuba diving)
5 days Luxor and Aswan
1.5 days Giza
Posted on 11/9/24 at 10:53 pm to LSUOFFSHORE
quote:
Cairo is the worst city I have ever stepped foot in. Also, be careful a lot of those boats are very dated. Luxor was nice in the resort areas.
This, if I had the choice to go back free of charge, I’d pass.
Posted on 11/10/24 at 1:07 pm to LSUOFFSHORE
My understanding is that the actual tour companies and employees have to be Egyptian? That you can have a "Viking Tour" with a Viking boat but it's more of a partnership under their brand right?
Posted on 11/10/24 at 6:55 pm to eitek1
Z
This post was edited on 11/10/24 at 10:11 pm
Posted on 11/12/24 at 7:25 pm to WestCoastAg
Spent almost 3 weeks in Egypt Jan 2022 and had a great time with Overseas Travel Adventures. Covid restrictions reduced a 15 person tour to only 5 ! Our guide was female, and I was the only male. We had zero problem with female harassment. Maybe the nice guy with the submachine gun under his coat had something to do with that?
I would not do Egypt on my own. Also, stay far away from the Gaza Strip next to Israel. The city of Gaza next to Cairo is not the same place. Egypt, Israel and Gaza Strip are packed into a very small bit of geography where bad things can happen very very quickly.
We had only one really annoying encounter with a vendor who suddenly became a hostile begger. Beggers in India are more polite.
Security was polite but intense... OK by me.
I did some research on river traffic in general... sobering. Once there were great river cruises from Cairo south to near the border of Sudan. Now there is a very compressed route and only daylight-only cruising. To my surprise the Nile lacks aids to navigation which are so common on the Mississippi. Basically, the government went all in on trucks and abandoned the Nile.
The boarder at Sudan is extremely high security... armed convoys are common... no night travel. Otherwise lovely.
That said, we had 4 great nights on a luxury towed barge. Agriculture on the Nile is very Louisiana-familiar... lots of lush sugarcane.
Cairo ranges from great to post-apocryphal. Simply crossing a street is an act of courage. Stay at a Mariotte.
Cairo international airport is world class, but do hire a transfer company to handle any confusion. We were there when Covid required testing was at a max getting in and getting back home. We tested positive and had a 1-day quarantined... Marriot made jumping all the hoops simple.
My wife wants to go again... me not so much.
I would not do Egypt on my own. Also, stay far away from the Gaza Strip next to Israel. The city of Gaza next to Cairo is not the same place. Egypt, Israel and Gaza Strip are packed into a very small bit of geography where bad things can happen very very quickly.
We had only one really annoying encounter with a vendor who suddenly became a hostile begger. Beggers in India are more polite.
Security was polite but intense... OK by me.
I did some research on river traffic in general... sobering. Once there were great river cruises from Cairo south to near the border of Sudan. Now there is a very compressed route and only daylight-only cruising. To my surprise the Nile lacks aids to navigation which are so common on the Mississippi. Basically, the government went all in on trucks and abandoned the Nile.
The boarder at Sudan is extremely high security... armed convoys are common... no night travel. Otherwise lovely.
That said, we had 4 great nights on a luxury towed barge. Agriculture on the Nile is very Louisiana-familiar... lots of lush sugarcane.
Cairo ranges from great to post-apocryphal. Simply crossing a street is an act of courage. Stay at a Mariotte.
Cairo international airport is world class, but do hire a transfer company to handle any confusion. We were there when Covid required testing was at a max getting in and getting back home. We tested positive and had a 1-day quarantined... Marriot made jumping all the hoops simple.
My wife wants to go again... me not so much.
Posted on 11/12/24 at 8:53 pm to Tree_Fall
quote:
Also, stay far away from the Gaza Strip next to Israel.
There are military checkpoints, and no tourist is allowed anywhere in the northern half of the Sinai Peninsula. You can't get close to Gaza.
Posted on 11/12/24 at 9:17 pm to Tree_Fall
What kind of souvenirs did you bring back?
Posted on 11/13/24 at 3:13 am to texas tortilla
I'm not a big souvenir buyer, but in Egypt I got great cotton and cotton+silk scarves at craft stores... not on the street. At a department store I bought several locally-made Egyptian cotton shirts... excellent quality for $25 each. My wife had a gold pendant made...nice, unique, pricey.
I passed the opportunity to buy any of a vast number of "stone" carvings. Most were stone dust in resin. Finding good ones would take a lot of searching. Egypt has some great fossils and minerals, but all I could find were semi-fake fossils from Moracco and glass slag being passed off as rare minerals.
I passed the opportunity to buy any of a vast number of "stone" carvings. Most were stone dust in resin. Finding good ones would take a lot of searching. Egypt has some great fossils and minerals, but all I could find were semi-fake fossils from Moracco and glass slag being passed off as rare minerals.
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