Giza, Sakkara & Memphis: Exclusive Private Ancient Egypt Tour

Fantastic day trip. Included in the trip were visits to Giza pyramids, Memphis old city and step pyramid at Sakara. Bonus was visits to carpet school and also essential oil/parfume shop. Absolutely wonderful. Yasser was a fantastic tour guide. Very knowledgeable and he knows the history very well. Assem is an excellent driver. We felt very safe. Thanks to Hesham and his team. Your are the best. Dr Hans and Elsie de Ridder

We did the 7 night trip and it was excellent - good sized cabins, food was great and the crew were all really lovely - a special thank you to our amazing guide Waleed who showed us round the monuments and took great care of everyone - so much knowledge of his amazing country - we would definitely recommend 😎🇪🇬🐪

We had seven nights on the M/S Royal Esadore from Luxor to Aswan booked through Classic Egypt and organised by Orbital Travel. The weather in early March was perfect - sunny with a maximum 27 degrees. The boat was comfortable. Friendly and efficient staff. Safe food with reasonable variety. Our room was on the top (fourth) floor towards the rear of the boat and the generator was noisy at night especially when there was another boat moored alongside our window. My wife, who sleeps better than me, didn’t hear it though, and I was OK so long as I kept earplugs in. The combined diesel exhausts of multiple boats was unpleasant when we were moored at Aswan. This isn’t a clean or green way to travel and the boats could do with regular engine maintenance and converting to shore based electricity hook up when moored. There were about 50 Brits, mostly retired and in their 60s/early 70s, plus a separate group of 20-30 Japanese tourists. We visited temples and tombs in groups of 25. Our guide Marco was excellent - good English, really enthusiastic and knowledgeable. We spent an hour or two at each site, which was enough for a good introduction as first time visitors. If you want more time at sites and an in-depth explanation then this really isn’t the tour for you. The coach transfers from boat to sites were well organised and easy, and entry tickets were all provided by the guides. There were extras that we hadn’t counted on. Some sites charge to use cameras. Some tombs (e.g. Tutankhamun’s) were extra and not included in the package. The guides collected £5 per day per person for tips for drivers, boat crew etc. We also tipped our guide. The very small pool on deck was OK for cooling off in but not swimming. The Nile Valley scenery was wonderful but our guides didn’t provide any information about it. They seemed to go ‘off duty’ when we were cruising between stops. We opted out of the drinks package because we don’t drink much alcohol. Paying separately cost us £60 for the week. The boat charged £1.50 for a large bottle of water but it was cheaper (just over £1 for three small bottles) if bought from the coach drivers. We drank 2-3 bottles each per day. We visited Luxor, Esna, Kom Ombo, Aswan and took the optional trip by coach to Abu Simbel (well worth the 4am start, £95 charge and six hour round trip). The Valley of the Kings was the highlight. We didn’t get to see the temple at Edfu because of an ongoing dispute with local horse coach drivers, which was a shame. Be prepared for pointless stops at various shops mid way through each morning trip - perfume, papyrus, pottery etc. No hard sell tactics but felt like a bit of a waste of time away from the sights we’d come to visit. Street vendors were a nuisance everywhere but we didn’t feel unsafe. There was one coronavirus death while we were in Egypt but that’s fewer than in the UK so it would be a shame if this puts visitors off what is a great experience.

Fantastic trip. Excellent rooms, attentive staff and wonderful food selection on board. We had a fantastic time! Thank you MS Esadora and our tour guide Michael!

Excellent cruise with our knowledgable and friendly tour guide Michael. The Abu Simbel optional tour was a special highlight for us and I highly recommend this. We learnt so much and had a fantastic and relaxing time on the cruise between stops. M/S Esadora staff were very attentive. Special thanks to the chefs who kept bringing my daughter strawberries and sugar upon learning of how much she loved this. We were provided with excellent vegetarian options for the duration of the tour.